The time has come

Two years ago when I retired my 3 year old Dell desktop I really wanted a desktop replacement laptop solution and selected a 17" HP Pavillion ZD7000. It was expensive but was the right solution at the time for the following reasons:

• The screen size allowed me more room for multiple code windows
• All my software was for Windows XP
• I was comfortable using XP
• I felt that the old Power PC chips were slower
• The Virtual PC software for Mac was junk

But right about the same time my partner bought a 17" Powerbook and a strange love affair started. I realized that the operating system was sexier, the machine was a full 3 pounds lighter, and the hardware was so much more durable and attractive. While HP painted the ZD7000 silver, the Mac's metal case was genuine and kept its appearance despite getting a lot of hard use. I still was not impressed with the speed of running applications but I found the machine bewitching.

Last Friday, my ZD7000 melted down. As a member of the ZD7000forums.com web site I was well aware of issues the machine had with heat and it was only a matter of time before mine melted down. Fortunately it is covered under an extended warranty, though because parts are so hard to come by, I can expect it back in mid August.

The time has come to buy a Mac. I decided to get a true desktop solution and purchased an iMac. Though the ZD7000 was technically a laptop, at 9.5# it was a beast. Not only will my new iMac look gorgeous on my desk, I am so thrilled with the speed (I test drove at least 8 in making my decision). I do most of my programming in PHP/MySQL and having a local instance of PHP/MySQL on Windows was a nightmare. On a Mac it seems to be a different story.

I will still keep my ZD7000 machine (as ugly as it is), but my new Mac will be primary machine. I'm sure I will have a million questions for this forum as the last Apple I owned was an Apple IIe when I was 12.

The love affair begins on July 3 when Apple says my new baby arrives.

Welcome to the forums. :black:

studio34 said:

I'm sure I will have a million questions for this forum as the last Apple I owned was an Apple IIe when I was 12.

Click to expand...

This forum has a wealth of information in it. Virutally any question that you could come up with has been asked and answered before here.
The most invaluable resource here is the SEARCH feature.
Believe me, it is your friend and using it will save you from posting thread after thread of questions, saving you hours of hassle and frustration. :black:
So, if you have a quick question, or you are looking for a solution on how to do something or you just have any inquiries about your new Mac or the Apple world, Search before you post.
You will not be disappointed.

Welcome aboard! Enjoy your stay.

Thanks D3v1L80Y, Graphite. I have a long laundry list of things I know I need to do and I think I have answers to most based on searching this forum. Since all I have is a hard drive from my HAP laptop PC and external drive back up, I am going to need a lot of help with transfers.

• Transfer of iTunes - found many answers
• Transfer of Outlook 2003 to Entourage - I think I have the answer to this with O2M
• Transfer of Macromedia Studio MX 2004 from XP to OS X - no answer yet, though I may just wait to buy the Universal version next year and purchase an OS X based illustration/photo manipulation software for now. I can hand code.

Again, thanks.

I just checked my order online and Apple has just delayed my estimated arrival date from 7/3/06 to 7/11/06. I was frankly hoping taht Apple was being conservative on 7/3 considering I paid for 2 day shipping and there are really very few options on an iMac. I could kind of understand delays when I ordered my HP or my Dell because each element had a ton of options (four processors, three video cards, 5 choices of RAM, eight DVD/CD combinations, etc). But my iMac had (17" or 20", 3 RAM choices, 2 HD choices, 2 video choices). My only hope is that they are held up because of the shipment of the new faster Intel chips.

At the very least I am going to call Apple and ask for a refund on the 2 day shipping. I wish the two Apple stores carried more than the base models - I would have bought them locally.

I suggest macmall next time... the have rebates and freebies... everybody loves freebies.

Thanks IronMac. I did check out MacMall as well as Amazon and a few other outlets. It seems that the only thing you can customize on the iMac is the memory. I also wanted the higher video memory and larger hard drive. It did not seem like I could get exactly what I wanted from sources other than Apple.

IronMac said:

I suggest macmall next time... the have rebates and freebies... everybody loves freebies.

Click to expand...

I would not suggest macmall (nothing against you IronMac). They do have rebates but don't take returns if you aren't satisfied. A co-worker order 12"PB with a $100 rebate. It's terribly loud and they wouldn't take it back, said he had to take it up with Apple. Another co-worker also had a terrible time with their customer support.

Good point about the returns, I had forgotten about that.