I recently switched jobs and, in so doing, I also switched from using a Windows PC to a Mac (OS X Lion).  I didn't have many reasons for switching beyond curiosity and what I perceived to be a more flexible development environment.  My curiosity has been satisfied but, so far, I have not had the opportunity to really appreciate any increased flexibility in my development tasks.

The Bad

There are some things about the Mac that, quite frankly, I detest.  I doubt if I'll remember them all.  To many readers they may seem trivial but, to me, each of these are serious problems that I wish I could address.  Thus, if you are a Mac user and you know how I can fix these annoyances please let me know!

1. The "End" key.  Why doesn't it seem to do anything in any application?  I type - a lot - and I routinely need to jump to the end of the line.  The End key should do that but it doesn't.  Instead I have to hit "Command+Right Arrow" - why?  Why can't I just do this with the End Key?
2. Alt-Tab - sure, alt tab works but it isn't actually very useful if you have more than one window of the same application open at the same time.  For instance I currently have two chrome windows open - but I can't alt-tab between them.  In fact, I can't seem to switch between those two windows with any key combation.  Why not?  Am I missing something?
3. Dependance on the Mouse - The mac way means you had better like using a mouse.  I don't.  However, I have to use one all the time; moving my hand from the keyboard to the mouse, sliding the mouse around, clicking, then going back to the keyboard - there is no reason for this really.  Here is a good example; in Picasa you can't hit the space bar when on a checkbox in the bulk upload screen to select that checkbox.  You have to use the mouse to do it.  This isn't just a picasa thing; I have enountered things like this all over the mac landscape.  I can tab into a control but can't activate it from the keyboard.  Stop forcing me to mouse.
4. Command, Alt, Option, Control - WTF?  For a system that likes to force me to use the mouse there sure are a lot of modifier keys on the keyboard - and each is identifiable by an arcane symbol.  Thus, half the time when I'm searching online for explainations or instructions I also have to find a decoder for the various symbols.  This isn't exactly a problem with the OS - but it is a problem with the documentation/culture.  
5. Windowing - there really aren't any tools built in for windows management as far as window positing/moving; at least not from the keyboard. Sure I can grab edges and resize and move with the mouse - but why can't I do it from the keyboard?  Hell if microsoft can do this then surely the mightly developers of Apple can provide better tools for managing windows.
6. Text Editor - I know TextMan fans will groan and Sublime lovers will grumble but I'm really not happy with any of the text editors I've used so far.  Here is the list that I have tried:  Vim, BBEdit, TextWrangler, Sublime, maybe a couple others.  True I didn't try TextMate but I don't have much faith that I'll find an editor that is exactly what I want.  What I want is EditPlus which is what I used on windows.  Specifically for it's way of dealing with columnar select.  It's not something that is easy to explain but I just felt EditPlus had the most elegant solution to columnar selection, modification, deletion, and insertion of any text editor I've used so far.  I think mostly because of how it included "virtual space".  Granted, at times that virtual space was annoying and the other ways are better; but for the vast majority of instances I liked the EditPlus way.  The fact that the end key doesn't jump to the end of a line drives me crazy and the other keyboard "changes" are just hard to get used to after 20+ years of doing it the windows way.    
   
   I've settled on Sublime becuase, overall, I am pretty happy with it and I like the extensibility of it.  I paid for a license so that must mean something. 
7. The apple menu bar.  I know, I just have to get used to the "apple way" but having the main menu bar on a screen different from where I have the application open at is a pain.  The single menu probably makes sense if you just have one monitor but as soon as you have two or more it is a usability pain.  There also doesn't seem to be a way to activate that menu bar from the keyboard so that you can see what options are available in each submenu.  For instance in windows you can do alt+f to expand the file menu, then you could arrow down the menu and hit enter to activate something on it;  I'd love if something like that existed on the Mac but if it does I can't find it.

A lot of these boil down to the fact that Apple just doesn't seem to like the keyboard and I obviously have a preference for using the keyboard to get things done.  I can't imagine I'm the only developer with this issue.  Maybe I'm the only one who hasn't figured out the secret to having a harmonious relationship with the mac and a keyboard.

I've tried using the keyboard shortcut editor in system prefences but overall it really doesn't fit my needs and, it doesn't seem like I can override preset shortcuts in an app.  If anyone can help me make the mac more keyboard friendly I would love to hear your advice and suggestions!

The Good

I don't only have gripes; in fact there are somethings that I've thought are great about my Mac experience.  They just aren't all software things:

1. I had a magic pad which was pretty cool, the gestures were neat.  However, my carpel tunnel started to kick my ass so I had to get rid of it.  I still really dig the idea and the implementation even though it didn't work for me.
2. My two cinema displays.  Not much else to say here; they are pretty freaking awesome.  I do wish they had a 3.5 mm headphone jack though so I could connect to them instead of the tower which is kind of far away (I need an extension cable for my headphones)
3. Screen Capture - the built in screen capture facility is great and covers all of my needs.  I don't remember the keyboard combinations but I couldn't remember windows either.  Plus the Mac options are MUCH better.  In fact to get as much functionality on windows I'd need a separate app.
4. Did you say apps?  I love how you install apps on Lion.  Just drag 'em to the Applicaitons folder.  No registry, no strange file system with shit put all over my machine..  Uninstall is just as easy - just delete it from the Applications folder.   Nice.  Windows needs to learn from this.
5. The Mac App Store - I don't use it much but it is a smart move.  I have installed MUCH more from places other than the app store but it's a cool idea.
6. Unix - while getting a few things working hasn't been as straight forward as I had hoped overall I am very happy to have unix around.  It has made doing some Ruby stuff already much easier.  I hated the lack of gem avialability on windows when certain gems weren't compiled for that platform.  Mac is obviously a Ruby favorite so it's nice to be a first class citizen.
7. Fluid - this is kind of a good and bad.  Chrome doesn't let me have "app" windows like it did on windows (boo on google) but Fluid saved the day by providing a pretty sweet wrapper.  I had tried a couple other things but John Cummings told me about fluid and I'm glad to have it.  I only have one thing I run in it (springpad) but it's super handy.
8. Shell Scripting - I know this is right back to unix but it deserves two spots.  I was never a fan of windows batch scripts (though they had their uses) but it's great having bash handy to automate things
9. Automator - speaking of automating things; automator is pretty cool.  It can probably do a lot more than I realize.  I've only used it a little but it's pretty slick.
10. Text Editors - I know, these were in the bad side but there is one thing I really love about them on mac; If I drag a folder onto the icon for sublime (or any of the others I tried, except maybe MacVim) it will open the folder in a little pane on the side of the editor and sort of treat that folder like an isolated project.  At first I was annoyed I didn't have a handy explorer like pane over there but I've come to like this interface more.  I wish I could navigate through it with my keyboard but the ability to focus on just certain folders in the file system heirarchy within my editor is pretty nifty.

That's it at the moment.  I'm certain there have been other things that have been bothering me and other things I've really liked - but I think this sums it up pretty well.  I don't regret the change in general though my right forearm has been much worse for wear due to the constant need to use the mouse (carpel tunnel doesn't seem to bother me when I type).

Do you have any tips or tricks that might make it easier for me to adopt to the mac-way?