Newbie to Mac - probably simple questions

Let me preface this post by saying that I have NEVER used a Mac in my life and until the last 4 days, have I ever even thought about purchasing one.

I've been in PC's for years.... built a couple and bought a couple, always knowing that nothing else in the world existed. I didn't even buy IBM, it was always something else. HP, Compaq, Emachine, Dell and of course when building, what ever was cheap. In the last 3 years, I've had two new machines destroy themselves in front of me. Between spy ware, viruses, worms, pop-ups and spam, my latest computer has become a haven for defense programs. I have now replaced spy ware and virus w/pop-ups asking me to re-new my service or down load the newest this or that. More over the computer has so much crap in running just to keep it safe, it sleeps occasionally w/needed. Freezes about every other week and produces more error messages than I would like to keep track of. Not to mention the fact that my kids have software oozing from their pockets from the likes of Pizza Hut, taco bell, cerial boxes, school demos etc. etc.

I HAVE HAD ENOUGH!

Talked to a computer guru at CompUSA (yea right) one night and explained to him that I wanted the very best PC I could get that would accomplish my type of tasking. I burn an occasional CD, watch an occational DVD video, internet banking, very few games, and search the web not to mention I'm active on several forum of interests. I also let him know that I had it up to about my eyeballs with the security issues. He asked If I had every thought about Macintosh. Obviously I looked at him sorta strange. He explained that they have zero issues with spyware, viruses and pop-ups.

First things first. Is this the truth?

I'm am currently looking at an IMac 20" with wireless Keyboard and mouse. It's (I guess) the older version because there is no camera. I'm buying it from my local Apple store for $1250, I've added the Apple Care, and another 512 of ram. My total is now $1550 after our Teacher Student Discount and tax.

second question. Did I get a good deal?

I'm a little confused about the OS X, Tiger, Jaguar, panther etc. etc. What the heck are the differences? I think that I have Tiger.... What do I need to know about it?

I've picked up a mighty mouse however I understand that they don't make a scroll mouse that is wireless. What's the deal with that?

Any advise that you fine folks could share would be great.

Thanks in advance.

I'll be surfing via a wireless hub (linksys) and printing the same way.

SPY WARE is ******* anoying! i agree with you there, go mac! you need to consider this, it will be 1500 aprox plus 150 for Microsoft Office 2004 Student and Teacher (you mentioned you got a teacher discount so i fuigured you are a teacher)

You will still need to buy all kind of programs. If i was in you seat, i would find a computer tech guy willing to format your drive and reinstall your operating system.

About the games from your kids, i would watch what sites, site like mini clips addicting games and other site give you tons of spyware!

Why would I need to re-format?

I already have the Teacher/Student MS Office suite. What other type of software will I need to acquire to accomplish the tasks that I wrote about earlier?

I don't get the re-format thing.....

I was the same way PCs always crashing... But then sitting next to a dumster an imac ive had it cents last sun. Happy as heck I wanted a mac but just wanted to try first now im gonna buy a new G5 powermac use to have a dual proc g4 and loved it so im gonna try powermacs again.....Cant wait till the intel based systems

Do you have Office for MAC, the one for pc, does not work on mac.
i re formatting thing, a tech guy will get rid of everything including the operating system. then he/ she will re install the operating system, with many types of spyware, one of the best ways of getting rid of them by re

EDIT-XTREEM said:

Do you have Office for MAC, the one for pc, does not work on mac.
i re formatting thing, a tech guy will get rid of everything including the operating system. then he/ she will re install the operating system, with many types of spyware, one of the best ways of getting rid of them by re

Click to expand...

I think that we're talking about two different things here. I think that you are talking about formatting my PC..... I'm talking about my IMac.

Yes I have the Office Suite for Mac. Brand new and unopened. I picked it up for 125.00 after the teacher discount.

If you are talking about the IMac... the Imac is new and doesn't have anything on it.

I think we're on the same page now... I hope. You'll have to forgive me, remember i'm a PC guy. I do like what I see in the IMAC.... ALOT!

Spyware is virtually a non-existent feature on the Mac, absolutely no reason to re-install in my eyes.

You can check the version of OS X you have by clicking on the apple menu, then About This Mac, and it will say there, you will either have:

10.3 - Panther *or*
10.4 - Tiger.

The very best thing you can do right now is to start playing with it, don't be afraid and see what you can find out; als Mac Help from the Help menu is actually very useful.

Most of all have fun,

Vicky

Edit: You can of course use any Bluetooth mouse, does't have to be a Apple/Mac specific one...

There is no Spyware for OSX that I have ever seen. No known virus's either. In the future that could change, but the way OSX works, I doubt it would ever be as open to Virus's as windows. To install anything you have to have the root password. Otherwise nothing will install unless you provide the installer that password. It's a very safe OS.

The Mighty Mouse just came out and I am sure there will be a Wireless version very soon.



