Newbie purchase help please...
Hi everyone.. WoW you people love your Apples. I can't wait to join the family. This is the first time I will be researching and buying my own computer. I have been in the "I hate Windows" closet for such a long time. This will be a home computer. I do a little charity work, track my finances, do my banking and most of my shopping via the internet. I enjoy Ebay as a hobby. I do not play games but do download music and edit my pictures with the computer. I have made a few slide shows. So basic home computer stuff. I want a system that will suit my present and future needs. I don't want to spend precious $$ with upgrades I don't need.
I really need your advice with purchase upgrades. Thank you so much in advance for your help.
Monitors.. 17" or 20" As I said I'm not into games but do have older grammy eyes.
Speed 2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo or2.16GHz Intel Core 2 Duo ?? I don't mind spending a little more here if it makes a big difference
Memory 1GB 667 DDR2 SDRAM - 2x512 or 2GB 667 DDR2 SDRAM - 2x1GB [Add $210] Here again is it worth the upgrade for my needs?
Hard Drive 160GB Serial ATA drive [Subtract $90] 250GB Serial ATA drive
250Gb?? seems like a awful lot to me.
I live (literally) in the Rocky Mountains in BC, Canada. I do not have access to a Apple retail store. So I feel a little guilty in asking for your help. Sometimes when I read your posts I don't even recognize the language. Is there a special course for "Tech Talk". I'm really looking forward to your comments. Of course I have the buy now or wait for the new cat... I think I will love my new computer. Lori
I really need your advice with purchase upgrades. Thank you so much in advance for your help.
Monitors.. 17" or 20" As I said I'm not into games but do have older grammy eyes.
Speed 2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo or2.16GHz Intel Core 2 Duo ?? I don't mind spending a little more here if it makes a big difference
Memory 1GB 667 DDR2 SDRAM - 2x512 or 2GB 667 DDR2 SDRAM - 2x1GB [Add $210] Here again is it worth the upgrade for my needs?
Hard Drive 160GB Serial ATA drive [Subtract $90] 250GB Serial ATA drive
250Gb?? seems like a awful lot to me.
I live (literally) in the Rocky Mountains in BC, Canada. I do not have access to a Apple retail store. So I feel a little guilty in asking for your help. Sometimes when I read your posts I don't even recognize the language. Is there a special course for "Tech Talk". I'm really looking forward to your comments. Of course I have the buy now or wait for the new cat... I think I will love my new computer. Lori
Comments
Hi everyone.. WoW you people love your Apples. I can't wait to join the family. This is the first time I will be researching and buying my own computer. I have been in the "I hate Windows" closet for such a long time. This will be a home computer. I do a little charity work, track my finances, do my banking and most of my shopping via the internet. I enjoy Ebay as a hobby. I do not play games but do download music and edit my pictures with the computer. I have made a few slide shows. So basic home computer stuff. I want a system that will suit my present and future needs. I don't want to spend precious $$ with upgrades I don't need.
I really need your advice with purchase upgrades. Thank you so much in advance for your help.
Monitors.. 17" or 20" As I said I'm not into games but do have older grammy eyes.
Speed 2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo or2.16GHz Intel Core 2 Duo ?? I don't mind spending a little more here if it makes a big difference
Memory 1GB 667 DDR2 SDRAM - 2x512 or 2GB 667 DDR2 SDRAM - 2x1GB [Add $210] Here again is it worth the upgrade for my needs?
Hard Drive 160GB Serial ATA drive [Subtract $90] 250GB Serial ATA drive
250Gb?? seems like a awful lot to me.
I live (literally) in the Rocky Mountains in BC, Canada. I do not have access to a Apple retail store. So I feel a little guilty in asking for your help. Sometimes when I read your posts I don't even recognize the language. Is there a special course for "Tech Talk". I'm really looking forward to your comments. Of course I have the buy now or wait for the new cat... I think I will love my new computer. Lori
From the sounds of it, you are looking at an iMac?
