[Edited at February 13, 2008 07:27:23 AM.]

Julie wrote:

I switched to Firefox almost immediately after switching to the iMac. I used Firefox on my PC too. I actually think it’s much faster than Safari. The only thing missing in the Mac version vs. the PC version is that you can’t click the middle mouse button to open a link in a new tab. Then from Safari I miss the spell checking that is built into it.

Another drawback of Firefox as it comes: the autocompletion in the address bar looks only at the history, not at the favorites/bookmarks. Safari’s autocompletion looks at both. That, by itself, is enough to keep me from using Firefox. There are other issues, as well. It’s turned out that Firefox may be even more vulnterable to attacks than MSIE.

quickie wrote:

the thing i hate about macs is the mouse acceleration. there is no way to adjust it at all. whenever i switch from my win/linux laptop back to my emac at home, i hate it. does anyone know if theres a hack or something?

Kensington’s MouseWorks, which works with their mice and trackballs, allows you to adjust acceleration.

Winn Schwartau wrote a very interesting column on his switch to Mac

. the series “Mad as Hell – Switching to Mac 1-16″

http://securityawareness.blogspot.com/2005/09/mad-as-hell-switching-to-mac-1-16.html

. the TCO calculation

http://securityawareness.blogspot.com/2005_09_01_securityawareness_archive.html

AZSideroad wrote:

I also want a Macintosh (iMac/iBook) for personal education. Being a PC junkie (former Windows XP support technician) I want to learn how it works so I can support it. The viability of someone in my area who is both Mac and PC capable is invaluable. Have any suggestions on technical training manuals, or other resources to help me learn how to support Macs?

MacFixIt. Honestly, it’s the best resourse around. If you read it every day you’ll have a better understanding of what problems can come up and what how they are solved on a Mac than just about anything else out there. They also have peridodic articles on troubleshooting tools and utilities. You can also subscribe and have access to their archives.

There are some good books on the internals (the ‘Inside Mac…’ series is well-known), but a lot of troubleshooting Macs is actually the feel, in my opinion. How to describe and explain what is going on or needs to be done in Mac terms. If you can do that, you often will find out that: You need to do it a different way, or: There is a function to help you find/solve the problem. Not always of course, but often. (Actually, I should mention that Apple just put up the ADC (Apple Developer Connection) library on a O’Reilly’s ‘Safari’-style system. News article at MacWorld.)

If you have any exposure to Unix/Linux that will help at this point. Many of OS X’s more esoteric troubleshooting tools are built into the Unix base layer. But get a Mac (even an old one), play with it, and read MacFixIt. Having done that as a technially minded person you will probably be able to support it.

Julie wrote:

MrTeacherMan:

I’m still a FireFox lover. I’ve tried almost all the Mac OS X browsers, but keep coming back to FireFox because it’s fassssssssssssssssssssst.

I need to learn GIMP. I only have a couple of things that I use Photoshop for, but I can’t figure out GIMP yet enough to switch over. I guess I need to get a book.

Still loving the iMac.

I’m glad to hear your experience is going good. I’m considering doing the same thing but instead with an iMac, but an iBook. My concern is a lot of the current stuff and devices I use (Tapwave Zodiac, Creative Zen Micro) don’t play well on the Mac. From what I’ve been reading though, thanks to programs like Virtual PC that may not be an issue.

I also want a Macintosh (iMac/iBook) for personal education. Being a PC junkie (former Windows XP support technician) I want to learn how it works so I can support it. The viability of someone in my area who is both Mac and PC capable is invaluable. Have any suggestions on technical training manuals, or other resources to help me learn how to support Macs?

I’m still a FireFox lover. I’ve tried almost all the Mac OS X browsers, but keep coming back to FireFox because it’s fassssssssssssssssssssst.

I need to learn GIMP. I only have a couple of things that I use Photoshop for, but I can’t figure out GIMP yet enough to switch over. I guess I need to get a book.

Still loving the iMac.

Also, I keep trying different email clients, but keep comming back to mail. I have detailed rules and scripts that sort mail from different accounts into different folders, labels some, and automark some as read so they don’t show as new mail. I know entourage and thunderbird can probably do this, but I already have it set up in Mail and don’t have the patience to fix it in the others.

Last but not least: Camino. A firefox build that’s optimized for OS X. And if you are feeling <u>REALLY</u> 1337, you can pick up one of the nightly builds that’s optimized for your processor. Only downside is that Camino is kinda ugly.

Both seem to work fine for syncing calendar, tasks and contact data. PocketMac Pro is supposed to sync notes by using the Mac’s sticky notes.

At the moment, I’m trying to switch over to the Audiovox SMT5600 smartphone. So I bought the smartphone edition of PocketMac. It’s annoying me as all I’ve been able to sync so far is my address book. grrrr.

clutter – gets album art for you

JewelCase – best visualiser for iTunes to display said album art

Shiira – another browser, compact and fast, based on the same render engine as Safari, but a bit slicker imo

this site has an excellent selection of free apps as well…

http://www.freemacware.com/

finally, stick with quicksilver, if you can…it’s probably the best app around. you can try this to help grasp the idea, and it’ll only take you 10 minutes….

http://vjarmy.com/archives/2004/03/quicksilver_a_b.php

enjoy

Go, right now, to Ambrosia Software. They have some utilities, but what they are famous for are their games. Personal favorite is EV Nova, but depending on what you are looking for they have plenty. Do check though: they still have some of their old pre-OS X games up. They are great games, but you may have to load into classic to use them. (The best of them are being updated.)

Another classic of Mac gaming is Glider. In this case time has given you luck: The company that was selling it went bankrupt, so the author decided to release the OS X version for free…

That should get you started…

Yes, I did try it not long after getting my iMac. It is a fun game, and free is good )

Thanks for the link, I’ve bookmarked it!

Julie wrote:

DStaal:

I need to find out what rev level I have… I wonder if there is there a way to find out without having to take the back off the computer?

I see that Craig has addressed immediate worry, but to answer the actual question: Yes, I believe (can’t test at the moment, OS/2 machines at work) that you can get that information from the ‘System Profiler’ application. Of course, knowing what to look for is the question.

I think it should also be on the back of the case, next to/part of the model number and serial number.

Oh, and there was a ‘warning sign’ for if the capacitor was about to blow on the old revision: the screen would start to discolor, in a band near that spot. (Macfixit.com is very useful for keeping track of these sorts of issues. I subscribe, but then I’m tech support for a Mac family.)

Yay! So I hope I don’t need to worry about the exploding capacitor problem.

I need to find out what rev level I have… I wonder if there is there a way to find out without having to take the back off the computer?

I’ve not had an issue with my iMac running hot. I’ve heard of this problem though. I’ve only heard the fans inside the iMac kick into high gear once or twice in the 2+ months that I’ve had the machine. I should start monitoring the internal temperature to see what the average is though.

Once again, thanks for your authoritaive review: I am myself considering switching so I was deeply interested in your switch.

Have you experienced problem with over-heating?

There is a thrilling article in Popular Mechanics about iMac G5 over-heating “Is the Mac running hot?” with an inside thermo-picture at http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/computers/1707756.html , with possible damage to the hard disk drive (temperature over 130 °F).

What is your own experience?

Thanks.

An update to the article in a couple of months is a good idea. We’ll see if I can surpass my last 2 tries. I have a feeling that I’ll be a in Mac land for a long time…