What was it like when you got your new Mac?

[jonnyd]

The other side of the coin . . .

First Mac I bought was a blue g3 Imac. I only bought it so I could buy an Ipod - this was when Ipods were Mac only.

I sat with an XP laptop, Googled how to rip CDs and load the Ipod, and didn't try do anything else with it for maybe 3 months.

I have to say that I'd probably have been more interested in it if it had come with more than the default 128mb of RAM - the performance was terrible, it crashed all the time so I was never really tempted to use it for much.

 

[flowrider]

I loved booting into OSX or any other new operating system actually. I guess I'm a bit of a geek in that way. Vista, Ubuntu, Knoppix, it doesn't matter.

 

[CookbookChef]

I bought my Mac Pro after a lightning strike killed my PC. I had never seen a Mac up close, but wanted one, partially to try something new and partially because I wanted to get more into the creative side of computing. I work at M$, so there was also a thrill element there.

I got the computer at Fry's (didn't know an Apple store was in the area), brought it home, nearly threw my back out getting the thing out of the box (it weighs a TON) and hooked up the monitors. It was a thing of beauty. Five minutes later, I was on the phone with tech support trying to figure out how to get the darned thing online. I heard cryptic words like "Safari", "Dash" and "Dock". I felt kinda sorry for the woman on the other end of the phone because I kept repeating "You need to tell me how to do that". It was a completely new world to me.

Six months later, I still love the thing. I run Windows with bootcamp and Parallels (to keep the boss happy), but do just about everything with the Mac now. I am still very much a novice, but I am slowly getting there.

 

[walkerj]

It was a lot like it should have been back in 1990 when I should have gotten my first NeXT machine. Unfortunately back then those cost something like US $10,000 depending on how it was configured, and those are 1990's dollars. It also really needed this whole networking thing that we have today, but didn't have any infrastructure that didn't cost huge money to get on the internet like we do today.

Fortunately, Apple did the right thing and lowered the price point of entry with that Mac Mini thing, so that's what my first Mac ended up being. That was the Great Mac Experiment of 2005, and it was an unqualified success.

So my second 'getting a Mac' in the form of a Macbook was awesome. It was really cool for my wife; I recall her actually stroking her black Macbook (matches our cats) after I brought it home for her. The notion of being able to use this fantastic and powerful OS and take it with you wherever you go was quite liberating.

Now, when I hear about stuff happening in the Windows world (which I still have to use, along with Linux...I'm what you could call a computer platform mercenary) I just don't care. Business dealings, sure, but when I'm using my own computer to do Real Important Stuff, my Macbook serves me like a little obedient robot. It's named after the bartender on The Love Boat (and is an homage, er, ripoff of what Futurama did as well; I call it iSaac while the Futurama 'robot' is called iZac...eh, nevermind.)

 

[Eisenhammer]

Thanks to all that have replied so far. Keep 'em coming! They help me (and other to-be-switchers like myself) get a better understanding of what to expect for when I do take the plunge and buy a Mac.

 

[jonnyd]

Thanks to all that have replied so far. Keep 'em coming! They help me (and other to-be-switchers like myself) get a better understanding of what to expect for when I do take the plunge and buy a Mac.

I'll expand a little on my reply then - as it's not exactly encouraging . . .

I constantly hover on the verge of being a troll . . . I try not to do it too much here, but the above answer probably isn't typical of a Mac forum, even though it's true.

I'll give you the rest of the story though, as it's not a typical Mac users tale, and might give more perspective.

The next Mac I got was a fairly early G5 powermac. I got this despite the fact I didn't like the G3 very much.

The reason I bought it was that I posted on another forum, where there were a few really obnoxious Mac zealots, who were constantly ranting about how awful Windows was, despite the fact they'd never used Windows.

When the G5s came out, they were all drooling over them, and so I went and bought one and left it in its box for a month, and posted a photo of it every day to irritate them.

When I did eventually get it out of the box, it occured to me that it was a pretty expensive paperweight, and I suppose I had better use it.

So, here you have a very reluctant user, who has bought 2 Macs in a row for terrible reasons - is that really why I did it?

Of course not. The truth is that whether you lust after a new Mac after every keynote Steve Jobs makes, or you accidentally acquire one, you will eventually realise that they are **** good machines. They're easy to work with, extremely well engineered and OSX is just painless to exist with.

I'm on my 3rd now, I use only a Mac at home, and during the day I'm a sysadmin on a Windows network. I know both platforms pretty intimately, and if I had to choose (which thankfully I don't), I'd have to go for the Mac.

You'll like it. Buy one.

