How to make a backup of your stuff? and Command+tab question

Question

First of all, is there an alternative to using a different Command+tab button? OR the F3 button to switch between windows? A lot of times I have more than ONE safari window open and I want to Command tab but Command+tab won't show the OTHER safari sites open. I use the F3 button also but is there another way to ALT+tab to DIFFERENT safari/firefox windows like on the Windows OS?
I was just wondering if IN TIME, Mac's will start running slower (like PC's) as you put more programs in. I know from experience, even by just staying on trusted sites, in about 2+ years your windows vista/7 will be a little slower. How do I reformat a Mac (factory reset) and besides backing everything up on a DVD, is there a way to backup my files?
Sorry for these nub questions, I only had this for like a month xD

Answer 1

Welcome to the Mac world!
Mac OS let's you fully customize the keystrokes which you can quickly move between the windows you want. You will find these settings under System Preferences and Expose & Spaces under the personal area.
When you are in here, you can assign a different keys, or secondary key, to active the show all windows (what you are currently using as F3). Under the All Windows selection, you will see the default set to F3. Here you can change it if you would like, say assigning the right or left shift key to open the show all windows feature. In the box to the right which should be empty, you can even assign extra mouse keys (assuming you use an external mouse) to do the exact same thing, which I find makes your work-flow much easier. Play around with the mouse settings to get what you like (I use my mouse to show all windows when I press the scroll wheel). Hopefully this will be a sufficient solution to your needs. Have a look here for more keyboard shortcuts: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1343
Regarding your second question, you will find that Mac's do not fall failure to the typical 'OS rot' that you see when using Windows in just a short year or two. The same goes for keeping your computer on for long periods. Where Windows will be noticeably sluggish after even a day or two of continuous use, Mac's can have an uptime of weeks without a drop in performance (a buddy of mine usually only restarts once a month unless the power flashes). You will likely only need to re-install the OS if something happens to the computer and it no longer functions properly. In this case, I recommend using Apple's build in Time Machine application (http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1427) however you will require an external hard drive. Time Machine takes a backup of your computer whenever you ask it and if you have to re-install the OS, it will restore everything to it's previous state.
Hope this helps!