Even though macOS is quickly catching up, a major portion of the PC market continues to belong to Windows. The global market share of Windows is 87.56% while macOS is 9.54%. This huge difference in market share is largely attributed to the high price point of Macs compared to Windows.
However, if you’ve recently made the switch to Mac, you might be facing difficulty in finding the right alternatives to Windows settings and programs on Mac. Keep reading to know some of the popular Mac software alternatives to Windows software.
Command Prompt alternative for Mac — Terminal
Do you prefer the command line interface over the present-day graphical user interface? If so, Command Prompt might be your favorite on Windows. The Mac alternative to this is Terminal. UNIX-based, Terminal commands are different from the MS DOS commands, but the functionalities are fairly the same.
Paint for Mac — Paintbrush
Unfortunately, Mac OS X does not include any bundled applications that serve as MS Paint alternatives for Mac. But, several 3rd-party developers provide with macOS paint equivalent, such as Paintbrush. This app is even marketed as the Paint for macOS as its feature and UI resemble the original Paint app for Windows.
Notepad for Mac — TextEdit
Do you miss making rough notes ever since you’ve made the switch to Mac from Windows? Well, you don’t have to miss it anymore. The counterpart of Notepad on Mac is known as TextEdit. This comes with all the basic editing features that you would need to make your notes.
In fact, it also offers certain advantages over Notepad and the most notable one is the ability to easily switch between formatted text mode and plain text mode. So, this is an upgrade as Notepad also supports one mode – plain text.
Snipping tool for Mac — Grab
Do you have to take a lot of screenshots or screengrabs on your computer? If so, you must be familiar with the Snipping Tool. When you’re working on your Mac, the alternative to this tool would be Grab. Luckily, Grab comes pre-installed. However, the only drawback is that TIFF is the save format that is supported by the app and you cannot save it in any other format.
Desktop Gadget Gallery for Mac — Dashboard and Widgets
Sidebar Gadgets introduced by Windows Vista allowed users to pin widgets like calendar, clock, media player controls, and so on to the desktop sidebar. For these kinds of widgets, macOS has a separate space and it is called the Dashboard. You can access the Dashboard from Mission Control on your Mac or by swiping to the left from the first Desktop.
Sticky Notes for Mac — Stickies
Do you love post-it notes? Did you use a lot of Sticky Notes on your Windows desktop to remember crucial things? If so, you can use Stickies on Mac. This is the best alternative to Sticky Notes and it is quite similar. You can easily pin Stickies to your desktop and put all the important information on them. You can access this information whenever you want. Also, you can use them for reminders, though Mac has a separate app for reminders.
Backup and Restore solution for Mac — Time Machine
When it comes to creating full backups of your hard disks, Windows has a native data backup solution. Time Machine is its alternative on Mac and it gives a similar backup solution, along with several additional features.
Sound Recorder alternative for Mac — QuickTime
Windows come with a small program that allows users to record audio by using either Line-in or mic. The audio files can be saved as WAV files. If you’ve just switched to Mac and looking for similar recording software, you can check out Apple’s very own QuickTime Player.
QuickTime player makes it very easy to record audio. All you have to do is select the New Recording option for the menu and choose the source of the recording by clicking on the arrow placed next to the record button. Click on the record button to start recording and click on the same button again when you want to stop the recording. The recorded audio file is going to be stored in AAC format.
The place where you get to organize all of your photos on the Windows computer is the Windows photo gallery. This comes as a part of the Windows Live Essentials suite and this is usually recommended for PC users. For such photo organization on your Mac, you can use the Photos app which is a great alternative. As for users of OS X Mavericks and earlier versions, a good alternative would be iPhoto.
These are only a few of the handy Mac software alternatives to Windows software. With these, you can smoothly continue the work that you were doing on your Windows computer before making the switch to Mac.
