03-25-2009, 11:42 PM

I have had my IMac for about 3 weeks and have formed some impressions. To wit...

I would now recommend a Mac for anybody who is not technical and doesn't want to be. (Like my parents). It just starts up and runs with very little user involvement. It is what Vista would love to be, but isn't even close. This isn't to say that a technical person shouldn't have a Mac - my career was computers and I still think it is a great machine.

I still would recommend a Linux machine for a person trying to learn to become computer technical, since that OS doesn't do any hand holding and you either learn the nitty-gritty or you do nothing but stare at a screen with undecipherably error codes. I realise that Leopard can be used down and dirty inside the terminal session, but for a learner there is too much risk of trashing the OS. I am very familiar with BSD Unix, but I am very hesitant at this stage to just casually change things underneath the GUI. Just an opinion.

(I would recommend a Vista machine for someone who is tired of life and wants to be pushed over the edge).

Anyway, the plusses...
The 24" screen is the brightest and clearest that I have ever seen. Before the Mac, I thought my 22" Westinghouse with a Geforce 8xxx card driving it was great. It looks dull now.
It is dead quiet. A real treat after the wind generators that I have used in the past.
The computer is in the monitor. No box. A great desktop space saver.
The speakers are very good, unlike the usual piezo junk that comes in most monitors. They are good enough that I haven't even bothered to hook it to my sound system yet.
Since it is Unix platformed, it is totally solid.
The network, both ethernet and airport are practically automatic and solid. Linux networking is also solid, but setting it up can sometimes take quite a while. Windows networking is very automatic, but may come and go on some random schedule - or may never connect until rebooted.
It costs a lot more than a Windows box. I rate this as a plus. I have spent years working on cheap, plasticky, flimsy, cut-rate, leave-off-the-power-LED-so-we-can-save-a-nickle PCs. For the premium money you get a heavy, solidly built, high quality system.

The minuses...
Only two actually.
First, the keyboard. I realise that keyboards are like editors - you like the one you learned on. The little flat aluminum thingie is well made, but for me I might as well try to type data in as morse code. Even after a week of trying to get used to it, I was still typing with two fingers. Fortunately, the IMac recognised my big IBM clicker and all is well.

Second. Way too much help is only available online. Plus, many times it is interlarded with videos, sound and massive pictures. It is common for me to get 15 minute load times for a single page. In other words, totally useless for someone with a dialup connection.

But all in all, it is a great machine and I have moved it into the prime spot on my desk.

Konan

03-26-2009, 12:08 AM

Konan - I've had my iMac for just over a month now, and would probably have agreed a month ago about the keyboard. Fortunately, I was stuck over the last year and a half using only a laptop, and now I find the iMac's keyboard to be much like the laptop keyboards I've used, only better. In fact, I like it so much now, I'm thinking about getting a second to use on my PC at work. I seem to be able to type considerably faster than on the huge Dell keyboard at work.

03-26-2009, 06:27 AM

In other words, totally useless for someone with a dialup connection.

The internet generally only works properly with broadband now anyway. Nobody's to blame - it's progress.

03-26-2009, 06:48 AM

You might want to check out:

The Missing Manual

03-26-2009, 07:22 PM

Originally Posted by Alexis

The internet generally only works properly with broadband now anyway. Nobody's to blame - it's progress.

Yep, and I like the progress but there is plenty of blame to go around. Like...

All the fees and surcharges on my phone bill for decades to enhance access for rural customers. Then the local Telco (to enhance and improve our customers service, of course) puts combiners on all rural lines so that two or three houses can now share the same pair of copper. Of course, it drops the maximum bandwidth to 14k, but the Telco's profits are down and something has to be done.

Then there is the local cable company, who won't put lines outside of town because of cost/revenue considerations, but instantly offers to sue the County and and small communities for even discussing the possibility of having a meeting to explore wireless access for rural households. They even tried to ban Internet satellite service in their service area and the only thing that stopped them is the fact that it is controlled by Federal law and not local politicians.

So when the FCC states that broadband is available in most of the USA, I tend to give it the same credence that I give to the people who are saying that the only way to get out of debt is to keep spending.

Despite that, my IMac is still a great machine. Fortunately, my use of it is mostly for programming and so Internet connectivity isn't a big deal.

Konan

03-26-2009, 07:24 PM

Originally Posted by bobtomay

You might want to check out:

The Missing Manual

First thing I bought after the Mac. Not bad, but not too technical, though.

Konan

03-26-2009, 10:06 PM

Originally Posted by Konan

First thing I bought after the Mac. Not bad, but not too technical, though.

Konan

It is a good read - particularly if you're interested in the details of the user experience. But if you like to know the nuts and bolts of the OS, as I did when I first bought a Mac, this is the book you want:

Amazon.com: Mac OS X Internals: A Systems Approach: Amit Singh: Your Store

...and if it looks expensive and you're still tossed up, take a look at the author's website dedicated to the book (and blog too):

Mac OS X Internals: The Book

Also, O'Reilly's Running Mac OS X Tiger: A No-Compromise Power Users Guide to the Mac is a bit dated, but still relates well, even to Leopard.