Because you don't seem to be using any really advanced features, you might want to consider a Mac Mini. But only if you have a good working monitor. If you've decided that your monitor is getting a little tired (or maybe it's your eyes that are getting a little tired staring at an old 15" display
My personal opinion on the difference between the iMac sizes are that the 17" is too small (for me), the 24" is much too large (again, for me), but the 20" looks just great. But I think that 17" would likely be fine. If you are currently using a 15" monitor, then you will feel like you have so much more space with the 17". But if you are using a 17" or 19" at home or work, then you might feel a little crowded with the 17" iMac because it is a "widescreen" -- meaning it is not the old 1.33:1 (1.33 units wide by 1 unit tall). The iMac is about 1.6:1, so in comparison to a 1.33:1 17" screen, the iMac will be shorter, but wider (17" is the diagonal measurement of the screen).
For what you will be using it for (internet, pictures, music, finances), go for basic choice on the processor because you won't need the faster computer. However, it is a good idea to get as much RAM memory as you can afford: 1GB is probably fine, but with 2GB you will be able to keep as many programs open as you want without noticing any slow-down in performance (which you may notice if you keep Word, an internet browser, Acrobat reader, iPhoto, iTunes, etc all open). One thing that you will have to get use to is that when you close a window in MacOS, it doesn't exit the program (to exit the program, you must choose File -> Quit). This sometimes causes you to inadvertantly use up a lot of computer memory. With the 2GB you won't need to worry about this at all.
I would also guess that the basic hard-drive size will be more than sufficient for you. Unless you are one of these people who insists on storing their music in Apple Lossless (if you don't know what that is, then you are not one of them, so don't worry about it), you will need about 1MB for each minute of music that you wish to store. If an average CD is 60 minutes and you have 200 CDs that you want to put on your computer (both may be high, but this is just for you to see how much space 160/250GB is), you will need about 12GB to store all of this music! As well, if you use a 4MP camera, and you are storing 20000 photos on your computer (this is probably 10x as much as you will want to store on your computer -- most of your pictures will be archived on CDs or DVDs), then you will need another 20GB for those pictures. All of the Mac software will not even take up 5GB. So you haven't even reached 40GB! 160/250/500 GB drives are for people who want to store video (and a fair amount of it) on their computers.
The last thing that I want to suggest that you think about is seeing your computer in person before you buy it. If you decided on the basic options on the 17" 2.0GHz iMac with AppleCare (the extended warranty), you will be spending $1550CAN+ on this computer. To me, that is well worth the road-trip from Cranbrook (or wherever you are) to Calgary (or Edmonton, or Vancouver) to go to an authorised Apple dealer to get the perfect computer for you -- even if you have to pay for a Hotel for the night! And also, even if you don't buy it from them directly (because they don't have the perfect configuration, or you just want to digest the info you receive at the store for a few days), but go home and order it online, it is well worth the trip for such a purchase (plus if you go to Alberta, no sales tax!) Just make sure that if you do go all that way, you go to a store that only sells Apple computers. There is no point in going to Best Buy because they don't know Macs. You may find apple dealers at Apple's locator site, wheretobuy (look for ones that have "Apple" or "Mac" in their names, then call them to see what their selection is like so you can gauge whether it is worth the trip).
Good luck! and welcome to a better world!
Hi everyone.. WoW you people love your Apples. I can't wait to join the family. This is the first time I will be researching and buying my own computer. I have been in the "I hate Windows" closet for such a long time. This will be a home computer. I do a little charity work, track my finances, do my banking and most of my shopping via the internet. I enjoy Ebay as a hobby. I do not play games but do download music and edit my pictures with the computer. I have made a few slide shows. So basic home computer stuff. I want a system that will suit my present and future needs. I don't want to spend precious $$ with upgrades I don't need.
I really need your advice with purchase upgrades. Thank you so much in advance for your help.
Monitors.. 17" or 20" As I said I'm not into games but do have older grammy eyes.
Speed 2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo or2.16GHz Intel Core 2 Duo ?? I don't mind spending a little more here if it makes a big difference
Memory 1GB 667 DDR2 SDRAM - 2x512 or 2GB 667 DDR2 SDRAM - 2x1GB [Add $210] Here again is it worth the upgrade for my needs?
Hard Drive 160GB Serial ATA drive [Subtract $90] 250GB Serial ATA drive
250Gb?? seems like a awful lot to me.
