Help convince me I didn't make a mistake!

Hi everyone,

Yesterday, I just ordered my first ever mac. Noone that I know has ever owned one, and that last time I used one was about 20 years ago.

I wanted to try something different, so I ordered a 24" 2.4ghz iMac with 2Gb of ram and 320gig hard drive. I am really excited about the purchase, but I'm a worry wart, and am starting to worry that I won't be happy that I switched.

Convinc me that I did the right thing!

Btw, these forums have been great in my journey so far, and I can't wait to talk to you all!

Aby

If it means anything to you, I switched about a year ago, had never used MacOSX before, and I'm not looking back. You ordered what is almost my dream for a desktop computer. With a small amount of patience(there are some little differences that you'll ahve to get used to) you'll come to love your new iMac. Hope you love it!

I was a die hard windows guy for a long time. Then I spec'd a macbook part for part against a Dell laptop and the mac came out cheaper. The design was way better, plus it could be configured to run windows as well, which was huge for me since I have a lot of windows software. So I bought the macbook.

3 months later and I've installed Vista on my macbook; then deleted it because I was so much happier with OS X, most of my software was photo editing related and iPhoto did a good enough job for me since I'm not into heavy image manipulation like some use photoshop for. So I'm 100% PC to 100% Mac in a space of less than 3 months.

I just got a shipment of free adobe products for Mac, I made a valuable connection that wouldn't have happened if I wasn't using a Mac so I'm not needing any of my windows stuff anymore. In fact I'm trying to sell my desktop PC right now cause I just bought another macbook for my wife to replace it with.

SLC

I switched 2 weeks ago, buying the same iMac you did....except my extra Gb is on it's way from Crucial now.

I'm completely on my iMac now and the old HP has been powered off for a week, sitting on the floor. It's for sale if anyone wants it.;D

I'll never look back and am SOOOOO happy with this new iMac. There's nothing I could do on my Windows system I can't do on my iMac, for me anyway. I've replaced everything I used before with Mac programs and am far happier with the Mac programs to do the same things I did in Windows.

Switching is really easy if you keep at it. Sometimes it's difficult to find a Windows equivalent, but if you look hard enough you'll find it and it'll be better than what you used before. I haven't spent any additional $$ on software, finding everything I need for free. I may buy Toast though.

Get David Pogue's book "Switching to the Mac" and it'll help you ALOT. You can also get his Mac OSX Missing Manual Tiger Edition. Much of what is in Switching is just reprinted from Mac OSX, but there are some extras that help you get your stuff over and start using Mac equivalent versions of software. I bought both books and used Switching the first week and now use Mac OSX for all my reference. Up to you but get one or the other.

Keep at it until you no longer need your PC. Try to completely switch if you can...but if not, there's always Parallels. I'm trying to avoid it unless absolutely necessary. I'm enjoying being Windows Free.

Welcome Aby!!

I too am new at these Macs.... yes the transition was a little soul destroying but I feel now that I am proficient enough to help other users on this forum. Sounds to me like you made the right choice. ENJOY and keep smiling.

at the very least, if you're able to do the things you were able to do on your old windows machine, you'll be where you were after a short learning curve.

on the plus side, you'll have a safer, easier to use and maintain, and more stylish computer. and now you've got us too!

Thank you all for your kind words! You're definately making me feel better!

All I really do on the computer is email, internet, photos, word processing, and play world of warcraft. I've heard that this computer should be great for that, so I'm really looking forward to it.

I'm sure I'll have a million questions once it comes in, so thanks in advance!!

Aby

Welcome to the forums!

Trust me, you'll be soooo happy with a Mac (especially the one you ordered!!). OS X is so nice compared to windows. This forum is full of helpful people, so ask away if you need any help.

The book "The Missing Manual - Tiger OSX Edition" by David Pogue is an excellent book and highly recommended.

Enjoy your Mac.

William

My mac switching experience was filled with ups and downs.

