My impressions of OS X after about a month of use.

Most of the things you've commented on are things that I actually prefer (being from the Mac world) - but a few things

* You can write blank CDs/DVDs with finder or Disk Utility easily, but the finder behaviour can be hard to work out

* PDF files show for me in the browser, unless I explicitly tell them not to (right click, open in preview) - you didn't install Acrobat Reader did you?

* Read only NTFS is reasonable. Can you read an HFS+, UFS, ZFS or EXT2 volume on your windows box?

* Having an app open, and having a document window open are two different things. This takes a while to wrap your head around, but it's much nicer to keep (say) textmate running, cmd-tab to it then cmd-n for a new window than having to do the whole start menu dance to get a new editor window open.

Other than that, I'd say you'll find it's just personal preferences and experiences that you may see the benefits of in time, particularly with regard to things like window management and app install which I honestly find vastly superior on Mac. Let's just not mention the uninstall. In a month, I imagine the differences would still grate, but personally I now find it much more difficult going back to Windows line editing (home/end instead of cmd-> cmd-<) and other Windows behaviours having been on Mac for so long.

For me, it's all a bit pavlovian I guess. Having to alter my habits to use something I don't want to use and that doesn't reward me is a bit of an affront!

Maybe I'm missing something, but window management has always irked me on the Mac.

I often have a bunch of files and projects open in textmate and I end up cycling through them with 'cmd + ~' or using expose to hunt for it. I want something like alt-tab, but for the currently open program, where I can see all the open windows for it (ordered by how recently they've been viewed) and access them easily.

Exposé has an "application windows" mode. Aside from the LRU bit, this sounds a lot like what you're after...

* no reasonable way to write to a CD (!)

what is wrong with right clicking select new burn folder, put what I want to burn in it, then click the burn button? It certainly isn't that easy in windows.

* no reasonable way to uninstall software along with its data

Sounds like a wash with windows I don't think I have ever clicked uninstall and actually had it uninstall everything correctly.

not clear whether installing a virus checker and/or firewall is important to people not familiar with macs

It comes with a good firewall more or less properly configured by default so one of those isn't needed and no reputable company makes Mac AV so there isn't any to buy even if you think it is required.

* strange that closing the last window of an app does not quit the app

Different than windows yes. Confusing not really, it is quite uniform and regular. It goes back to the whole better build quality no need to unload apps to keep the os stable and performant.

I was under the impression that you need to: use disk utility to create a dmg file from a folder; and burn the dmg file while leaving the CD "open" for future additions.

This is rather annoying. Moreover, when you insert the CD into the drive, it opens multiple disk images, one for each session written.

Under win 7, you can just drag and drop a file to a CD folder just like any other drive.

You're giving a very shallow comparison overall. This is a set of trivia rather than any detailed analysis.

installation of apps can be confusing to people not familiar with macs

Either you run an installer, or you drag a file to Applications. Are you joking? That's actually one of the easiest things.

no reasonable way to uninstall software along with its data

Not built-in, no. Get AppCleaner, which is free and very reasonable.

disk volumes (dmg files) can be confusing to people not familiar with macs

Each family member of mine who's used a Mac figured this out instantly. They treat it like a plugged-in device, which is a really nifty way of simplifying a complex process.

not clear whether installing a virus checker and/or firewall is important to people not familiar with macs

It's not, which is why it's never talked about.

window management not as nice as win 7 although Exposé is very cool

Something like this doesn't give any information. Does Windows 7 attach its notifications physically to the generating window, sliding the window into view if the notification needs room? Something like that adds significantly to usability, and there are a lot of small window features like that.

strange that closing the last window of an app does not quit the app

The rule on the Mac is as follows: if there's a reason you'd keep the application open when the last window closes, it stays open. That way I can hear iTunes with the window closed (and without some crap about minimizing the window), or I can close a TextEdit window and immediately open a new on. iPhoto, meanwhile, closes instantly, because it's a single-window system.

pdf files are not shown in the browser window

Yes? They do? Preview is built-in.

"Either you run an installer, or you drag a file to Applications. Are you joking? That's actually one of the easiest things."

First time I used a Mac, I opened the .dmg. clicked Firefox, and wondering why Firefox didn't work properly, having no idea I was meant to drag it somewhere and that it wouldn't work when run from the image.

Only it does run from the image. I use several apps that I don't move to Applications, because I use them so rarely it works to just mount them and run from there.

Last time I tried, bookmarks broke. And, of course, it wasn't there when I unmounted the image.

Most of your issues are addressed not true issues, but complaints from you about how OS X is not Windows.

* no reasonable way to write to a CD (!)

* installation of apps can be confusing to people not familiar with macs

* disk volumes (dmg files) can be confusing to people not familiar with macs

* not clear whether installing a virus checker and/or firewall is important to people not familiar with macs

These are all just complaints about how OS X is not Windows. All can be done in OS X quite simply if you learn how to use it.

I can understand that you may prefer the Windows way of doing things over the OS X way, but to count your unfamiliarity with a different operating system as a list of issues is not terribly useful.

I'd say Powershell is better than bash, dut to having ata properly abstracted from presentation.

Ie, you don't to find regexs to match your data, you can just pipe to 'select' or 'where' and tell Posh what you want.