 

[Joe Redifer]

I felt both bad and good when I got my new Mac Pro.

Good because, well, it's a Mac Pro instead of the outdated G4 I had been using for a long time. This new computer will be state-of-the-art for at least 2 months before it is obsolete!

Bad because I had just spent a huge chunk of money. Also bad because I couldn't use old OS 9 programs any more.

 

[ExWindows]

As a pending iMac buyer, I have a question for those who switched from whatever variant of Windows they were using to OS X. What was it like when you first booted up your brand-new, sparkling Mac computer (be it an iMac, Mac Pro, or PowerBook), given that you had your very own Mac and weren't fiddling around with a Mac on display at a store? Did it feel daunting or exciting? Feel free to share your first-time (and subsequent) experiences here ...

It was great to finally have a computer that actually works all of the time. I had used all of the operating systems from Microsoft from DOs to XP. I used CPM before MSDOS. Microsoft has had plenty of opportunities to get it right. I gave up on them for good.
You will enjoy the experience and maybe as I did, find you really don't spend much time making it work.

 

[cheetahastra]

It was great to finally have a computer that actually works all of the time. I had used all of the operating systems from Microsoft from DOs to XP. I used CPM before MSDOS. Microsoft has had plenty of opportunities to get it right. I gave up on them for good.
You will enjoy the experience and maybe as I did, find you really don't spend much time making it work.

Here here. Im utterly disgusted MS had 5-6 years to develop Vista and its a hunk of ****.

 

[The_Grudge]

It was amazing because I had been using a Pentium III that was almost 8 years old. After knocking that thing out of the way the iMac looked amazing. Having said that though, I don't hate Windows.

In fact, I'm actually a little surprised at just how similar the two OS's are and how quickly I found my way around the Mac. Would I buy the same computer again? Heck ya.

Do I think it's a billion times better than Windows? Nah, not really. Keep in mind though I'm a Programmer and I always keep my systems running in tip top shape. For people that download music from file sharing programs and don't watch their behaviour I suppose a Mac is WAY better.

80% of the time the problems people experience in Windows is their own lagging. I suppose that's why Macs are so great though...you don't need to maintain them all the time.

 

[baShakhbuurz]

I was just happy with the speed it started and I knew it will allways start this fast, not like windows, when u load it first time, you can enjoy the speed, then after few loads, frustration starts with waiting to start, and after few months when you power up your PC, you can go and have a breakfast till it loads...
I'm in love with my new macbook

 

[Fallooza]

...every time a Mac is delivered a puppy gets its wings

 

[Village Idiot]

Disappointed because the aluminum casing was bent and there were lines going through the screen. When I got the second MBP, I felt like I was starting any other computer. I needed to get rid of the stuff I didn't plan on using, downloading the free programs I needed to use and installing any other remaining programs I had.

It's just another computer to me. I have 2 other Windows machines and have been computing since I was a tyke, so it wasn't really some revelation. In fact, I took the 2nd MBP into the bar with me before I even opened it the first time. Although it was for a Wii bowling league, no one was drunk, and the only 10 or so people there were all friends of mine. I was suspicious. It didn't come in the same brown large box that said "Official Apple Refurbished product". I guess I was kind of excited that it came NIB at a refurb price.

 

[ChodeMasterJ]

I bought mine used off of Ebay but it came with the original box and everything in great condition. I was psyched when it finally came in.

 

[Brown Study]

What was it like when you got your new Mac?

Flowering plants had yet to evolve.

 

[chaunce322]

I just got my first iMac a few months ago. I was switching from day shift to nights at work, so I spent the night before setting up my iMac. Everything was well packaged went together very quickly. It actually took me longer to tear down my PC setup than it did to set up the Mac. Once I turned it on, it was lightning fast...had everything up and running in a few minutes. I'm still going up the learning curve, but so far, I have been extremely happy with it.

Sean

 

[BigWorm]

the first few days were spent mucking around to get familiar with the differences. after that, everthing has been a dream. should have done this sooner. now i have to decide on which program to use to run windows for a few work related apps with no mac counterpart. just when i thought i was out, they pull me back in.

 

[Cypher]

I got my first imac yesterday as a birthday pressie to myself. It was something I have wanted for ages and finally done it.
I was very excited about it and when I took it from the box I could see it was a thing of beauty. I've got 3 pcs at home and they all hide out of the way hidden under a desk but this now stands proudly in plain view and all that have seen it have gushed about it.
I've found the switch from xp/vista to OS X fairly easy, (a few things i still need to sort out) but in all it was a great buy, good choice and its forums like this that helped me make the decision.

So thank you all