I want a Mac but im scared to get one

I want a mac but im scared to get one because I have never used one and my cozon says they are rubbish.

I live far away from any place which sells mac's so I cant vist them.

Can you guys help me bost my confidence please?

I was thinking of getting an iMac if I was to get a mac.

I would use it for game's (can't I install windows on a mac?) maybe making a site and editing making movies and pics.

What do you do on you're computer.

Weather they are rubbish or good really depends on if you're using it for what it's good at.

I use mine for watching videos, managing music and uni for which I think it's far better than a pc.

I also work on cars though and the software available for modern cars is limited to say the least. For this reason I still use windows machines which have a much better compliment of software for that specific need.

Well BillyDilly, first of all, Welcome to Mac Forums!

Secondly, you see before you (in this forum) a large, robust and vibrant group of people all of whom are using Macs, and most of whom have been for years. Macs are very definitely NOT rubbish.

Lets break this down into the two main pieces, the Mac operating system (Mac OS X) and the Mac hardware.

First the Mac operating system (Mac OS X). To give you some idea of the quality here, it might be helpful to read this review of Mac OS X Leopard (the latest release of the Mac OS). The interesting thing about this very positive article is that it is written by an editor of PC Magazine! I believe that it will demonstrate that Mac software is very definitely NOT rubbish.

Next the hardware. The hardware as well is excellent. The users here can attest to that, as can the hugely increasing sales of Macs these days. Mac sales growth is outstripping PC sales growth by about 2 to 1 these days. You don't achieve that without a good product overall.

Rest assured, your purchase of a Mac will be a safe purchase. After you have done it, and used your Mac for a while, your only regret will be that you hadn't done it sooner!

I would use it for game's (can't I install windows on a mac?) maybe making a site and editing making movies and pics.

You can install Windows on the iMac, yes. To do this, you will need to get one of the new Intel iMacs, vs. perhaps buying a used G4 or G5 iMac. As long as you are buying a new machine, this will work just fine. You can either go the Boot Camp route (comes with Leopard), which lets you select to boot either Mac OS X or Windows at boot up time, or you can go the VMWare Fusion route, which lets you boot up Mac OS X and then startup Windows at the same time in a parallel virtual machine that runs on the same physical hardware. Both work well.

If you purchase your Mac from www.macconnection.com, you can get VMWare Fusion and Windows XP pre-installed on your new Mac, which will come with both OS's installed and working.

Yes, there are lots of Torrent clients for the Mac, and many are freeware. In general, you might wish to see this massive list of freeware available for Macs - it is INCREDIBLE what you can get for free. Mac's unix heritage shines through here. I haven't used Torrents yet, so I can't recommend a good one, but I immediately found BitRocket on this page, which says it is a free Torrent client. Also, Azureus seems to be very well regarded as a Mac Torrent client.

billydilly said:

I would use it for game's (can't I install windows on a mac?) maybe making a site and editing making movies and pics.

Is there any torrent software for macs? if so free software for all

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The general consensus is that Macs are not ideal for gaming. If you are looking at the iMac be prepare for rather limited graphics performance, so depending on the type of gamer you are this might not be a good fit. If you aren't a power gamer with your eyes on bragging rights for FPS in Crysis, etc. an iMac may be fine. Yes, you can dual boot this into Windoze, so you can play all your PC games.

Personally, I've had my Mac Pro for almost a week now and I absolutely love it. The forums here are extremely helpful, so even though there may not be an Apple store nearby you are definitely not without help. I hate the idea of dual booting (aka Boot Camp) into Windoze, but that's due to my being a Microsoft hater. Unfortunately I'll probably go this route in the next week or so simply for playing EQ2, Civ4: BtS, Anarchy Online, NWN2, and a few other games.

I really am loving OS X though. Everything is really smooth and for the most part it's all very intuitive. The system boots and shuts down in the blink of an eye. Other than one Safari crash, and a little bit of a headache configuring my new Gmail account everything has been really smooth so far.

I would definitely recommend a Mac, but if you are a power gamer and this is your primary purpose in a new computer you might be better off with a PC unless you go the route I did and the a Mac Pro with the GeForce 8800 GT video card option. Downgrade to a single Quad core processor and save yourself $500 on the system, you won't miss the other 4 cores for gaming.

billydilly said:

Is there any torrent software for macs? if so free software for all

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Now Billy.. SURELY you don't mean you plan to pirate software, now DO you? It is against forum rules to be discussing that sort of thing, so I'm SURE you meant differently...

Yes lifeisabeach I meant different

Macs are not rubbish - take it from a me, a recent switcher. I've had my iMac for a few weeks now and I absolutely love it. Honestly, it just works. It's like riding a bicycle to work for so many years ( a PC) and then finding a Ferrari parked outside your drive! Get in and go!!!

The downside of iMac gaming is that once you buy it, you're stuck with the video card that's inside it.

lifeisabeach said:

Now Billy.. SURELY you don't mean you plan to pirate software, now DO you? It is against forum rules to be discussing that sort of thing, so I'm SURE you meant differently...

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Believe it or not, Torrent software has many legit uses these days. A lot of stuff is now distributed this way.

I am in the same sort of boat as you Billy. I *think* I am gonna be buying a 24" 2.4 iMac today... but not too sure.

mac57 said:

Believe it or not, Torrent software has many legit uses these days. A lot of stuff is now distributed this way.

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Sure it is. But this was CLEARLY not what he intended so your point is hard to follow.

theonegod said:

Sure it is. But this was CLEARLY not what he intended so your point is hard to follow.

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Nope I wont use it illegally because thats braking the law isnt it?

billydilly said:

Nope I wont use it illegally because thats braking the law isnt it?

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By definition.

theonegod said:

Sure it is. But this was CLEARLY not what he intended so your point is hard to follow.

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Well... I have to disagree, although it will be hard to prove my point. billydilly edited the original post with the question in it, but it seemed innocent enough when I read it - just a request whether there was any good torrent clients for Macs. That did not suggest any nefarious uses... A simple question and I gave a simple answer.

mac57 said:

Well... I have to disagree, although it will be hard to prove my point. billydilly edited the original post with the question in it, but it seemed innocent enough when I read it - just a request whether there was any good torrent clients for Macs. That did not suggest any nefarious uses... A simple question and I gave a simple answer.

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...i CLEARLY agree

mac57 said:

Believe it or not, Torrent software has many legit uses these days. A lot of stuff is now distributed this way.

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*gasp* Surely you jest!

mac57 said:

Well... I have to disagree, although it will be hard to prove my point. billydilly edited the original post with the question in it, but it seemed innocent enough when I read it - just a request whether there was any good torrent clients for Macs. That did not suggest any nefarious uses... A simple question and I gave a simple answer.

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I for one wouldn't associate the availability of a torrent client as the sole way of having access to freeware, if by "free software for all" that is what was meant. Maybe I've just been around long enough to know other ways. *shrug*

lifeisabeach said:

I for one wouldn't associate the availability of a torrent client as the sole way of having access to freeware, if by "free software for all" that is what was meant. Maybe I've just been around long enough to know other ways. *shrug*

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You now what your right