[Darren Lewis]

After two weeks of waiting, my new iMac 20" 2.4Ghz has finally arrived

It is absolutely gorgeous! The screen is crystal clear, and although highly reflective when off, it causes no problems whatsoever when on (phew!). I wouldn't recommend sitting with your back to a window, but I'm at ninety degrees to one and it's fine. I was forced to smile at the fact Apple includes a cleaning cloth so you can keep the iMac looking spotless.

I'm glad though that I didn't go for the 24" screen - the 20" is perfectly adequate, for my use at least. I'm only sitting a couple of feet from it.

The design of this things is fantastic. It's so neat and compact and takes up so much less desk space than my old windows PC, monitor and separate speakers. Even the power cable is designed so that it fits well into the design at the back with no additional "power warts" trailing on the floor. I'm amazed how they got everything into such a compact unit. And quiet too - I had to listen closely when I first switched it on - I thought I'd forgotten to plug it in!

The new ultra-thin keyboard is going to take a bit of getting used to, but I do like the ultra neatness of it all, and the way the mightymouse plugs into the keyboard so there's only one single cable from the machine with a small "extension" for the mouse.

Now onto Mac OS X. We'll I've only been using it for an hour or so, and I can tell it's going to take me a bit of getting used to, but it does seems slick and fast. A quick browse around and everything seems to be pretty self-explanatory. I even figured out how to enable the right-click on the mightymouse so at least I feel OK about that now. I bought iWorks 08 pre-installed and that's all setup now. Just had to enter the license number from the CD included in the box.

I've just installed FireFox as I'm comfortable using that. I followed the instructions on the FireFox download page and that seemed to go OK. Does seem different to a Windows install. the .dmg "mounted" itself and then some sort of installer ran. I then had to drag an icon to the applications folder and then onto the bar at the bottom (Dock?). I then "unmounted" the FireFox drive? Is that typical of how to install apps on the Mac?

Now, I've got to start using it some more. I'm still in the Windows mindset of thinking that I've got to back up my whole PC now, as when I install something it's got a strong risk of messing up my system and me having to do a restore back!

Having watched the Mac vs PC ads, I can definitely agree with the setting up ad. On this beauty, there was no updating drivers, installing security and uninstalling tons of demoware and ISP ads. It really does work out of the box.

Got to install some more Apps soon though. Adobe agreed to crossgrade my Dreamweaver license to Mac, so I've got the CS3 version of that to play with, and also I managed to get a genuine Photoshop 7 for Mac from eBay (complete with license transfer agreement to send to Adobe), so I'm pretty sorted for now.

Any tips and tricks for the new Mac user to get them used to the switchover?

Is it worth buying one of these "Missing Manual" books or similar, or is it best to just jump in and get my feet wet? I'm a little paranoid about messing something up and having to attempt an OS reload - or is that just my Windows mind talking?

[Ronald Epstein]

Darren,

Welcome to the club!

As a new owner we are going to be keeping a close eye on you.
We can't wait until the day you declare that the Mac is superior
to the PC and you'll never go back.

Installing stuff is a breeze! As you discovered, the .dmg is Mac's
answer to .exe. Best of all, all you do is click on the DMG file
and ion most cases just drag the program icon to the APPLICATIONS
folder. From there you drag the icon to the dock.

Uninstalling is just as easy. Just drag the icon to the trash and
the program is uninstalled.

[Daryl L]

Congrats Darren. Your gonna love OS X.

Quote:

I've just installed FireFox as I'm comfortable using that. I followed the instructions on the FireFox download page and that seemed to go OK. Does seem different to a Windows install. the .dmg "mounted" itself and then some sort of installer ran. I then had to drag an icon to the applications folder and then onto the bar at the bottom (Dock?). I then "unmounted" the FireFox drive? Is that typical of how to install apps on the Mac?

Yes that's pretty much all it takes. Firefox actually didn't run an installer. It just mounted and opened a finder window (folder/explorer window) for you to drag the app. There are some apps that run installers but only few and their fast.

Quote:

Now, I've got to start using it some more. I'm still in the Windows mindset of thinking that I've got to back up my whole PC now, as when I install something it's got a strong risk of messing up my system and me having to do a restore back!

