bye bye windows

im finally switching! i have ordered the following:

imac g5 17"
extra 1gb ram (1.5gb together)
microsoft office for mac
macromedia studio 8

should be here soon!

what are some must have apps/programs i should download?

I'd dl VLC media player so that you can watch movies of all kinds without fighting Quicktime.

Other than that just download things as you see nessasary.

congratulations on the purchase.

Try looking at http://www.macupdate.com to see what the hot downloads are there. Also try the search button at the top of this forum. There have been several threads on the best Mac software to get.

http://www.pure-mac.com - pretty good list, not so many apps as on versiontracker or macupdate, but I find it better if you need to find a program for specific task.

Anyway, for IM - AIM, MSN, ICQ, Y!M, etc. I would recommend using AdiumX - http://www.adiumx.com. Also getting an app launcher like Quicksilver (I'm too lazy to search for the URL, sorry) would probably be good too.

i would have not bought office for mac and spent the extra money on a 20". there are other office programs that are out there that are compatible with ms office.

you need 2 gigs of ram. if you have matched sticks, the imac will use 64 bit addressing and will run faster. if you use the 512 it comes with and a 1gig stick, you only get 32 bit addressing which is sloer.

(or is it 64 and 128?) in any case, you need two matched sticks or you're leaving performance on the table.