Hi all,
Thought I would post my impressions - from the viewpoint of someone who has never used a mac before. (I did purchase a mac mini for my parents over the holidays and played with it a bit - outside of that NEVER before).
Right off the bat I need to STRONGLY advise the book..."Switching to the Mac" the missing manual by David Pogue for any windows switcher...its a godsend as is this forum
Okay - What do I think - for the little I played with the mac mini - I had deteremined it would not meet my needs - but was perfect for my parents. In the few weeks with it I discovered what bouncing icons meant and what a beachball was I mention this because this is NOT the experience on the Imac. The icons would bounce maybe once the first time an app was opened - but never got it after that, Outside of startup - never saw the beach ball at all. WOW!!!
The Imac is fast - whatever I click(assuming I have figured out where to go...)just does it. Do not have many MAC apps(hey...remember pc switcher) but did have Office 2004 for Macs. Loaded that up and short of the first time I clicked on the apps - loaded and ran without a problem. (Except for VPC - which I knew would not work). And I mean FAST!!! Faster than my work laptop(thats not saying much) - faster than my home pc which was/is pretty decent hardware wise P4 2 gig ram, 400 gig harddrives etc...
So tried what I call the killer spreadsheet tied to a PPT...loaded in record time, ran flawlessly. This ssl contains many multi solve order scripts and opens a workbook that is 6 meg then updates a ppt. It cranks on my work laptop and we only release it at work to power users due to the oomph it needs....No problem on the Imac. Then opened all the office apps, all the widgets, all the apps, ran a few browsers, downloaded some programs (little snitch was the first - can u tell I come from a POS windows environment) and ripped a CD - ALL AT THE SAME TIME. NO problem...everything was just snappy. CLick, there you go.
It did appear that the more you used the Office apps the faster they got. Don't really know how to describe this other than my perception is that under Rosetta they must be compiling and as they compile certain functions or executables they do not need to recompile them and hence your 2nd hit does not take the CPU hit the first did. Anyways thats my novice way of explaining the behaviors I saw.
Downloaded HP trailers - played without dropping frames and were flawless. ALthough note that the 20 in display does not display all of the HD trailer - for true 1080p you would need a bigger screen. However these played without a hitch while I was also running other programs.
I know you would not have all these wwindows open under windows or even in everyday use - however just wanted to push it to see what would happen. Very impressed. The OS will take some time to get used to...
My java apps ran fine - which was a pleasant surprise as did a couple of programs I run as services from various inetrnet sites that typically use the JVM. All those worked as they did on the mini mac - note I differentiated these because their UI and behaviors vary from the windows environment to the MAC.
Things I don't like:
I can't seem to get the mouse to do a right click. I did not upgrade to the wireless when I ordered as I had the BT apple mouse before for the mini mac and I hated it. The mighty mouse is okay and if I can figure out how to make it right click I will be VERY happy!!! If not will just purchase a BT for the mac from logitech or MS.
Keyboard commands will tke some getting used to - this is where the book I mentioned above becomes indispensable!
I set up my Imac at a friends house due to his having high speed access. Currently have dial up through AOL(which thank god changes next week - we finally get DSL YEAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!). But.....downloaded AOL for Apple and it DOES NOT work on the intel MAC. If AOL dial up is your only internet connectivity - be prepared for this and watch for updates. This is no longer an issue for me as of next week - but had DSL not been available - would have to figure out soemthing else quickly. Not haveing any internet access for the TIger OS is just too painful.
I played for hours - so lots I did not cover - please feel free to ask questions. Some notes on gaming - I do not play interactive or internet games. My two teen boys however - do. They both have built super duper windows boxes that run dual graphics cards, have 4 gig of memory and probably the kitchen sink. Truly believe 50% of my electric bill is due to their "turboed" machines! They insisted upon my loading WOW and Call of Duty on to see what happened. WHile I personally cannot attest to their functioning - nor will they get to use my MAC...their initial impressions were that WOW was playable - albeit not as nice or fast as their machines and they would not opt to play on my MAC versus their hardware. My oldest did tel me that Blizzard is working on a universal binary that is supposed to just - in his words - "blow it all away" and he would be very interested in seeing this performance. Call of Duty was very playable and they thought most people on most PC's(ahem...not their souped up stuff) would be very happy with the playability. They had tried these games on the mac mini and determined they were unplayable (for them) - so this might be good news to those that were wondering about this on the intel Imac.
My config for those that wondered...20 in Imac, 256 Vram, 1 gig RAM, 250 Gig HD. Connected to 400 gig External HD's.
oh and this machine is SILENT. In fact spookingly so...Not having any audibles to tell me when things appear to be going wrong or HD is cranking or FANS will take some getting used to.....in a GOOD way!
