If you are new Mac users coming from years with MS Windows, some minor adjustment is necessary due to the differences in respective operating system, but none is too intimidating. The following 14 differences highlights the essential ones to get you up to speed with Mac OS X.

1. [Command ⌘] Key

There is no [Windows] key in Mac off course. Instead you have the [Command ⌘] key. Usage however is entirely different.

In Windows, the Ctrl key is used for keyboard shortcuts for the graphical user interface elements. For example [Ctrl-c] to copy, [Ctrl-x] to cut and [Ctrl-v] to paste. But Mac has kept the Ctrl key to its default usage as per its Unix heritage, and use the Command ⌘ key instead for graphical user interface. Thus you use [⌘-c] to copy, [⌘-x] to cut and [⌘-v] to paste.

If you’re coming from Unix background, it is more logical and less confusing by not mixing Ctrl key for graphical usage. This is especially true for those who are used to using Ctrl keys, for example [Ctrl-c] to end a process, [Ctrl-a] to move to beginning of line, [Ctrl-e] to go to end of line, [Ctrl-k] to erase line etc.

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