I live (literally) in the Rocky Mountains in BC, Canada. I do not have access to a Apple retail store. So I feel a little guilty in asking for your help. Sometimes when I read your posts I don't even recognize the language. Is there a special course for "Tech Talk". I'm really looking forward to your comments. Of course I have the buy now or wait for the new cat... I think I will love my new computer. Lori
Hi, Welcome, um... could you not use "Red" in your text please? Blue, Purple, Teal, OK. Thanks 8) ...Otherwise if you need to add emphasis may I suggest to just use bold.
Hi everyone.. WoW you people love your Apples. I can't wait to join the family. This is the first time I will be researching and buying my own computer. I have been in the "I hate Windows" closet for such a long time.
Ah, time to be "outed". Heh
This will be a home computer. I do a little charity work, track my finances, do my banking and most of my shopping via the internet. I enjoy Ebay as a hobby. I do not play games but do download music and edit my pictures with the computer. I have made a few slide shows. So basic home computer stuff. I want a system that will suit my present and future needs. I don't want to spend precious $$ with upgrades I don't need...I really need your advice with purchase upgrades. Thank you so much in advance for your help.
Monitors.. 17" or 20" As I said I'm not into games but do have older grammy eyes.
Consider a 20" for your needs for the next 3-4 years.
Speed 2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo or2.16GHz Intel Core 2 Duo ?? I don't mind spending a little more here if it makes a big difference
The 20" iMac comes with 2.16ghz, that is fine.
Memory 1GB 667 DDR2 SDRAM - 2x512 or 2GB 667 DDR2 SDRAM - 2x1GB [Add $210] Here again is it worth the upgrade for my needs?
1gb ram is fine. In 1 or 2 years you can get 2gb RAM upgrade.
Hard Drive 160GB Serial ATA drive [Subtract $90] 250GB Serial ATA drive
250Gb?? seems like a awful lot to me.
With the 20" iMac, you get 250gb. Yeah, it is a lot, but remember it will be important to also get a 80-100gb external drive for "backing up" --- not too expensive.
I live (literally) in the Rocky Mountains in BC, Canada. I do not have access to a Apple retail store. So I feel a little guilty in asking for your help. Sometimes when I read your posts I don't even recognize the language. Is there a special course for "Tech Talk". I'm really looking forward to your comments. Of course I have the buy now or wait for the new cat... I think I will love my new computer. Lori
There are some posts I've written myself that I've gone back and read and I don't even recognize what the heck I wrote.
Here's a recommended config of the Canada AppleStore. Note the 256mb VRAM (a very affordable future-proofing upgrade) and 2 year AppleCare which gives you a full 3-year-warranty. It also gives you full phone support beyond 90days to 3-years since you are geographically isolated you can call up and get that support. This along with forums like this, you should be fine.
Canadian
$2,048.00
Estimated Ship:
1-3 business days
Free Shipping
* 2.16GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
* 1GB 667 DDR2 SDRAM - 2x512
* 250GB Serial ATA Drive
* ATI Radeon X1600/256MB VRAM
* SuperDrive 8X (DVD+R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)
* Apple Keyboard & Mighty Mouse + Mac OS X (US English)
* AppleCare Protection Plan for iMac - Auto-enroll
* 20-inch widescreen LCD
* AirPort Extreme
* Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR
(There are French Canadian options if needed)
To address your questions,
1. I personally would go for the 20" monitor. You haven't addressed the question of whether or not you want you want a superdrive, so you can burn DVD's. If you plan ahead, you may find a DVD burner to be great fun using iMovie to make slide shows, or even adding short movies to your slides using a digital camera. If you use iMovie, the extra screen size is very handy, and the DVD superdrive is standard on the 20" imac. As far as eyes go, the iMac screens are very good, but the extra size doesn't make the image larger. They both display at 100 dpi (dots per inch). However, in the last few versions of Tiger, you can zoom in on the screen using the Control key and the mouse scroll button. My daughter has a 24" iMac at work, for audio visual work, and it's fantastic. The 20" is a great compromise. My nieces have a 17" monitor, and with iMovie, iTunes, and iPhoto open at once, there's a lot of switching views (BUT, it's managable all the same).
2. The 2.0 GHz is fine, don't worry about the extra speed, even for iMovie and iDVD (the present version of iDVD is notoriously slow rendering Audio).
