New convert here

Good evening,

I would like to introduce myself. I just ordered my first Mac,
a late 2011 refurbished 21.5" iMac with the i5 2.5Ghz quad core, 4GB of ram, and <other adequate++ specs>,
from the apple.com store. (I'm pretty excited).

I just finished reading through all of the
stickied posts in the Switcher Hangout.
Thank you for the wealth of information.
I will refer back to these posts several times in the coming months,
I'm sure.

I will primarily be using my Mac for Garage Band.
I play/write music as a hobby and stress outlet...
nothing serious, but important enough that I want my tools to work well.

If anyone has any tips, tricks, or recommendations for this green pea,
I'd love to hear them.

Thanks,
Moto

Lots of RAM and lots of free disk space.

I'd suggest upgrading the RAM next time you have a few spare bucks (it's not expensive).

motoburn said:

If anyone has any tips, tricks, or recommendations for this green pee,
I'd love to hear them.

Click to expand...

You might want to change that to pea.

I know, spelling and grammar comments are frowned upon. Don't get p'd off at me.

toMACsh said:

You might want to change that to pea.

I know, spelling and grammar comments are frowned upon. Don't get p'd off at me.

Click to expand...

No worries! I was running out of steam quick last night. I honestly had no business trying to produce a coherent thought at that hour.

Welcome motoburn. You've found a great site. I too was a complete rookie several years ago and put everything I know about macs (ok 99% - I do look at the Apple site ) down to this site and it's members. Hope you enjoy your mac as much as I still enjoy using mine.

Thank you Sawday!

I have been enjoying a lot of great information over the last few days browsing this forum. I just received my new (first ever) Mac tonight.

I must say, as a Windows user since 3.1, a Windows NT (Server 2003, 2008 R2) Administrator, and data system developer for Windows network based applications; I am 100% taken by the simple, refined, and incredibly functional experience I've had thus far.

- Setting up my mail took approximately 25 seconds
- Figuring out the Magic Mouse has been a snap (and an, "oh my word!! Where has this jewel been my whole life?!", moment)

Though, I've only just begun the process of learning the ins and outs, I am already 100% satisfied with my decision to switch.

Next steps:
1. Get my Phonic Helix MkII firewire mixer configured with GarageBand (hope this goes smoothly)
2. See what Valve has done with the Steam for Mac
3. Find my specs so I can update my profile here (will probably do this first as it will be the easiest

Later,
Moto

motoburn said:

(and an, "oh my word!! Where has this jewel been my whole life?!", moment)

Click to expand...

We get a lot of that around here. The “OH Why didnt i switch sooner”

On the Steam query, Valve have done well porting it over to the Mac side, but i dont believe it is as stable as it is in the Windows environment. . . .

Enjoy ur 21” and be sure to hang around . . .

Origin (EA's version of Steam) has just arrived on Mac as well:

Electronic Arts brings a native Origin client to the Mac | MacNN

If you are one of those who want to learn most of the shortcuts and details of the Mac you could try some of the screen cast online tutorial apps. If you are a long time pc user like me you have picked up quite a few shortcuts over time and find them quite useful. Of course if you don't like the video format and want to look them up yourself the apple website has several pages with keyboard shortcuts and other helpful tips.

I currently use steam client on my mbp and the programs so far they run great with limited issues. One advantage is that if you decide to use bootcamp to install windows you will still have access to the programs you purchased.

I have had my Mac less than a year but I am still thoroughly enjoying it. I visit back here all the time on my Mac and iPad learning as I go. This is truly an amazing site for information.