The iMac

[Matt]

I'm looking to buy an iMac... it will be my first Mac because ever since I can remember I've been using PCs. I'm a web developer and so i mainly do graphics, programming, ect. But I also have a large legal (my own library) mp3 collection. Do you think I should purchase an iMac? Or should I stick with PCs.

Personally I like the design, OS, and overall look of the mac and have heard nothing but good things. But like I said the only thing i've ever used is the pc. Do macs and PCs work well together now adays?

If you could help me out that would be great. Any advice you could give would be greatly appreciated. -Matt

[d-koolest]

Wow, it's like Macs were custom made for you! They're the best you can get for music and graphics.

You can move the formats from popular programs between macs and pcs, such as mp3s, flash documents, pictures, or office files. Also they're made to network with pcs.

The one thing I don't like about macs is the one-button mouse, I'd advise getting at least a two-button one if you're used to windows. You can use practiacally any mouse on a mac, in my experience even ones they don't say are compatible as long as they're USB.

[d-koolest]

Oh, and see apple.com/switch. They can probably answer some of your questions.

[Matt]

awesome thanks alot. That site helped alot too.

[isus]

hey matt, good to see you want a mac ;)

first off, lemme say the imac is a good choice for most people who haven't used a mac before. it won't run the newest games at the best speeds, but it will certainly do everything you need.

mac's run very well in pc networks, they have the ability to share files via smb (which windows can use, and therefore, see the shared files).

for your music, you will love itunes. smart playlists, easy tag management, and a nice encoder (that you don't need to pay for *cough*wmp*cough*) are all nice features. for graphics, we have photoshop and the gimp. what else could you need? ;)

the programming, i would need you to be more specific on. i'm sure someone has made a compiler for it, somewhere, but as is the case with most things on the net, you just need to find it.

and when you decide to get your imac, see if you can wait a little longer, until panther (a version of osx... 10.3) comes out... it is ridiculously faster than jaguar now.

[d-koolest]

You can download Panther betas now, I'm using it and it's really nice.

[baghdad_steve15]

If you ever get tired of the simplicity of MacOS X (its a good os) you can install LinuxPPC! But I doubt you will need to becase in recent years Apple has done a good job with their OS.

[Matt]

Yea, I want the mac for the OS, no other reason. I'm tired of having to get drivers and deal with crashes. I mean I love XP...great OS. But Mac OS 10.3 (jaguar I think) looks amazing.

[DudeAsInCool]

I have a G3 IMac I havent installed OS10 because 9.1 works
just fine The only issue I have is memory I bought more ram,
but I still have memory notifications once in a while Any suggestions
on how I can troubleshoot?

[Theinfamousone]

I think you'll be pleasantly surprised by how refreshing it is to have an iMac. I don't mean to Warez, but check suprnova.org for 10.3 once you get it. Photoshop 8 has been released for Mac too *cough*. The other nice thing is that they are good for making movies.

Are you getting a G3, G4, or G5. It'd be cool to get the G5 just because of having the best, but they might be out of your price range, I don't know.

I was working on my friends mac, and it's pretty cool, Apple Works, which costs about 1/20 the price of MS Office can handle so many formats. You can open pdf with it etc. Doesn't Jorge have a Mac Power book? You should ask him what he uses for programming. Also Triniti (when she gets back) says she really enjoys using her Mac for programming, so she can help you out there too.

As for P2P, you've got Multinet, and Poisoned, both are superior programs to anything now available to PC.

One problem I had is that the Macs don't like to read normal data DVDs. I popped in a DVD I had put some mp3s on, and my friends iMac couldn't even recognize it because it figures that any DVD is a regular store bought movie DVD.

You'll find that they try to simplify everything (sometimes to a fault if you ask me).

[isus]

I have a G3 IMac I havent installed OS10 because 9.1 works
just fine The only issue I have is memory I bought more ram,
but I still have memory notifications once in a while Any suggestions
on how I can troubleshoot?

the problem isn't the amount of ram in your box...
here's what to do:
quit the program.
find it in, you guessed it, the finder.
"get info"/apple-i
raise all the memory settings for the program.
close the get info box
reopen the program.
keep raising it until it works without a problem.