It's always good to keep backups of important files. I like the latest release of Carbon Copy Cloner 3.0's sync ability. I scheduled it to backup my complete Home folder/account once daily (archive files being deleted on target drive thats no longer on source drive just incase) to an external drive and it appears to be working very well. Also Carbon Copy Cloner or Superduper can be used to make a bootable clone of your drive to an exteernal firewire drive. Mac's repair install w/preserve files and settings is much better than Windows. Mac's file structure is much nicer and more organized in my opinion.

Quote:

Any tips and tricks for the new Mac user to get them used to the switchover?

Review the sites and apps suggested in the sticky thread in this forum. Hit youtube to find many tutorial clips also.

Quote:

Is it worth buying one of these "Missing Manual" books or similar, or is it best to just jump in and get my feet wet? I'm a little paranoid about messing something up and having to attempt an OS reload - or is that just my Windows mind talking?

I wouldn't buy a manual/guide. Just review the sticky's and jump in and get wet. It's really a simple OS that's much more powerful than it appears (a lotta hidden abilities).

[DaveF]

Glad to have you as a new "member", Darren. If you like "how-to" books, certainly get one. As with all computer stuff, there's a great deal of Mac info on the web. But I subscribe to MacWorld and buy an occaisional MacFormat, since the web doesn't have it all.

As for avoiding messing stuff up: mostly be cautious about deleting applications and support files. In particular, exercise some caution with your Library and Documents folders until you understand what's what. Also in the System folder. And of course, don't go deleting applications and utilities willy-nilly

Otherwise, like other modern OSes, OS X is robust so long as you use a some computing common sense.

I strongly suggest going through the Sticky thread on recommended programs. That was a great start for me in finding interesting websites and some handy applications. And dig back through the old threads in this forum; there's some good info and tips buried in older conversations.

But mostly get going, be patient with the re-education process, and have fun

[Darren Lewis]

Thanks for the warm welcome to "the club".

Daryl, I'll check out Carbon Copy Cloner 3.0 as the sync abilty sounds ideal for backing up my home folder.

I also found the Switch 101 pages on the Apple site which has answered some of my more basic questions, especially their on Windows, I used to... page.

[Andrew Pratt]

Welcome to the club. I switched this past spring and am loving the experience.

[Dave Scarpa]

I'm jealous I was eyeing the new Imac's in awe the other day at the Apple Store. I have a Mac Mini but it's aging having a PPC processor, maybe someday I'll upgrade, but I've always had a problem with the once piece design of the Imac, especially since I own a Nice 20:WS Monitor already. But Maybe I'll give that to the wife and Pick one up at Xmas time.

[Darren Lewis]

Dave, I was in two minds whether to go for a Mini and use my existing WS 20" monitor, or go for the iMac.

In the end, the spec on the iMac (graphics and HDD options) persuaded me to go for the iMac. I've still got my "old" monitor, but as you say, it'll make a good Xmas present.

[Ken Chan]

Quote:

It's so neat and compact and takes up so much less desk space than my old windows PC, monitor and separate speakers.

And because of the design of the foot, the computer has virtually zero footprint, since you can put easily stuff underneath it. The only thing eating up desk space are the keyboard and mouse. We can fix that once we switch to Minority Report UI

Quote:

the .dmg "mounted" itself and then some sort of installer ran. I then had to drag an icon to the applications folder and then onto the bar at the bottom (Dock?)

As a Disk iMaGe, it's really just like when you pop in a (non-music) CD on a Windows machine: it shows you the content. You download a DMG, it shows you the content. Unmounting/ejecting is also the same idea.

The packaging system on Mac OS X is very clever: the icon represents an entire directory that contains everything that comprises the program: the executable and anything else. And the install is like in the old DOS days (if you were around then): you copy the file over, and you can run it -- there is no formal install in most cases.

If you want to keep any app in the Dock, you don't have to manually drag it there. Whenever you run a program, it appears in the Dock (sorta like the Windows Taskbar). If you right-click (or Ctrl-click) you can choose "Keep in Dock" and it will stay there after you quit.