3. Memory? Definitely go for 2 Gig.
4. HD? Normally, as Denton said, 160 GB is a lot. That said, you have to leave 10% of your boot drive free for memory swapping and general background use, and the 160 GB drive is really only about 154 'real' Gigabytes, (hard drives are measured at 1 billion bytes per GB, where a 'real' GB is 1024 MB, and Macs show disk size in 'real' GB), so your drive size is limited to about 140 'real' GB. That's still fine unless you use lots of room for video, which the macs are great for. The solution? Later on, if you need it, buy a larger firewire drive to mount externally. That way you can back up your existing drive, and also have room for movies. I used to have 160 GB drives, but 12 archived movies and 10,000 photos later have upped the ante to 300 GB. When you're a grandparent, movies and photos add up real quick. A lot of people don't have a backup, and drives, while reliable, are renowned for dying when everything on them is not backed up!
Regards
Santa
Now, that is all you need for at least 2 years, and you can upgrade the RAM in about 2 or 3 if you still have the same computer. The graphics processor and dedicated ram is plenty for your needs. How do i know this? Well i have a macbook with almost the exact same specs(the only difference is the GPU, the one in the iMac is much better).
About RAM: Some people have told you that you should get 2GB of RAM. Personally, 1 GB is fine. I am always running at least 4 apps at a time. I almost never experience slow downs (unless i have Word and Photoshop open at the same time, but thats only because they are PPC)
About Hard Drive: a 160 GB hard drive should be plenty. I have 1500 songs, and about 150 videos in my iTunes Library. Conglomerativly, that takes up less than 30 Gbs of space. I only have about 100 photos though because my digital camera sucks. but the point is, is that there is plenty of room. and Tiger + iLife takes up like 15GB (mostly b/c of garage band). all that should take up like 60GB (im assuming you have many many more photos than I, around 500, maybe more). so now you have 100 Gb left. good deal. my computer came with less than the difference of yours! as a side note, i would totally recomend getting an external hd for backups, ESPECIALLY as leopard comes around because of TimeMachine.
About GPU: I do make alot of videos in iMove and i do edit my photos in iPhoto and Aperature. I have a much much worse GPU than the one you would get in the aformentioned iMac. My computer handles all my editing very well, you will be excellent.
About Screen Size: a 17" screen should be fine, unless your used to larger(well even then it should be fine). i use a 13" screen mostly and i do just fine. and trust me, im a huge multitasker. sometimes i wish i had a larger screen, but only when im using Xcode.
After writing this, it makes me wish i had an iMac haha
Welcome to the wonderful of Macintosh.
This is my first time to post in a forum. I'm sorry is my use of red was poor manners. I going to learn how to chat with my grandson in Australia/Oz. Lucky Santa to live there. I have visited and it such a beautiful part of our world. So long for now and Thanks again.. Grammy L.
Denton, Sunllraman, Sthiede and Santa.. thank you so much for your help. I will go with the Imac 20" system. I'm a little worried about learning to use a new OS but know it will be fun too. I'm hoping that there are some good tutorials pre-loaded. Simple things like computer maintainance ..to derfrag or not defrag. I'm glad you mentioned the importance of a external storage device.
This is my first time to post in a forum. I'm sorry is my use of red was poor manners. I going to learn how to chat with my grandson in Australia/Oz. Lucky Santa to live there. I have visited and it such a beautiful part of our world. So long for now and Thanks again.. Grammy L.
You don't need to defrag. There's pleanty of tutorials here. Everthing else is pretty easy. If you get stuck you can go here or here, enjoy!
In US dollars;
1GB of RAM should be OK for you, but if you decide to upgrade later, you will have to replace both sticks of RAM, and that will most likely cost you quite a bit more when you factor in labor.
It's my understanding that you don't need to match RAM sticks (for the 3GB configuration you have 1GB and 2GB, respectively, in the RAM slots). 2-3 years from now, the cost of a 2GB stick will be relatively small, and you would only have to replace one 512MB stick to move yourself up to 2.5GB. Someone correct me if I'm wrong.
iMac, 20-inch, Intel Core 2 Duo
Part Number: Z0DH
Accessory kit
2.16GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
iWork '06 preinstalled
250GB Serial ATA Drive
SuperDrive 8X (DVD+R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)
Apple Keyboard & Mighty Mouse + Mac OS X (US English)
ATI Radeon X1600/128MB VRAM
2GB 667 DDR2 SDRAM - 2x1GB
I've decided not to wait for Leopard and upgrade later on. By the way have you all named your systems?? Thanks again!! Grammy L.
