Would like to buy a Mac

[alexbee]

Hi y'all,
With all this Vista havoc, I'm thinking that I would like to get a Mac to avoid all the Microsoft penalties. How easy would it be to convert my PC to something modern? Will I still be able to use my monitor, printer, etc, or will I need to get a complete system?

This change was prompted by seeing the Mac Mini somewhere, cute little box eh? If I were able to just buy that as a trial I would be seriously interested in moving into the 21st century and leaving Bill Gates and his megabloat systems far behind.

Thanks for any and all comments.

Alex

[depictmeuk]

I did exactly this about 18 months ago, dumped Windows, went to Mac, I had PPC Mac mini. I bought the low spec model just to test the system.

Should have gone to higher spec machine because a few months in I upgraded.
24" iMac with 2 gig Ram 250 Gig harddrive and Intel Core Duo. I can Run OS X and Windows via Bootcamp or Parallels.

With a Mac mini you can keep your monitor, but you will need a new keyboard and mouse, the Mac stuff is a bit different. Macs only have USB and Firewire ports so if your devices use anything legacy they will not work.

I have been very happy with my Macs, and software is no problem.

Here is the apps that I use:
Open Office
ONYX - keeps OSX in good health
Dragon Burn: burns CD and DVD
Nvu: web page editor
Writeroom: text editor
Bluephone elite: SMS and more
Poor mans Photoshop! GIMP
Picture viewer XEE
Copy and paste on steroids JUMPCUT
Text editor SMULTRON
Parallels! Windoze on a Mac!
Bootcamp: ditto!
Thunderbird & Firefox Web and email.
SuperDuper! Backup app

[Luxman]

Being a Mac user since 1985 and also a reseller, I can only say it's a great idea to switch.

The Parallels solution is fantastic. You have the possibility to run Mac OS and Windows on your computer at the same time.
Both coexist and filesharing or copy/paste between them is no problem.
There's a mode (called coherence display) where both OS' are blend together, so appications of both are in Windows on the same desktop.

That's an amazing thing:

[ATTACH]5719[/ATTACH]

You can see here Mac and Windows applications running together and you may notice the Finder Dock at the right and the Windows taskbar at the lower end.

I use this every day professionally and I never had the tiniest problem.

Just be aware to install a virus protection on the Windows environment.

Lxm

[Luxman]

To give some advice what model to buy, there is the Mac mini and there is the iMac.

The advantage of the Mac mini is the quite low price, disadvantage is the limited performance.

The iMac 17" is not much more expensive and includes a 17" widescreen monitor and a much better graphic card (not the cheapest model who features the same graphic card as the Mac mini).
There are also the 20" and 24" versions available.

Here the links: Mac mini and iMac.

Lxm

[Lesley]

This is a no brainer, go for the Mac.
Luxman is quite correct with his comments about the mini.
I would not go for the mini, the graphics are rubbish, so the 17 or 20 iMac is the way to go. If you have a spare monitor you can connect it to the iMac and run two monitors, which is what I do. I put OS X on the main screen, and Windows XP on the second screen. Works really well.

Once you have tried a Mac, you will never go back to Windows!

[alexbee]

Well, well, well...

Thank you for the responses. Sure looks like a "no-brainer", so I'll have to start saving my thruppences and sixpences and shillings and get an Imac. BTW, are all the guts inside the screen/box?? I don't see anything that looks like a system unit. Just another reason to switch I suppose.

Thanks again, you girls & guys are champs!

[Luxman]

BTW, are all the guts inside the screen/box??

Yes, the CPU, DVD burner and everything else is in the monitor case.
The only thing I would suggest to add is a memory extension to 2 GB, pretty cheap nowadays.

Lxm

[OlderGuy]

I guess my eyes aren't very sharp today.
I thought the thread title was "Would like to buy a mat". I then thought "There's an entrepreneurial opportunity for someone. Sixteen slightly used yoga mats"

I don't suppose anybody thought to get them autographed?

[tripod]

I suppose it has already been said but, Mac is the champion in my book. I am an art photographer and digital designer because of a Mac. At school all student's had both format's to choose from. All of the student's eventually chose a Macintosh but two. Most Mac student's are now working as a graphic artist's for large company's, "What happend to those other two student's who chose the IBM compatible?" Well, one is now a freelance plumber, the other is in a state mental hospital. It just depend's on what you want--------

I would choose Macintosh!!!!!!!!!!again