[Undying Wizard NHD]

I never liked Mac till about a mounth ago I was at compusa and I was playing Unreal Tournament 2003 on a iMac with one of those huge wide-screen flat moniters, it was alot better gaming then a PC, onlt problem is theres not much games for mac but there are more and more coming out latly, also Unreal Tourn 2003 for PC is $30 and for Mac its $50- but does seem to be alot better on tht iMac--- or maybe it was just tht bad ass moniter thew me off-dunno


as for the OS it was fuckin cool a jump right in kinda thing, I liked how the toolbars, menus ect.. acted I like the way you close a browser on the left and not the right( this is a more comfort on the wrist for me moviing left with the mouse)



one day mac may rise above IBM-pc but not yet not till more games are compad, inless your not a gamer get a mac

tht iMac didnt seem to have any bit of lag it was click and go for me, wish my 2.4 ghz XP machine was like tht

[DudeAsInCool]

the problem isn't the amount of ram in your box...
here's what to do:
quit the program.
find it in, you guessed it, the finder.
"get info"/apple-i
raise all the memory settings for the program.
close the get info box
reopen the program.
keep raising it until it works without a problem.


thank you, isus

[Matt]

Thanks you guys. I'm still not sure what I'm going to do. Recently I've been having doubts as to getting a mac. I guess if it's a failure I should just be happy i tried it and then move on when I get more money.

[cpugeniusmv]

Thanks you guys. I'm still not sure what I'm going to do. Recently I've been having doubts as to getting a mac. I guess if it's a failure I should just be happy i tried it and then move on when I get more money.
if you don't like it, send it to me so i can try it out :)

we can all have a turn.

[Matt]

Sure CPU...absolutley. You pay shipping. :)

[isus]

i don't think thats a good idea cpu.

he should send it to me.

bc hey, i AM thee apple fanboy.

lol.

btw, you're welcome, dudeasincool.

[freeloaders]

Matt you shouldn't have any doubts about buying a mac. y ? i cuz my mom had just switch to a mac just yesterday and they were amaze on how simple and ez it was. Installing their SBC DSL was a breeze, compare to XP which took about 6 to 10 mins just goin through the step by step menu. I'm feeling really bad for myself right now i just bought a gateway solo and now i wanna switch to mac. :(
Any body wanna trade ?

[FrozenShadow23]

I have never liked macs. They are good for some things, but I love PCs for web development. The method of addressing files works seamlessly with the web (c:\Website\index.htm can easily be called http://Website.com/index.htm) Macs just can't do this (at least I haven't seen it). They can of course work this way, but not as easily. If you just like the way the Mac OS looks, I'd go with Linux, you can make your computer look like it is MacOS. Just look at http://www.kde-look.org and their Karamba software, great stuff. I've had nothing but problems with macs. I LOVE to customize my computer to no end, Mac just doesn't allow this the way I want it. You can customize it, don't get me wrong, but it takes more work. As for graphics and video editing/creating. I don't understand the bullshit about Macs being better than PCs with it. They do the same thing. Photoshop works just as well on PCs as it does on Macs (GIMP beats it though). I have actually liked some parts of macs, but they seem to crash as much as a PC running Windows XP. More than a correctly PC running Linux. Each computer does the same thing to the same degree of quality, they just work differntly. I just don't like the lack of ability to upgrade a mac's hardware. It is SO much easier to upgrade a PC's tower. More hardware and software is made for PCs besides. I'd stick with PC man, Mac wouldn't waste your money, but if you have been using windows for a long time, it can be a big change, be ready for that if you decide to jump.

[Matt]

Thanks freeloaders.

[Matt]

Thanks Frozen I really like hearing both sides of the argument. And that was a great response.

[Psilaxs]

I find it funny when people compare Macs to pre-fab pc's like gateway or dell etc. Of course it will be better.

[Omyn]

I love my mac.

I own both PC and MAC and I never had any problems with it, good for graphics and music.

Pretty good for doing any users basic computing needs.

Just wouldnt recommend it if you are a big gamer, other than that its great.

I got mine for free :]

[CompuGeek]

This is the only Mac Switch ad you need to watch in order to make an informed decision:

Mac Switch (http://webflash.com/indexframe.php?id=561&id=561)

:sw

[DudeAsInCool]

Most of the creative people in Hollywood use Macs. They're fun, easy to use. I would never get a PC

[ffooky]

I've had a Mac for three years and would never consider a Windows box. The only drawback with Macs is gaming which doesn't bother me. The Mac Usenet groups are fantastic and I've managed to get every single piece of software that I need. There's an app called Virtual PC which allows you to run Windows programs and it does a good (if a little slow) job, though I only use it for Monkey's Audio, EAC and WinMX. As OSX is a Unix based system it's possible to run many Unix/Linux programs and you can get as geeky as you like with the command line or keep it simple, all with unparallelled stability.