Is there anything at all redeeming about an iMac?

In My Humble Opinion
1

For my birthday, my husband bought me a unwanted, unneeded, and unasked for iMac. After using it for two days, I have to say that I frigging hate the thing.

I hate the mouse (no trackball, just a red light), I hate the operating system, I hate that the screen won’t move down without also moving forward. I hate that I can’t download my Google toobar, I hate that the buttons to shrink screens are on the left instead of the right. (A deliberate slight against MS, if you ask me.)

I hate that the keyboard is white (we all know how dirty keyboards get), that it’s all scrunched together. I end up hitting the F11 or F12 instead of the back space key which, incidentally, I also hate because it’s labled delete rather than backspace.

Did I mention that I hate the mouse? A lot?

I hate that now I have to buy a new version of Frontpage and that MS Office cost $500. I hate that the programs don’t really close when you hit the little x button, you have to hit the apple key and the Q. I hate that I cannot get the browser screen to go all the way to the right hand side of the screen, so when I zoom the aforementioned hated mouse over there to scroll down, I end up clicking on blank screen.

I hate that I can’t put a “saved” box under my Inbox. (I can put a saved box on, just not under my inbox) I hate the fact that I can’t change the order of my favorites list. I hate that my husband set it up without allowing me to move over my favorites, address book and existing email from my old computer, if that can even be done.

I hate that my perfectly set up Vaio was perfectly compatible with my Sony camera and memory stick and now I have to buy a memory stick adapter. I hate that my cam doesn’t work. I hate it all and I can’t find one damn thing to like about it other than the fact that I can play MP3s easier.

Does anyone here have any insight? Can I return a computer after it’s been used because I hate it? Are they truly used all over in schools so my daughter will be at an advantage by using it at home rather than MS operating systems?

This should have been in the pit because I’m swearing a LOT in my head.

I hate the mouse.

2

As an aside, am I allowed to be pissed at my husband because he bought me a present that I didn’t want, didn’t need, didn’t ask for and also hate?

If the answer to that is no, can I at least still return it?

3

It’s cute, isn’t it? There you go.

I have a Vaio too, and a couple Sony digital cameras. I love how easy and fast it is to just stick the MS in the slot to get pictures from stick to computer. Did you get rid of your Vaio?

4

I have always been a mac user so I love the imac. Sounds like most of your problems are due to being used to another system and not due to inherent faults. When I use a Windows machine I end up seething and frothing within minutes, too. Strange that your husband got you a computer of a platform you aren’t used to is all.
You DO know that you’ve put out an invitation for the platform zealots to come in and start raving, startign a nasty religious debate, don’t you? This will get ugly soon.

5

PC/Mac flame war commencing in 10, 9, 8, 7…

6

Sue, since the mouse issue really has nothing to do with platforms, I’m going to speak to that and hopefully not add fuel to the fire that will almost surely begin soon.

Most people new to the Mac complain about the mouse only having one button, but your principal complaint seems to be about it being optical as opposed to using a ball.

I hate non-optical mice. HATE them. Like keyboards, they’re dust magnets, and it seems that every single crumb of food in my home/office finds its way into every nook and cranny of a traditional mouse. I have a normal mouse at work, and I wanna throw it out the window on a daily basis.

They make optical mice for PCs, too. (In fact, Micro$oft makes one I’ve heard is very good.) I’ve considered getting a two-button w/scroll wheel optical mouse for my iMac for sometime now. That would give me the best of both worlds.

I’ll pass on the chance to Mac evangelize. But I will say this: Most of the things you’re complaining about are simply “I’m not used to it” things, not “this is an inherent flaw in the computer” type-stuff. Pay $20 for a new mouse, and give the thing a chance.

7

Actually, Sue Duhnym, you can do many of the things that you don’t currently believe that you can. You’ve only had the machine for a couple of days. Sit down, take a deep breath and read the manuals and the various on-board Help documents. Really. Learn the ins and outs of the machine, and you’ll probably start to feel better about it.

The optical mouse ends up being a boon. A glob of dust will never make it stop functioning, and the light will let you know whether your machine is awake or asleep at a glance. Eventually, the Apple+Q (and other Mac OS conventions) will be as second nature as the X-click currently is. Your browser window should be stretchable to the entire width of the screen, but I don’t know what’s up with your settings to help you fix that. And depending on which browser you’re using, there are built in analogues to replace the Google toolbar and your Favorites can be easily sorted. Again, documentation and on-board Help can tell you about that.

I can’t help you with the need to replace your software, though. That’s the biggest pain about switching platforms. One day, software makers who want to keep loyal customers will offer legit “upgrades” across platforms. (All of them except Microsoft, of course, because that runs wholly counter to their entire business platform.)

In any case, read, breathe and give it a little time. As with anything, you’ll feel much better once you’ve gotten around the learning curve and have more mastery of the situation.

8

Platform wars aside (this thread should be pretty much unreadable by page two, I figure), I’m just a little baffled how anyone can prefer a balled mouse to an optical one. I can live the rest of my life quite happily never having to dig gunk out of a mouse interior again.

