More remarks from Mac

This is the first post that I’ve written with my Mac. I’ve got more used to the user interface and I was able to install some software to the system. The current likes and dislikes are the following:

Likes

1. Extremely easy installation of Apache. To be frankly, I just started the service. PHP was preinstalled, too, so I could get it working by changing Apache configuration file. I haven’t been able to do anything serious with it, but so far so good.
2. MySQL installation was also a snap. Somehow it didn’t end up to the path, but I got it working much much easier than in Windows.
3. UNIX shell with emacs. Need I say more?

Dislikes:

1. The start-up sound. Why it has to exist and be so loud? There is no way (to my knowledge) to turn it off from the UI and the script approaches seem to be problematic. I understand that it’s used to tell that everything is ok, but PCs beep only when they have troubles.
2. GUI size. The GUI takes too much of screen estate. I haven’t yet attached Mac to an external display, so I’m confined in 1024×768 display.
3. No global uninstaller or application list. I don’t have a clue what programs I’ve got in the system. I don’t yet know how to uninstall them. It could be as simple as deleting the file, but I’m not sure. Windows way of providing a list of installed programs is far more superior to Mac situation or then I don’t know enough, yet.
4. Attitude of some Mac users. I’ve browsed a lot of lists to get rid of small annoyances and one third of the messages repeat that you shouldn’t worry about such small things or Apple has just made Macs that way (and the way is superior compared to Windows). Why people think that Macs are used uniformly and the Apple’s approach is always the right one? I start to feel that this is really closed system compared to Windows, as people’s minds are not open. Are Mac users just bunch of sheep?

I also got the system in so bad shape that I had to remove power cord and battery, it wouldn’t shut down programmatically. I’m sort of disappointed that this happened so fast, I’ve owned the laptop for three days now.

I need to start to learn keyboard shortcuts, as I tend to use my PC for small tasks such as checking terms from online dictionary or searching Google. This is partly due to the fact that I don’t have proper Alt-Tab implementation — though I have learned to use Cmd-< and Cmd-> as a patch.