iMac - the right choice?

Looks like we might buy an iMac this summer. The first non-Pc we have ever had. We like music, work functions of computer like word, excel, etc.

Tell me why iMac will be great. What are benefits of iMac vs. PC?

[medpedspouse]

Was not a big Mac fan when DH decided that was the way to go. Still use Dells at work. However, ever since we switched to the Apple side ( we have a desktop and laptop) we have had noooo problems compared to the PCs. Also, Apple's customer support has been amazing. When the wirless keyboard quit working and we could not resolve the issue over the phone, I just took it to the Genius bar where the Genius deemed it dead and replaced it with a new one - no hassle, no problem. Am a fan now.

[bokelley]

I went MAC about a year ago. I LOVE IT!!! I don't have near the problems I was having with my PC. No pop-ups, it is amazing. Plus I love all the free downloads that MAC has. There is a pantry organizer, that I live by!! I talked my grandparents into getting a iMAC for their first computer, they love it!! The webcam is wonderful!!

[DCJenn]

MAC girl since 1984. I'm on a MacBook right now as hubby is killing aliens on the iMac.

They're easier to use in a more user friendly way. Like stuff makes sense and you don't need to know 'codes'.

the music, movies and other media options are just amazing.

My desktop at work is kind of like the typewriter I got when I graduated from high school. I could use it if I wanted to but there are much better technologies available.

Jenn

[oceanchild]

Having just gone through a bit of an ordeal trying to get a printer to work properly with my MacBook (while it worked fine with DH's PC), I'm a little down on the Mac. But mostly I've had a solid experience, and I really appreciate the Genius Bar.

Julia,

Problems with a printer? Printing seems so basic? What was the issue?

[SuzySunshine]

LOVE my Mac and have had great customer service on the 2 power cord issues I have had. I use MS Office on mine and it works great although for word processing I've switched to iWork's pages and its much more stable then word. DH does TONS of lab data processing on his and I use mine mostly for basic word/excel type stuff, photos and movies.

Have you had problems with office? Compatiblity issues?

[SuzySunshine]

I have not had problems with office in sending or receiving documents to my friends on PC's.

[Sheherezade]

We've never had printer issues here. Sometimes you have to download a driver update or install software, but that hasn't been a big deal -- as long as you figure out what's missing in short order. When you have an APple household, you do have to deal with the fact that most second party hardware and software is designed for PC. It isn't Mac optimized and Mac instructions can be scant. That said, I think things have gotten a lot better since OS-X. With our newer Macs, we've partitioned the hard drives to have both a Windows platform and a Mac platform depending on how you boot it. (Hold down options on start up for Windows...)

If you are hesitant to let go of the PC world altogether, it is nice to have that option available.

[Pollyanna]

It's the ONLY choice.

[McPants]

I was a Mac man from 1986 to 1993 and although I would never think of disrespecting the great Steve Jobs, I will not be returning to the fold.

[mommax3]

I have a PC at work (school) and two Macs at home and I have had no problems with compatibility between the two. All of the "issues" that I had become accustomed to on a PC no longer exist on a Mac. I will never go back!

[Michele]

We just got an iMac. I honestly haven't had much time to play with it. Russ is always on it. Grr. Anyway, it took a couple of times before I realized that the controls for the window are on the upper left not the upper right. And the file controls (file, edit, view, help etc) are at the top of the screen. Not the window. So if your window isn't maximized, or if you have more than one thing (program, folder etc) open...whatever you are working with has the file menu at the top of the computer screen. And to see the menu for another program/folder you have to select it to bring it to the "front" and then the menu on the top switches to the current folder/program. It took me a LONG time to figure that out and I neverdid on my own. I finally brokedown and declared my hate for macs andtold Russ to set up the pc again and he satdown and gave me a mini tutorial. I'd never played with one.

It seems to be pretty easy but again I haven't really played with it much. I have watched netflix on it, uploaded music CDs to iTunes, added pictures to iPhoto and picasa, qndsurfed the web. We bought office for mac and use that for word, power point, etc.

I'd really like to use more of the, is it iLife, features...but I'd needsome alone time (ha!) and a guide (double ha!). Maybe if we move somewhere with a genius bar. (the genius bar was awesome for my dead iPhone - replaced it on the spot and put a new screen protector on it for me!)

I can't wait until we can afford to go Mac. Our current PC, and windows Vista, has turned me off for life. Learning how to work Vista was like learning to use a Mac anyway!