The older, smaller one, with the 21" screen. New.
I am used to Windows. I use my computer for internet browsing (just a few sites), emails, some word processing and a rare TV epi or YouTube. I am looking forward to Diablo 3, but I play games very little. No on-line games. No porn. No music. No art.
I’ll have to get Word I guess.
What else should I look forward to - or watch out for? What will I love or hate?
There are countless threads here for switchers, and the “Should I, Shouldn’t I?” debate. I’ll just say, being the mac lover I am, that there will be a slight learning curve, some things will come intuitively, and some things will frustrate you.
But, overall, if you keep an open mind, I think you’ll find you’ll love the iMac, and OSX. A lot of PC switchers never look back.
Also, lucky for you, Blizzard develops their games simultaneously for Mac and PC, so Diablo 3 should be great on your Mac. I, myself, am looking forward to Starcraft II.
Good luck, and enjoy.
Love? Everything.
Hate? Nothing.
Does the machine come with iLife? If not, you may want to get it - especially if you want to do any movie making or DVD creation.
You might want to join a local users group, or at least join an on-line users group.
Here is a list of mac users groups in CA: http://appleusergroups.com/locator/find/locate.cgi?state=CA
I’m partial to AMUG (www.amug.org) - even though we are based in Arizona, we have a lot of out-of-state members.
Yes, but I can’t search for “Mac”.
beowulff- no, nothing like film-making.
How much s it going to cost you?
Pros: A tremendous freedom from spyware (mostly because it’s such a small part of the market, it’s not worth their time to try to infect it).
Cons: There is much less software available for it, and tools that are available for free on Windows cost money on OS X. (Cue the outrage from the Mac partisans, but it’s true).
In a weird sort of way, nothing. Likely the tax and any software, net.
For what you use a computer for, switching over shouldn’t be that hard. I could already do everything you mentioned the first time I sat at a Mac, because it’s pretty much the same as using a PC. Just remember that the red button with an X doesn’t exit the application (that’s what File > Quit/Exit is for), and the green one with a + only gets big enough to be able to see everything.
Also, let me help you out with another thread on this topic. The first post is really all you need. (ignore the part about keys being missing, as a non-laptop has a full keyboard.) Read the rest only if you want to know a what a “polite” version of the PC vs Mac debate looks like.
Sorta. If you know what you’re doing, you can usually get around this, as you can get most Windows programs running in the MacOS, all with open source software.
I’d describe the Cons as: Defaults are harder to change, and the help system is a little less good (Using Google is better both on Macs and PCs)
Got it. Very nice. I hate the backwards delete key, but other than that, not so bad.
How do I cut and Paste? I have a “Magic Mouse”. Ah wait, I use Command not Control. Eh.
Just go to Google and type in “site:boards.straightdope.com/sdmb Mac” (or iMac) without the quotation marks.
If you do get an iMac, go to an Apple Store or authorized reseller that’ll let you play with the mouse before you buy. I grew up on Apple, but as soon as I started using Windows (middle school) I fell in love with two-button mice. Although I’ve heard good things about the Magic Mouse, I definitely prefer my Microsoft two-button plus scroll wheel mouse with my Mac Mini.
Also, you might loathe, despise, and abominate the keyboard that comes with the iMac. I know I hate it.
The computer itself, though? Amazing!
Is it the Intel iMac from 2006? I got one a month after they came out (Feb 2006) and I’m still using it today. I switched from windows and didn’t have any problems. Even after 4 years, I don’t feel a need to upgrade it to a new computer. I added another gig of memory, and feel I can go a few more years with it. With my Windows computers, it felt like I wanted a new one after 2-3 years. I use a Logitech trackball with mine; I hated the Apple mouse (mighty mouse?) because that little scroll nipple thing would constantly clog with cat hair.
You don’t have to get Office. NeoOffice is free “Open Office” software for the Mac. Works just dandy. You can open Microsoft Office documents and save NeoOffice docs you create in MS format so MS Office users can open them.
I use both Winblows and Mac (OSX, as well as the earlier ones), as well as other OS’s on PC and other machines. Once you get used to working with multiple systems, you switch back and forth w/o thinking about it. Except for the Winblows crashes, there isn’t all that much to prefer between them, unless you do things that one does better than the other. I do all my image processing work on the Mac, for example.
Note that I hadn’t had a Windows crash in over 5 years.
Ok, other than clicking on a link, how do I get Safari to open again in a new pane/window? In other words, have safari open twice, not as tabbed.
Command-N.
I know people who seem to spend much of their time on Windows using regedit and there is no Mac version of regedit. 
Thanks!
I believe Windows uses Crtl-n to perform the same function; although IIRC it opens to the same URL from where the command was initiated.