I've decided to spend a little more $$ and get a machine that should meet my needs for a long time. I did find a sweet geek (his term not mine) and he gave me a tour of his machine. He has 3 apple systems and has named them (Spartan, Gala and Delicious). Ok that was a little wierd. He said your advice was brilliant. So I've picked this system
iMac, 20-inch, Intel Core 2 Duo
Part Number: Z0DH
Accessory kit
2.16GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
iWork '06 preinstalled
250GB Serial ATA Drive
SuperDrive 8X (DVD+R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)
Apple Keyboard & Mighty Mouse + Mac OS X (US English)
ATI Radeon X1600/128MB VRAM
2GB 667 DDR2 SDRAM - 2x1GB
I've decided not to wait for Leopard and upgrade later on. By the way have you all named your systems?? Thanks again!! Grammy L.
Welcome to the Mac world. That looks like a good buy. Keep in mind, however, that iWork '07 is expected to be released very soon (in fact, it was expected to be released 1/09/07), and is rumoured to be a significant upgrade (including, for example, a spreadsheet, which '06 doesn't have). So that's $79 you might be better off holding on to (there are alternatives you could use till February or March or whatever, like www.openoffice.org, which is free).
(Someone correct me if an upgrade to iW '07 would be free if '06 is purchased within a certain amount of time prior to the new release)
By the way have you all named your systems??
No way, what do you think we are crazy?
My MacBook is named GalleyBook
My iPod is named GalleyPod
my 500GB external hard drive is named GalleyDrive Sr.
My 100GB external hard drive is named GalleyDrive Jr.
I talk on a GalleyPhone, and I drive a GalleyMobile.
iMac, 20-inch, Intel Core 2 Duo
Part Number: Z0DH
Accessory kit
2.16GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
iWork '06 preinstalled
250GB Serial ATA Drive
SuperDrive 8X (DVD+R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)
Apple Keyboard & Mighty Mouse + Mac OS X (US English)
ATI Radeon X1600/128MB VRAM
2GB 667 DDR2 SDRAM - 2x1GB
I've decided not to wait for Leopard and upgrade later on. By the way have you all named your systems?? Thanks again!! Grammy L.
Hey, Lori.
That looks like a great choice. I'm envious, as I'm still using a 17" iMac G4, 1GHz Power PC with only 768mb RAM. But I'm using OS X Tiger [10.4.8] so [smiles]. It's still a great computer, but I'm really feeling the desire for a nice, new beautiful Mac [laughing].
However, as Apple Insider user DoctorRobert wrote, "iWork '07 is expected to be released very soon [...] that's $79 you might be better off holding on to", so it would be smarter to wait and purchase iWork '07 instead of having iWork '06 pre-installed for you. Also, even though using a Mac is generally really f-ing easy [laughing] being a switcher, you'll still want some time to learn basic stuff and familiarize yourself with using your new Mac. So, since iWork '07 is supposed to be released soon, if you buy your Mac before it is released, that will give you some time to familiarize and play around with your Mac's other great features and included programs, etc. before diving into and playing around with iWork. It would be better to wait for iWork '07.
Also, from looking at your short list of mentioned things that you'll be wanting to do/like to do, iWork might not really be a necessary thing that you would need. Don't get me wrong, it's nice, but maybe you should take a look around Apple's iWork pages, if you haven't already done so. Also watch the Quick Tours for iWork's Pages and Keynote programs, and see if it's something that you really want or need. Or if it's just extra money being spent.
A few weblinks for you to click.
Main iWork page -- http://www.apple.com/iwork/
iWork Pages Quick Tour video -- http://www.apple.com/iwork/quicktour/pages/
iWork Keynote Quick Tour video -- http://www.apple.com/iwork/quicktour/keynote/
Various peoples' reviews of iWork '06 at the Apple store purchase page -- http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APPL...e=MA222Z/A#rev
If you do still want/need iWork, if you wait for iWork '07, you will be able to order iWork '07 online at the main iWork link above. You won't have to purchase it in person from a retail store.
