Convince me!

I am about to update my desktop computer of about 6 years, and I was thinking about getting an iMac. I dont have a lot of experience with macs so I am a little hesitant to spend the big money and then be dissapointed.
Two years ago one of my subjects at university required the use of a mac so thats really the only time had on one.
I was playing around with one of the new iMacs today and I have to say I love their sleek sophisticated look!
My computer usage is mainly word processing (I would like to get Office with it) emails, web browsing and the odd game here and there. I just need convincing- let me know what you would tell someone tossing up between a mac and a windows computer! Ta!

 

Since you already have a R61, why don't you upgrade the RAM in it so that its actually a usable machine, and buy an external LCD? 1gb with Vista Business really isn't going to give you a good user experience and is actually probably quite slow once you get a browser window or two going. You could put 4gb in that machine for as little as $60.

You can then do your word processing on it, since it would be, with the memory upgrade, a very capable laptop.

That's what I'd tell you... At least get your existing Windows laptop working decently. With how powerful laptops are these days, such as your R61, many people don't even bother having seperate desktop machines.

 

I was a Linux user for many years but kept Windows on my desktop until earlier this year. I liked the stability of Linux and the fact that when I fixed something, it stayed fixed. I logged in as a non-admin account and only became "root" when absolutely necessary. But I never used Linux for the desktop because of the lack of software. I got a Mac Mini 3 years ago when they first came out. I loved it but it still wasn't my primary desktop. I liked the fact that underneath OSX was Darwin, which is Unix. Now I've converted all the machines in my household to Mac and I regret waiting so long. I don't game much. The kids aren't allowed to game on their "school machines".

Important differences for me:
HP PSC2510 support: On XP, this printer has a 700 meg "Dot Net" based driver that has to be installed and removed over and over again and you have to "get lucky" for it to actually work. On Macos, Bonjour finds this printer and it is up and running in literally 2 clicks. 2 clicks versus hours of wasted time and phone calls to HP. At one point, HP wanted me to buy a newer printer rather than fix the problems I was having with the 2510.

Viruses: My daughter had as many as 1200 viruses on her windows machine. No viruses or malware have made it onto any of our macs.

Just Works: This has been my experience overall, though there are some glitches with OSX like there are with any software.

Layout: I'm absolutely SICK of the start button. Instead, I click spotlight and type the first few letters of the app I want to launch. My dock is still cluttered because before I started using spotlight, I had tried to put every shortcut on the dock. BTW, if you want a start menu like experience on mac, create a stack for applications and you have it. For me: no thanks. I don't want to try to follow expanding and collapsing lists of programs with my cursor every time I want to do anything.

Administration: I've enabled the "root" accounts but I'm thinking of turning them back off. I rarely use the terminal but it's there when I need it. Symbolic links work on OSX like they do on Linux which means one copy of a file can work in dozens of contexts just as if the file was in a dozen places.

Size: The Mac Mini is the size and shape the desktop pc should have been 10 years ago. Who wants something the size of a microwave to do a job that is easily handled in a 20th that space nowadays? I cheerfully give up expandability to get small size. I want a full size keyboard and monitor but away with that huge "computer" box already! I feel almost the same way about the iMac. The computer has been swallowed up inside the monitor. Great.

Cost: Here is where most people get stuck. I was stuck here for too long. Look at the total cost including time wasted fixing things that randomly break at inopportune times or settings that change themselves behind your back.

DLL Hell: It's worth it simply to put dll hell behind you. If you want a preview of what Mac is like, convert all your windows apps to portable apps and toss them each in a folder so that NONE of their dll's or settings spill out into the windows\system32 directory or the registry.

Registry: It's been six months since I've dealth with HKeyLocalMachineSoftwareMicrosoftWindowsRun. On a Mac if I don't want an app running at boot time, it doesn't run at boot time. Period. An app can't go behind my back and register itself in one of about a dozen places so it can sneak into memory when I don't want it there. There can be 14,000 registry entries A SECOND on windows. If you've got fat32 or even ntfs issues, you can lose your registry and have trouble booting.

Software: Here is where I've had to make some compromises. iWork is better than MS Office in a few areas and not quite as good in a few areas. OpenOffice is a little better than iWork for compatability with Office but iWork is nicer to work with. I do NOT have Office 08 on my machine. We got Office 2007 at the office recently and once I saw that mess I vowed NEVER AGAIN would I allow anything from M$ on my home pc. There is no doubt that there is less software available for OS X. There is better software for multimedia like final cut and aperture, but there is a lot of software missing including some of the most popular games.

Windows on Mac: I choose not to deal with this. I don't want to allocate space to Windows for either BootCamp or Parallels/VMware. I do have Crossover (Wine) and make do with the few dozen programs that can run under Crossover without issues. Among them is Office 97 though I haven't loaded it yet.

Overall Design: I chose OSX for what I consider to be superior stability, software architecture, design and support. I know a thing or two about software architecture and OS design and OSX has gotten a lot of things right and only a handful of things wrong. Windows has gotten a few things right and thousands of things wrong.

Value: This comes back to cost. Apple is charging a steep premium and still seeing 25 percent year over year market share growth. Clearly good design and stability is worth something. While I do wish Apple would lower some of their pricing to make it more affordable for those "on the fence", I do think it's worth what I paid for it.

 

man's got a point.

for what you do, your laptop is more than capable. 4GB of ram can be had for like $40.

except for the "odd game here or there"

do you mean windows games?...

you could get an imac, but you'll need to get windows too for games (get xp).

of course, if this isn't really a "need" situation, and you just want an imac because it will give you an excuse to get rid of your old computer and make your desk look nice and possibly get rid of some wires...

then just do it!

 

The iMac will more than suffice for your needs. Get MS Office at the Apple Store when you buy the iMac.

 

To the people that went on about my laptop.... you have totally missed the purpose of my post. I asked about replacing my DESKTOP and wanted some info from mac fans. The laptop is company rented (it's not mine) sooooo your posts were totally useless. SO again any mac fans give me your advice! Thanks rOk for your info.

 

You're welcome!

 

if you just want advice from mac fans about your decision to buy or not to buy a mac, then, trust me, you have already made up your mind.

just get it and enjoy it.

it will do everything you need it to. its not the most cost effective solution, but it will work perfectly and it will look good doing it.

 

no words or posts can describe a true mac experience. You have to use one to feel it and trust me you'll love it .I was on the fence once and kept asking people, untill I forced myself into buying one. Oh and yeah once u go mac u never go back.

 

Well, I think you are set for Mac OS X already! You can do all those tasks easily on OS X except for gaming, which you may want to do in Windows. Otherwise, I do honestly think you'll enjoy the Mac experience. Take a read of these two links to familiarize yourself with how OS X works!

www.apple.com/support/switch101
www.apple.com/support/mac101

And I don't like advertising myself, but my Mac Switcher's Guide may also answer any minor doubts you have!