iLove my iMac!

I am a switcher. A couple weeks ago, I bought one of the new Intel-based, dual core, 2.1GHz, Apple iMac, with a 20" diagonal screen. That's bigger than my first couple of TV sets, and whole lot nicer. That's it in the picture. That's the whole computer -- no other boxes. The CD/DVD slot drive is on the right edge (out of sight in this picture), and it will create both CDs an DVDs. It is running Mac OS X 10.4, also known as "Tiger". Other than a version of Microsoft Office.X that I had for the other two Macs in the house (an iBook and a Mac Mini), I only needed to download Firefox. OK, "need" is a strong word, since Safari is a great browser, but I *like* Firefox. An interesting thing about Microsoft Office.X -- this is the student and teacher edition, which is apparently available to anyone who is, was, teaches, or has, a student -- is that they let you install it on three different computers. Legally. This is totally unlike Office for Windows PC's, which allows you to install it on only one PC. This is the main reason I started looking at other operating systems -- alternatives to Windows. As I got more PC's in the house, the prospect of paying $400+ for legal versions of MS Office was ludicrous. So I found Open Source software, and the very good OpenOffice (which is free, almost totally compatible with MS Office, and available for Windows, Mac, and Linux), and thus started a four year tech journey that culminated with this purchase. Back to the iMac...I tried Microsoft Entourage for email, but that was awful, so I switched to Apple Mail. Very nice, with some substantial usability improvements over the version in Panther (the previous OS X version before Tiger). I've set up my Palm Tungsten T5 to sync with iCal and Address Book, and it does it wirelessly via Bluetooth, which is built in to both machines. The point here is that everything you'd need to use a computer comes with this machine. Here's what you get with the machine:

• iPhoto for digital photography;
• iTunes for music (of course);
• iCal for calendars;
• Mail for, well, mail;
• Safari for browsing;
• iChat for AIM compatible instant messaging (and video conferencing with the built in camara - the little black dot at the top center of the iMac in the picture);
• TextEdit for preparing documents (compatible with MS Word);
• and a ton of other little things, all nicely done.

I've moved all of my old ThinkPad files over to the iMac (and they all work)! And my old eyes love the new screen! It is stunning. (And no need for anti-virus software or anti spyware spyware, either!) And the iMac blends pretty much automatically into the home network -- all I had to do was enter the WEP code for wireless networking (which is built-in as well). The only small problem I had was receiving some emails from a colleague that hd attachments that came as a "winmail.dat" file. (Only one sender has this problem, and I receive a lot of email.) I found a utility called TNEF's Enough that takes care of the problem. In addition to Firefox, I've also downloaded Skype (an Internet phone/IM program) that works flawlessly. All told, I am delighted with the purchase, and highly recommend what Walter Mossberg of the Wall Street Journal calls the "best desktop PC on the market today".