My latest column in Computer Sweden had emotions run high among Apple fans. I was called an idiot and had my intelligence questioned. Some suggested my motives were not honest. The column was the second most read article on IDG’s Computer Sweden last week, and has almost 300 comments.

I was flabbergasted because I wrote about my switch from PC to Mac, not the other way around.

In the column I described some challenges I’ve had and how I addressed them. I pointed out that I find the Finder frustrating (with Copy and Paste shortcuts, but no Cut), Microsoft Office for Mac feels like Office in 1992, and that Internet Explorer is easier to use the Safari. (Note, this comes from someone with 25 years of Windows experience and is obviously subjective.)

I wrote that a key component in trying to make the switch as painless as possible is Parallels Desktop:

Parallels Desktop is almost magical. With Parallels Desktop, I can use both Mac OS X and Windows 7 at the same time. Mac applications run right next to Windows applications. The environments share file system. I use Adobe’s products and Xcode in Mac OS X, and Microsoft Office and Visual Studio in Windows 7. I have the best of both worlds.

But it was not comments related to software that had emotions run high. It was my comments on the Mac keyboard. Now, I know that anyone is bound to get used to anything (including a Mac keyboard), and I am more fluent with it today than I was six months ago. But the Mac keyboard is simply not a work of usability art. At this point I should admit guilt in the name calling situation. I did call the keyboard idiotic.

But I still argue that pressing one key, for common navigational operations, is better than pressing two or even three. The lack of Home, End, Page Up, Page Down and Delete is therefore a mystery to me. To require pressing three keys to do a Print Screen is plain dumb, not to mention the stupidity that the Print Screen doesn’t put the screenshot in the Clipboard but in an image file placed on my carefully organized Desktop. I also fail to see the logic behind not including a symbol for the commonly used backslash.

I wish that Apple would make a Mac Book Pro Switcher’s Edition (with a keyboard that makes sense).

Finally, some education to those who posted comments in the lines of: “This was a crappy article because it was highly subjective.” There are different types of content in a magazine. The purpose of a column is for the columnist to express opinions or point of view.

So, here is my opinion again. I love my Mac, but its keyboard is idiotic.