I was at an ultimate high when i purchased my first mac, a 17" 1.67 powerbook. Then I realized that I didnt know how to do anything that I did naturally on my PC. Which led back to me using my PC while learning OSX from a friend who was a mac user. There was a learning curve of about a month or so, but once I was comfortable using my mac, I could not be happier. You just have to be patient, but for some, they can just get "IT" right away.

Macs are beautiful inside and out, mix that with being able to run windows on the fly and you have a win/win situation.

Aby said:

Yesterday, I just ordered my first ever mac. Noone that I know has ever owned one, and that last time I used one was about 20 years ago.

Click to expand...

The Mac of 20 years ago is nothing like the Mac of today. Aside from the convenient fact that they can run Windows (either under emulation or dual-boot), Mac OS X is a completely different, much more elegant, and far easier to use computer than what existed even 8 years ago.

The underpinnings of Mac OS X is UNIX based, not that it means much more to the average user than the stability of a UNIX OS is legendary. For the advanced user, it means that there are powerful tools and utilities available that are not possible, or very difficult to use under the Windows OS.

The UI (the graphical user interface) has been refined to be as intuitive and easy to do the standard things that one would do with a computer over the years to the point that one can hand a Mac over to someone who has been struggling with the 'windows way' and they'll be able to accomplish whatever they need. I put my wife in front of her first Mac and after a half hour of pointing out where everything was, she was able to be productive with it without my assistance whatsoever.

There are Mac equivalents to nearly everything there is in the Windows world, and in the case of the Mac the built-in applications are actually decent for what they are supposed to do. With Windows you often need to get some third party thing, while with the Mac just about everything that it comes with will get you going with what you need to do. For example the first thing I would do with a new Windows machine would be to download Firefox and Thunderbird. On a Mac Safari and Mail fulfills the needs that those two apps perform. Oh, sure there are versions of Firefox and Thunderbird for the Mac, but they are not necessary.

I don't think you are going to regret your decision. There is a reason that sales of Mac notebooks and iMac desktops are skyrocketing, and it's not just because they are pretty, though that is also nice. You'll learn that having something astethically pleasing to look at all day (if you have to stare at a computer all day) can be a fairly large part of your computing experience. It doesn't hurt that they're also very fast, very powerful, and eminently useful.

aaand. if you still don't like OS X (This is crazy talk!), you could always just as well boot into Windows and have the most beautiful Windows PC around

I just recently switched from 12+ years using pcs, to a macbook... and believe me, it's easy; especially when you are already here Just browse the forum, you'll find an answer for just about anything.

Before getting the mac, I thought about having windows installed, but now I just don't see the point... OS X is just beautiful.

Enjoy your new mac ^^

Hi Aby

I have had my new iMac 24inch for 3 days now and I have not looked back. Going back to my old PC to get files is horrible, it feels so slow and looks ugly.

OS X does just work, when I heard that I thought "Nah, its too good to be true", but they are not wrong, it Just Works, and wonderfully.

My main worry when I got mine was that it felt slow to "get around" and find things. But after the first day I started to see how things worked and I got used to it, now after 3 days I am switching, minimizing and working with ease.

The Kudos is nice, the iMac is so cool you think you could use it as a pick up line! Or is my girlfriend just a Geek too?

^^ Just in case, I find it better to hide an app (Command+H) than to minimize windows. And you could also do it while command+tabbing your way through. I hate it when people go to use my mac and i find all my documents minimized. Sorry to go off topic.

i myself am in the same boat as many of you...i bought my mbp about 2 months ago...and i was also planning on installing windows on it as well. Now after using os x for these 2 months, (having never used it before), I find that i dont even need to install windows because OS X is awesome on its own! No comparison! I am extremely satisfied with the outcome of my desicison to switch even though at first during the first few weeks of ownership, I had second thoughts. After you master the learning curve involved with the switch, you will realize how much more productive, secure, stable, and plain out fun os x is compared to windows.

if worst comes to worst and you dont like OSX, just use bootcamp and run windows on it instead. This is what backed up my desishion to get one even though im hoping i will get along with OSX just fine.