When iWork '07 is released, you just click the Buy Now button at the bottom of the main iWork page. So long as you have a credit card, that is, which I am guessing you do. The shipping will probably be free also. Although, I don't know for sure. If it has to travel across the border from the U.S. into Canada, there might be a cross-border fee, but maybe not. I honestly don't know.
If you don't actually want or need iWork, the iLife suite of programs that come included with your Mac has cool programs for working with things such as Photos, for example. If you want to make Slideshows, though, not just do things with still pictures, then the Keynote program in iWork would be needed, unless there is an alternative free program available.
If you haven't looked at the included iLife suite yet, here are some weblinks for you to click.
Main iLife page -- http://www.apple.com/ilife/
iPhoto page -- http://www.apple.com/ilife/iphoto/
By the way, I am from British Columbia, about 1 hour outside Vancouver.
As for tutorials, Apple has created some for people switching from Windows to Mac called Switch 101. Migrate to Mac. Apple also has a main Support page for various Apple products. Also, in the purple bar at the top of the main Apple Support page, you'll see the clickable word "Discussions". That is the Apple/Mac user help forum. It's a highly active forum, with lots of helpful people. Not every question gets answered, but it's a very helpful place. So, when you purchase your Mac, you should create an account there.
And, since I mentioned that, a helpful tip for when you are using the Apple Discussions forum.
When posting questions and/or comments at highly active webforums, especially if you're posting multiple comments and/or questions in different parts of the forum(s), it can sometimes be difficult to keep track of what you've posted and where.
At the Apple Discussions forum, once you have created an account and are logged in to that account, on the top-right side of the page you'll see your user name. You can click your user name at any time that you are logged in to the forum, and you will see a list of clickable links to every post and/or comment that you've made. It is a very helpful resource. Especially if you forget the answer to something, instead of manually going through page after page after page of posts in the forum(s) looking for what a post, you can quickly and easily click your user name, then scroll down the list and click the link to go directly to the post.
Here are two screen capture examples of that. Click the thumbnail-sized pictures to open the full-sized images.
1 -- The main Apple Discussions set of sub-forums for various Apple/Mac products and programs
2 -- After clicking my user name, part of the list of my recent posts and/or comments
When you click those thumbnail-sized pictures, the new pages that open to where the images are hosted at Community Webshots, will be resized slightly smaller than the actual size of the original images. To view the true size, simply click the blue link below each image called "View Original Size".
Easy.
And here are a few clickable links to Apple Support, the Switch 101 basic tutorials that I wrote about above, and Mac 101 which is a much more indepth and lengthy set of tutorials aimed at switchers and new Mac users alike. I would suggest reading or browsing through Switch 101 first, then for more indepth information, read or browse through Mac 101. Of course, you don't need to read or browse through Mac 101, because you'll figure out how to use OS X by actually using it and playing around with it. But if you want to read or browse through full descriptions of everything that you can do and how to do it, Mac 101 is there to help.
Switch 101 -- http://www.apple.com/support/switch101/
Mac 101 -- http://www.apple.com/support/mac101/
Main Apple Support page -- http://www.apple.com/support/
Apple Discussions forums -- http://discussions.apple.com/index.jspa
A few more links. First is to a website called Pure Mac. It's normally updated daily with links to various programs, add-ons, plug-ins, etc. for Mac. Some are free (freeware), most are try-then-buy (shareware), some are strictly buy-then-use. In any case, once you familiarize yourself with your Mac and OS X, it's a great resource for many various OS X programs, add-ons, plug-ins, etc.
Pure mac -- http://www.pure-mac.com/index.html
At Pure Mac, you can scroll down the list of the most recently added links on the main page, or at the top of the page, choose from any of the various categories that appeal to you.
When you scroll down and click a link in the list, for example, the page will go to that links' place at the Pure Mac website. Then there are normally a few associated links below its information/description/(possible) price/system requirments, etc. You can either download things directly from the Pure Mac page, with the Direct Download link(s), or, what I like to do, is click the Home Page link and see what else I can find out about the program, add-on, plug-in, etc. and see what the developer's website is like, etc. Then if I want to download the thing, do it from the actual developer's website. Easy stuff. You'll have no trouble.