Therese
Thought I would post my impressions - from the viewpoint of someone who has never used a mac before. (I did purchase a mac mini for my parents over the holidays and played with it a bit - outside of that NEVER before).
Right off the bat I need to STRONGLY advise the book..."Switching to the Mac" the missing manual by David Pogue for any windows switcher...its a godsend as is this forum
Okay - What do I think - for the little I played with the mac mini - I had deteremined it would not meet my needs - but was perfect for my parents. In the few weeks with it I discovered what bouncing icons meant and what a beachball was
I mention this because this is NOT the experience on the Imac. The icons would bounce maybe once the first time an app was opened - but never got it after that, Outside of startup - never saw the beach ball at all. WOW!!!The Imac is fast - whatever I click(assuming I have figured out where to go...)just does it. Do not have many MAC apps(hey...remember pc switcher) but did have Office 2004 for Macs. Loaded that up and short of the first time I clicked on the apps - loaded and ran without a problem. (Except for VPC - which I knew would not work). And I mean FAST!!! Faster than my work laptop(thats not saying much) - faster than my home pc which was/is pretty decent hardware wise P4 2 gig ram, 400 gig harddrives etc...
So tried what I call the killer spreadsheet tied to a PPT...loaded in record time, ran flawlessly. This ssl contains many multi solve order scripts and opens a workbook that is 6 meg then updates a ppt. It cranks on my work laptop and we only release it at work to power users due to the oomph it needs....No problem on the Imac. Then opened all the office apps, all the widgets, all the apps, ran a few browsers, downloaded some programs (little snitch was the first - can u tell I come from a POS windows environment
) and ripped a CD - ALL AT THE SAME TIME. NO problem...everything was just snappy. CLick, there you go.It did appear that the more you used the Office apps the faster they got. Don't really know how to describe this other than my perception is that under Rosetta they must be compiling and as they compile certain functions or executables they do not need to recompile them and hence your 2nd hit does not take the CPU hit the first did. Anyways thats my novice way of explaining the behaviors I saw.
Downloaded HP trailers - played without dropping frames and were flawless. ALthough note that the 20 in display does not display all of the HD trailer - for true 1080p you would need a bigger screen. However these played without a hitch while I was also running other programs.
I know you would not have all these wwindows open under windows or even in everyday use - however just wanted to push it to see what would happen. Very impressed. The OS will take some time to get used to...
My java apps ran fine - which was a pleasant surprise as did a couple of programs I run as services from various inetrnet sites that typically use the JVM. All those worked as they did on the mini mac - note I differentiated these because their UI and behaviors vary from the windows environment to the MAC.
Things I don't like:
I can't seem to get the mouse to do a right click. I did not upgrade to the wireless when I ordered as I had the BT apple mouse before for the mini mac and I hated it. The mighty mouse is okay and if I can figure out how to make it right click I will be VERY happy!!! If not will just purchase a BT for the mac from logitech or MS.
Keyboard commands will tke some getting used to - this is where the book I mentioned above becomes indispensable!
I set up my Imac at a friends house due to his having high speed access. Currently have dial up through AOL(which thank god changes next week - we finally get DSL YEAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!). But.....downloaded AOL for Apple and it DOES NOT work on the intel MAC. If AOL dial up is your only internet connectivity - be prepared for this and watch for updates. This is no longer an issue for me as of next week - but had DSL not been available - would have to figure out soemthing else quickly. Not haveing any internet access for the TIger OS is just too painful.
I played for hours - so lots I did not cover - please feel free to ask questions. Some notes on gaming - I do not play interactive or internet games. My two teen boys however - do. They both have built super duper windows boxes that run dual graphics cards, have 4 gig of memory and probably the kitchen sink. Truly believe 50% of my electric bill is due to their "turboed" machines! They insisted upon my loading WOW and Call of Duty on to see what happened. WHile I personally cannot attest to their functioning - nor will they get to use my MAC...their initial impressions were that WOW was playable - albeit not as nice or fast as their machines and they would not opt to play on my MAC versus their hardware. My oldest did tel me that Blizzard is working on a universal binary that is supposed to just - in his words - "blow it all away" and he would be very interested in seeing this performance. Call of Duty was very playable and they thought most people on most PC's(ahem...not their souped up stuff) would be very happy with the playability. They had tried these games on the mac mini and determined they were unplayable (for them) - so this might be good news to those that were wondering about this on the intel Imac.
My config for those that wondered...20 in Imac, 256 Vram, 1 gig RAM, 250 Gig HD. Connected to 400 gig External HD's.
oh and this machine is SILENT. In fact spookingly so...Not having any audibles to tell me when things appear to be going wrong or HD is cranking or FANS will take some getting used to
.....in a GOOD way!Therese