9
      • Depends on the school. The local college I go to has three Macs and 20 PC’s in the library, and 300+ PC’s everywhere else. A couple years ago they used to teach some multimedia/graphics courses on Macs and so had one classroom of 20 or so Mac computers, but I think they stopped even doing that, because all the computers got moved to a new building, and now there’s no Mac-only classroom… As I heard it, Macs cost too much compared to PC’s and there’s no interest in using the software that is only available for Macs.
        ~
10

Agree on the optical mouse, Drastic. What possible reason would someone want a non-optical mouse? They are inferior in every way.

11

No, it’s sitting directly behind me on the table, unplugged and lonely.

Regarding the optical mouse…there seems to be a delay from the start of movement to the movement on the screen and it seems a lot less sensitive. It also seems to use a lot more space than my balled (heh) mouse. BTW, I have jacked up the speed of the thing as far as it can go. I guess it’s just another one of those things I have to get used to.

The thing that really pisses me off is that my husband just bought himself a brand new Vaio (we’re networked in the house). Why on earth would he get ME a new computer with a completely different platform?

Oh and tlw, what’s up with suggesting I read the manual? Are you frigging insane? No one reads manuals and people only resort to help if they’re desperate. Even then, they certainly don’t admit to it. :smiley:

I realize a lot of this is “getting used to it”. That’s the damn problem. I don’t WANT to get used to it. I finally knew the ins and outs of Windows and I can’t see any rational reason why I need this big screened behemoth.

It is not really about the platform because I don’t use this computer for work. I don’t use it for graphics. I use it for email, surfing, some occassional papers, updating my daughter’s web site and keeping a database of all my Christmas card lists. It’s a kitchen computer not a workhorse.

I hate that it highlights text in cyan. I hate cyan.

Damn mouse!

12

The only good thing about traditional mice is playing with their balls after the mouse has been destroyed. It’s fun to peel the rubber off and use them like marbles.

13

Oh and can anyone enlighten me on returning it? Is it like a car in that once you buy it, it’s yours?

14

Mac-disliker here, checking in to sympathise and give advice.

Obviously you can switch both the mouse and the keyboard to ones you like. I had a big old bulky keyboard attached to the pretty little thing they made me work from last year, and a big-ass 4 button, (optical, its divine!) scroller mouse with force feedback :slight_smile: It didn’t feel quite as maccy which was nice. So that irritation can be fixed for about 30 bucks. Interface is a huge irritant, as is the plain old habit-factor. It’s going to take a while, but if you keep using both the mac and the pc you will end up “bilingual” very soon!

There are lots of benefits to an Imac. They are generally very pretty and don’t take up much space, you avoid the disgusting cable sprawl that you get with standard PCs. They are also very user friendly, its almost impossible to get at stuff that can be messed up. These are the two major bonuses. Another bonus is that while there definatly are viruses and security issues related to mac, there aren’t as many of them, and there aren’t as many script kiddies trying to exploit them. So there is another benefit!

See? Lots of benefits. Oooh, and the mac version of ICQ has built in speech synthesis, so you can have your messages read to you as they arrive and you are sitting in the couch. Thats gotta be worth 500$ right there…

I find it a little odd that you seem to be treating this as an “either or” situation? Can you not use the PC when doing your digicam stuff? The screensize of the imacs makes them useless for image manipulation anyhow… unless you are making icons…

When I grow up I am going to have an iMac in the guest bedroom, so guests can check their mail without fecking up my proper puters dreams

Btw, be very, very careful about throwing around “stole that idea from ms” comments… They will get you fried, and good! It’s the other way round. Mac enthusiasts will tell you in a second that Msoft stole the whole concept of graphical user interface from Mac way back in the day. True to a large extent. You, however, should just smile sweetly and ask them about Xerox. (Guess where Apple got the idea of GUI :wink: )

15

Okay, I fixed the cyan crap and now it highlights in a lovely shade of lavender. :rolleyes:

I also sorta fixed the mouse. It zooms faster and although I moved the “initial delay” to the minimum, there’s still eough of a delay that it makes me pissy.

I still can’t figure out the screen and I’m definitely going to put the dock into hiding because it’s irritating as all get out anywhere I put it. Well, except the right side of the screen because I can’t get the “window” (is that a bad word now?) to go all the way over there, but I will darn it!

Thanks for the sympathy *Iteki. It’s an either/or situation because my desk is a small built-in in the kitchen. No way can I fit two computers on it. I’ll probably set up my old one in my daughter’s playroom so she can continue to play her games on it but won’t run DSL to it.

I have to go buy a new mouse. Today.

16

Redeeming? They’re pretty.

That’s about it.

17

Since when are they pretty? Ew.

18

Well. That didn’t take long. :rolleyes:

19

Make your own highlight color. Go to System Preferences (in the Dock, or in the Apple menu). Click on General, up at the top. That’s where you can set a highlight color. For something outside the norm, just pick “Other…” at the bottom and you’ll get a color wheel. Drag the slider on the right to set brightness, and find the color you want. Red, green, blue, and all points in between…

As for returning it…depends where he bought it. Most retailers will let you return opened merchandise, but you have to be quick about it, you have to include everything, and you might get store credit instead of cash. Couldn’t hurt to ask, I guess.

20

A warning here: this thread should not be used as a jumping off spot for “mac vs pc” slugfests of any sort.

So far, y’all have been good, you’re keeping on topic, it’s all cool. Let’s keep it that way.

your humble TubaDiva
Administrator
just passing through.