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Switching to the Mac: The Missing Manual, Leopard Edition--New from O'Reilly

February 27, 2008

Seabstopol, CA--Is Windows giving you pause? Ready to make the leap to the Mac instead? There has never been a better time to switch from Windows to Mac. O'Reilly Media has the incomparable guide to help you make a smooth transition--Switching to the Mac: The Missing Manual, Leopard Edition ($29.99). In this indispensable and timely resource, New York Times columnist and Missing Manuals creator David Pogue gets you past the three major challenges of switching: transferring your stuff, assembling Mac programs so you can do what you did with Windows, and learning your way around Mac OS X.

Why switch now? Upgrading from one version of Windows to another used to be simple. But now there's Windows Vista, a veritable resource hog that forces you to relearn everything. Learning Leopard is not a piece of cake, but once you do, the rewards are oh-so-much better. No viruses, worms or spyware. No questionable firewalls, inefficient permissions, or other strange features. Just a beautiful machine with a thoroughly reliable system. And if you're still using Windows XP, we've got you covered, too.

"When you get right down to it, the job description of every operating system is pretty much the same…In other words, Mac OS X offers roughly the same features as recent versions of Windows. That’s the good news," Pogue says in the first chapter.

He continues, "The bad news is that these features are called different things and parked in different spots. As you could have predicted, this rearrangement of features can mean a good deal of confusion for you, the Macintosh foreigner. For the first few days or weeks, you may instinctively reach for certain familiar features that simply aren’t where you expect to find them, the way your tongue keeps sticking itself into the socket of the newly extracted tooth."

And Pogue is more than willing to walk you through every step until there is no chance of finding your tongue in the wrong place ever again. So if you're ready to take on Mac OS X Leopard, the latest edition of this bestselling guide tells you everything you need to know:

  • Transferring your stuff. Moving files from Windows to Mac by cable, network, or disk is the easy part. But how do you extract your email stash, address book, calendar, Web bookmarks, buddy list, desktop pictures, and MP3 files? Now you’ll know.
  • Recreating your software suite. The big-name programs are available in both Mac and Windows versions. But hundreds of other programs are available only for Windows. This book identifies the Mac equivalents, guides you through moving your data into them—and tells you how to run Windows on the Mac, just in case.
  • Learning Mac OS X “Leopard.” Once you’ve moved into the Mac mansion, a final task awaits: learning your way around. Fortunately, you’re in good hands with the author of Mac OS X Leopard: The Missing Manual, the #1 bestselling Mac book on earth.

Moving from Windows to Mac successfully and painlessly is the one thing Apple does not deliver. Switching to the Mac: The Missing Manual, Leopard Edition is your ticket to a new computing experience.

David Pogue is the weekly personal-technology columnist for the New York Times and an Emmy award-winning tech correspondent for CBS News. With 3 million books in print, he is also one of the world's bestselling how-to authors. In 1999, he launched his own series of complete, funny computer books called the Missing Manual series, which now includes more than 30 titles.

Additional Resources

More information about the book, including table of contents, index, author bios, and samples

Switching to the Mac: The Missing Manual, Leopard Edition
David Pogue
ISBN: 0-596-51412-3, $29.99 US
order@oreilly.com
1-800-998-9938
1-707-827-7000
http://www.oreilly.com

About the Missing Manual series

The book that should have been in the box. Warm, witty, and jargon-free, Missing Manuals have enough clarity for the novice, and enough depth and detail for the power user.

About O’Reilly

O’Reilly Media spreads the knowledge of innovators through its books, online services, magazines, and conferences. Since 1978, O’Reilly Media has been a chronicler and catalyst of cutting-edge development, homing in on the technology trends that really matter and spurring their adoption by amplifying “faint signals” from the alpha geeks who are creating the future. An active participant in the technology community, the company has a long history of advocacy, meme-making, and evangelism.

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