I have had my IMac for about 3 weeks and have formed some impressions. To wit...
I would now recommend a Mac for anybody who is not technical and doesn't want to be. (Like my parents). It just starts up and runs with very little user involvement. It is what Vista would love to be, but isn't even close. This isn't to say that a technical person shouldn't have a Mac - my career was computers and I still think it is a great machine.
I still would recommend a Linux machine for a person trying to learn to become computer technical, since that OS doesn't do any hand holding and you either learn the nitty-gritty or you do nothing but stare at a screen with undecipherably error codes. I realise that Leopard can be used down and dirty inside the terminal session, but for a learner there is too much risk of trashing the OS. I am very familiar with BSD Unix, but I am very hesitant at this stage to just casually change things underneath the GUI. Just an opinion.
(I would recommend a Vista machine for someone who is tired of life and wants to be pushed over the edge).
Anyway, the plusses...
The 24" screen is the brightest and clearest that I have ever seen. Before the Mac, I thought my 22" Westinghouse with a Geforce 8xxx card driving it was great. It looks dull now.
It is dead quiet. A real treat after the wind generators that I have used in the past.
The computer is in the monitor. No box. A great desktop space saver.
The speakers are very good, unlike the usual piezo junk that comes in most monitors. They are good enough that I haven't even bothered to hook it to my sound system yet.
Since it is Unix platformed, it is totally solid.
The network, both ethernet and airport are practically automatic and solid. Linux networking is also solid, but setting it up can sometimes take quite a while. Windows networking is very automatic, but may come and go on some random schedule - or may never connect until rebooted.
It costs a lot more than a Windows box. I rate this as a plus. I have spent years working on cheap, plasticky, flimsy, cut-rate, leave-off-the-power-LED-so-we-can-save-a-nickle PCs. For the premium money you get a heavy, solidly built, high quality system.
The minuses...
Only two actually.
First, the keyboard. I realise that keyboards are like editors - you like the one you learned on. The little flat aluminum thingie is well made, but for me I might as well try to type data in as morse code. Even after a week of trying to get used to it, I was still typing with two fingers. Fortunately, the IMac recognised my big IBM clicker and all is well.
Second. Way too much help is only available online. Plus, many times it is interlarded with videos, sound and massive pictures. It is common for me to get 15 minute load times for a single page. In other words, totally useless for someone with a dialup connection.
But all in all, it is a great machine and I have moved it into the prime spot on my desk.
Konan
I would now recommend a Mac for anybody who is not technical and doesn't want to be. (Like my parents). It just starts up and runs with very little user involvement. It is what Vista would love to be, but isn't even close. This isn't to say that a technical person shouldn't have a Mac - my career was computers and I still think it is a great machine.
I still would recommend a Linux machine for a person trying to learn to become computer technical, since that OS doesn't do any hand holding and you either learn the nitty-gritty or you do nothing but stare at a screen with undecipherably error codes. I realise that Leopard can be used down and dirty inside the terminal session, but for a learner there is too much risk of trashing the OS. I am very familiar with BSD Unix, but I am very hesitant at this stage to just casually change things underneath the GUI. Just an opinion.
(I would recommend a Vista machine for someone who is tired of life and wants to be pushed over the edge).
Anyway, the plusses...
The 24" screen is the brightest and clearest that I have ever seen. Before the Mac, I thought my 22" Westinghouse with a Geforce 8xxx card driving it was great. It looks dull now.
It is dead quiet. A real treat after the wind generators that I have used in the past.
The computer is in the monitor. No box. A great desktop space saver.
The speakers are very good, unlike the usual piezo junk that comes in most monitors. They are good enough that I haven't even bothered to hook it to my sound system yet.
Since it is Unix platformed, it is totally solid.
The network, both ethernet and airport are practically automatic and solid. Linux networking is also solid, but setting it up can sometimes take quite a while. Windows networking is very automatic, but may come and go on some random schedule - or may never connect until rebooted.
It costs a lot more than a Windows box. I rate this as a plus. I have spent years working on cheap, plasticky, flimsy, cut-rate, leave-off-the-power-LED-so-we-can-save-a-nickle PCs. For the premium money you get a heavy, solidly built, high quality system.
The minuses...
Only two actually.
First, the keyboard. I realise that keyboards are like editors - you like the one you learned on. The little flat aluminum thingie is well made, but for me I might as well try to type data in as morse code. Even after a week of trying to get used to it, I was still typing with two fingers. Fortunately, the IMac recognised my big IBM clicker and all is well.
Second. Way too much help is only available online. Plus, many times it is interlarded with videos, sound and massive pictures. It is common for me to get 15 minute load times for a single page. In other words, totally useless for someone with a dialup connection.
But all in all, it is a great machine and I have moved it into the prime spot on my desk.
Konan