A New Machine

Recently knowing I needed to replace the workstations my wife and I were using I made an attempt to go cheap and just buy the PC du jour from one of the local electronics superstores. It seemed like a good idea, a fast not to expensive means to an end as opposed to building or even configuring and ordering a custom unit from Dell or some other such similar path and it could all be had right now. I was very mistaken. One of the two purchased units lasted just long enough to outlive the return policy of the store (30 days) where I bought it and the hard drive failed. The other unit persisted for about 90 more days than the first and then one day simply refused to start after being shut down. In the time the units worked I was exposed to Vista and really was sort of indifferent to the OS some things I liked other things seemed like a very definite backwards leap innovations. There was nothing as far as I can tell that would have kept me from using it though. However; none of that mattered now as both of the new units had now died and the task became getting my wife and I back up and running again. The lesson I learned in all of this is NEW + CHEAP = CHEAP ALWAYS.

In my wife's case the fix was simple. I dusted off her old PC added some memory then did a services and applications purge to get back some space and resources. She still needs and desires a new unit but due to a monumental task she is undertaking right at this time she insists on waiting until it is completed before trying to swap workstations again.

For myself though I was having some hardware issues with my PC, an older loud(ish) type, and I had been eying new computers for quite sometime (I really did not want to build anything new or repair anything old). Being the new owner of two new rather expensive paperweights I decided that the next PC might be a Mac. I felt the need to try something different and I did labor over this decision and thought about getting a customized Dell instead for at least a couple weeks. In the end however I choose a 24" iMac that I purchased locally satisfying that old got to have it now weakness I have. I also did something else I never do and purchased the Apple equivalent of an extended warranty as I can't afford any more expensive paperweights. So far the experience has been well... good, no overly steep learning curve (that was my biggest concern) and the ability to do everything I normally do on a computer. Apple really shines here as the included/preinstalled software is more functional than that of a basic Windows PC in my opinion. I did install four additional programs however; one many people would say is unnecessary for Mac users called VirusBarrier, an Apple offering called iWork, and Adobe Photoshop Elements 6 for Mac. An antivirus program just seems like a prudent measure, people had told me that iWork works well with Microsoft Office formats, and I knew Elements from their Windows offering. Also from my Windows experience I opted for a Firefox for Mac install as I use this the most and familiarity is double plus.

The initial boot of the machine went very well with my wireless network correctly identified and connecting was as easy as entering the password. It also found a NAS device we have and again connection to the device was easy. It had no problems with my printer So far as I can tell everything just works but, I haven't really tried it out in depth yet. It seems to handle iTunes pretty well (expected of course) and the display is as nice or even nicer as any one I've owned previous. I realize in the past I've been skeptical even sarcastic where Apple products were concerned and while I am not ready to declare an allegiance to Apple just yet the out of the box experience has been excellent thus far. Of course there is always the obligatory screen capture.... reduced res of course.