Jaguar, Panther and Tiger are versions of OSX. It's very much like say NT, 2k and XP in the Windows world. 10.2 is Jaguar, 10.3 is Panther and 10.4 is Tiger. There are point updates like say 10.2.1-10.2.8 which are like Service Packs on Windows. Tiger is the latest version of OSx and very nice. Lots of improvments over the older versions besides just the Dashboard and Spotlight features.

If you have any more questions be sure to ask!

I think you will love your new Mac.

Those are the answers i was looking for. So when they say OSX, that's just the operating system. Got it.... I thought that X was something specific.

Can't wait to really get going and have trouble free experiences. I know that they are not perfect, but Im hoping for a good cut above.

Thanks All

mlc331 said:

Those are the answers i was looking for. So when they say OSX, that's just the operating system. Got it.... I thought that X was something specific.

Can't wait to really get going and have trouble free experiences. I know that they are not perfect, but Im hoping for a good cut above.

Thanks All

Click to expand...

OSX stands for OS 10.

I think you will find it a cut above windows for the things you do. It's nice to be able to just use it and not have to worry so much or have a lot of applications running to catch virus's and spyware. They tend to bog down the system for the things I do on a computer. With the Mac and OSX I feel free to just work and get stuff done and not have to mess with it so much. I do VERY MUCH like Windows XP also, but OSX has helped me a lot with my work.

That's what I was hoping for. It can't be any worse (crossing my fingers).

Once I get the hang of the new confuser, I'll report back on my success or failure. Now see, I've already started off negative. I'm sure it will be great.

I will say that I have NEVER seen such a nice screen in my life. It's about twice as clear as my PC's flat screen. NICE!!!!!!

I'm sure you'll have a nice experience...

Just keep one thing in mind:
You are moving to a different kind of computer and OS, so expect things to be different. How many times I saw people complain about how Windows is much better because it does this and that and OS X doesn't, but simply because they didn't do any effort to find out how to do the same things in OS X.
Coming from Windows myself, I found out that, because of Windows, you usually try to do things in a much more complicated way than necessary. OS X is in many things so intuitive and easy that, at first, you wouldn't even try the easiest way, because Windows couldn't be used like that.

I was talking about formatting the pc. sorry for the confusion, then the pc will not be another load in the garbage!

Ok. I did not read more than your intro post, so I dont know if anyone said this before. This information is assuming that you have a bluetooth adapter built in to your imac. There is a bluetooth two button scroll mouse for mac, made by macally.com. If you go there, click on products. Then under bluetooth, go to imput devices. Then go to mice, and the bt mouse will be right there. It is not out yet, but I have contacted macally, and they said it should be shipping in december/ early january. before you buy, there are macally retailers on ebay, they will be selling it for about 35 dollars when it is available. Hope this helps,
-bpublisher

I got a new iMac 17" modem yesterday, and i would like to svae it is a think of beauty. Looks great, because the computer is all in the screen no annoying tower under the desk or on the desk. And runs like a dream while being super quiet.

As regards for the Mac OS X Tiger, a very nice OS. Takes a few hours to get your head around the new layout of the OS, but once you do it I loved it.

How about the favorite bar on the MAC OSX

Very difficult to figure this thing out. Obviously the PC version is super simple. How do I add to the favorite bar, and can I put it anywhere but on the top. Sooner or later, there wont be any room.

Also

Where do we go to get the cool Widgets?

I bought a iMac over ebay and it did not come with a disk. I would like to erase everything OS 9.2.2 and OSX10.3 and start again with my on disks.Can you help me? Thanks

I am not sure about the favorite bar, I don't really use favorites alot.

Don't worry, you will figure out the Mac sooner or later. Just play around with it, I figured it out well in a few days without touching the manual (which I just discovered had stickers in it!) Just try to not think of the things you are used to with Windows, keep your mind open and it will be easier.

mlc331 said:

How about the favorite bar on the MAC OSX

Very difficult to figure this thing out. Obviously the PC version is super simple. How do I add to the favorite bar, and can I put it anywhere but on the top. Sooner or later, there wont be any room.

Also

Where do we go to get the cool Widgets?

Click to expand...

I think there is a bit of confusion. MacOS X doesn't really have a 'favorite bar' as such (that's a Microsoft concoction.) Do you mean the Dock? If so, yes the Dock has the potential to get quite cluttered, but what I have found is that there are really only about half a dozen apps that one actually uses, and the Mac kind of encourages this by making sure that whatever your computer is capable of doing it does quite well. I count on my own Dock 18 things, and quite frankly I could do without a couple of them. Otherwise most apps will know to launch based on your double clicking a file in the Finder. Oh, to add to it just go to your Applications folder and drag apps to the Dock.

If you are talking about Safari's bookmark bar, you can organize them into folders and drop downs just like any other web browser.

As for Widgets, click the circled + down in the lower left while Dashboard is invoked, then the friendly 'Manage Widgets' button that will appear. A dialog box will be presented with a button labelled 'More Widgets'. Clicking that button will launch Safari and take you to a site which has oodles of widgets to download for free.