iMac?
 

I have owned a PC since 1980. I bought the first Tandy 1000 (4.77MHz) that the local Radio Shack had in the store.

But I'm ready to throw in the towel. I am tired of dealing with the clowns at MicroSoft and their vision of what I need. The list of issues that I have with that company is long. The last issue was their insistence that I need to have MSN as my home page after I visited the MS website for an update.

So...I'm looking at an iMac.
Any opinions?
thanks,
Jim S.

You will get plenty of opinions.

I suggest visiting an Apple retail store if there is on in your vicinity.

Take a machine for a test ride.

Just don't forget, if you do not like the OS X experience you can always put XP or Vista on the machine and go back to windows so you risk very little. You will still have a quality piece of hardware and those big Imac screens are simply stunning to work on.

I have 2 G4's and they are very nice, have used PC's for many years and absolutely no regrets about switching, very easy transition and operating system very user friendly.

I have an iMac as my main home computer and switched from PC about 2 years ago. Never looked back. The OS takes a tiny bit of getting used to but once you sort that out it is pretty smooth sailing. I have the 24 inch model and love the screen size. My advice is go for it!

The Mac will be a revelation. They just work.

Can't say enough good things about the 24" iMac I have at home. Absolutely shames the PC I'm forced to use at work in ease of use and reliability.

Just bought a new MacBook Pro...we're up to 6 Macs now---YUM!
Do it.

usedmac.com

just in case you don't need the newest thing out there.

Thanks to all. The Apple Store suggestion is on my short list.

Before you get rid of perfectly good hardware, why not try Linux? www.ubuntu.com

That Ubuntu is the easiest thing ever... that is the only Linux flavour that finally removed the geeky layer from it.. try it you won't be dissapointed.

I love Macs, but I don't use one myself. Want to know why? Because they are easy to use, and reliable. Since I am a computer guy my wife always asked me for help fixing whatever went wrong with her windows computers. Two years ago we bought her a Mac, and now I hardly have to help her any more because nothing breaks. She has had her Mac powered up for over a year without crashing. She has over 20 applications running, and over 50 tabs on Safari, and the Mac only has 1 GB of RAM, and everything runs flawlessly.

I have gone to running Linux on my machine since I use that for work, and I use VMWare to run Windows for applications that aren't available on Linux.

Do it, Jim.
The iMac is a great machine.
And if you ever find yourself missing XP, just know that you can install Windows on any of the latest Apple machines and have the best of both worlds.
Boot into Windows, boot into OS X - it's easy! :)

I have a 24" with the Core2 Duo processor in it. It runs like a dream. And the screen is GORGEOUS.

I have a Mac Mini with a Core Duo processor in it. Runs pretty well, makes for a good DVD player replacement.

I have an iMac G5 17" that is a screaming (as in, loud as hell) POS. It's with Apple right now, while they try to reproduce the overheating problem I've had since they replaced the whole motherboard 3 weeks ago to fix a known "bulging capacitors" issue.

I have an aluminum PowerBook G4 that was a crash-o-matic for a year until I finally got Apple to replace the motherboard. After that it has run flawlessly despite my wife dropping it multiple times and dripping yogurt on it, and my kid either tearing all the keys off or shoving pennies in the CD slot.

So, my experience says if you stay away from G5-powered machines, you'll do fine. The only way to get one of those is to buy a used computer.

My next machine is an iMac 24inch. Go fer it!

I still have my B&W G3...

I'm ready to pull the trigger on the iMac.

Jim S.

Any updates on this? I just inherited a G5 iMac 20" that was relegated to 6 months of in a box storage for the same issue. The original owner was quoted $900 to replace a defective MB and opted instead for a new laptop. I'm gonna play with it a bit. If heat is indeed the issue they maybe some radical venting is in order...cool collar? That or I'll take it apart and sell the monitor online.

imho the G5 really isn't a good choice for a confined space design like the iMac. My gual G5 tower has huge cooling fans, etc. Plus they are dead end wrt chip design. Stick with an Intel box at this point.

Another happy Mac user.

Was a PC user for years, got pretty into it, built my own PCs, etc. So one day about 5 years ago, there I was, running my dual Pentium box, 5 SCSI drives, 2GB memory, five cooling fans, dual-boot, etc. Basically a server. And suddenly I realized - this thing is so noisy it keeps me awake, I'm tired of futzing with it, in fact I'm tired of messing with computers period.

So I bought an Apple laptop, brought it home, and started the setup process. It came to a screen asking if I wanted to go online and register, I laughed because it wasn't plugged into my network and for experience I knew that configuring PCs for WiFi was not a snap of the fingers. Back then, anyway. So I sneered and clicked "yes". The little Apple went out, found my WiFi network, configured itself, and went online. It was like magic, I was blown away. We have never looked back and are all Mac now. Except for the work laptop.

I have had some trouble with Mac hardware - my iBook needed repairing. But beng able to simply stroll into the nearest Apple Store, hand them the machine, and have it serviced and delivered back to my home is so much nicer than waiting on hold to India for 2 hours and then boxing up a PC to mail to some factory repair center.

My PSU was replaced this time around. Not sure why, but now the CPU fan actually turns off when the CPU isn't running 100%. :D When the CPU is running high, though, it is still very loud and annoying. I plan to do this once my warranty runs out: http://www.scienceman.com/pgs/00_imacG5_macmod.html

If the logic board has "bulging capacitors", stand firm and make Apple pay because this was a known issue.