One thing to note, beside any Direct Download link(s), there will be a blue circle or a rainbow colored circle. The blue circle denotes that it is for OS X, normally OS X 10.2.8 or higher, such as OS X 10.3, or what you'll use until Leopard is released, OS X 10.4. The rainbow circle denotes that it is for old, early OS X, like pre-10.2.8 or pre-OS X, such as Mac OS 9. OS X stands for OS 10, by the way. Some programs, add-ons, plug-ins, etc. are available for old and new OS', but you'll only want to click Direct Download(s) that have a blue circle -- unless you click the Home Page link and see the developers website and download directly from them -- because you won't be able to use pre-OS X (rainbow) programs. So no point in downloading them. Easy stuff.
Finally, the last links for now.
Say you give away, throw away, or run over your old Windows PC, but then after having used your Mac for a while, realize that you need to use a strictly Windows program to do some very specific task. You can install Windows on your Mac. There are two ways. I haven't done either, as I use a Power PC Mac and also don't currently have any need nor want to use Windows, so I'll provide the links and you can take a look, if you'd like.
1 -- Apple's free Boot Camp program for intel-based Mac's like the one that you'll buy.
Apple's Boot Camp -- http://www.apple.com/macosx/bootcamp/
From what I've read, Boot Camp is the more technical, difficult way to install Windows on the Mac's Hard drive. Full instructions are provided, but I don't know how to do it.
2 -- Parallels Desktop for Mac.
Parallels Desktop for Mac -- http://www.parallels.com/products/desktop/
From what I've read, this is the easier, quicker way to install Windows and run it right inside OS X, easily navigating back and forth between OS X and Windows.
You probably won't need, nor want Windows, but if you should happen to, there is a way to use it on your Mac or inside OS X.
You've made a smart choice to buy a Mac. Apple, Mac's and OS X aren't perfect, but they're a lot better than any of the competition.
Have fun.
ps. if you want quick access to any of the answers/links in this page or in my reply to you, just bookmark this page and you'll be able to quickly access the answers/links in this page any time you want.
I agree that IWork goes beyond my needs. I will look into the mentioned options. Isn't it amazing to be in touch with the world? I am so grateful to see a glimpse of this new world. I still think flipping a switch to turn on a lilght is a miracle. I just love this Apple family... thanks for the tips and suggestions.
WoW!! I have learned so much from you folks. My grandchildren were amazed when I started to email them. I think my brain needs exercise and I love to learn new things. I was a wee bit afraid to ask too many dumb-dumb questions. You even speak in a new language. I do get that "ram" is not a farm animal.
I agree that IWork goes beyond my needs. I will look into the mentioned options. Isn't it amazing to be in touch with the world? I am so grateful to see a glimpse of this new world. I still think flipping a switch to turn on a lilght is a miracle. I just love this Apple family... thanks for the tips and suggestions.
there are no dumb questions, everyone has to start at some point. we all had to learn too so its no big deal. im just happy for you that you came here for advice instead of walking into a bestbuy or something and picking up a PC, you would be much more frustrated and confused. but with your mac, i doubt you'll be either.
good choice and feel free to ask anything, anytime.
WoW!! I have learned so much from you folks. My grandchildren were amazed when I started to email them. I think my brain needs exercise and I love to learn new things. I was a wee bit afraid to ask too many dumb-dumb questions. You even speak in a new language. I do get that "ram" is not a farm animal.
I agree that IWork goes beyond my needs. I will look into the mentioned options. Isn't it amazing to be in touch with the world? I am so grateful to see a glimpse of this new world. I still think flipping a switch to turn on a lilght is a miracle. I just love this Apple family... thanks for the tips and suggestions.
one more thing, beeing that you live far from an apple store and that you are new to mac, you may consider getting .MAC, the reason for my recomendation is it includes a learning center with video tutorials of all the software that comes with your mac as well as tutorials for the OS. as a new mac user you will find it very usefull whe you want to organize your pictures and stuff, also includes a nice suite of extra services that will enhance your mac experience.
as everyone has said b4 me welcome to the family and im sure we all would like to hear from your experiences on your new mac.