new to apple, and lusting after the imac
hiyas 
my sum total of experience with apple up to this point is playing carmen sandiego on a macintosh about 8 years ago. however, the unbelieveable slinkiness of the new imac and unix based new os are attracting me towards one of these systems. however i have loads of questions and would appreciate answers and directions to web sites where i may find subsidary information. ok here goes!
1.what is the footprint of the new imac?
2.adsl/cable is yet to be available here in ireland to the general public ( a regrettable state of affairs) what is the position of support for these network cards on imacs?
3.how much linux ppc support is available for the new imac vis a vis its features such as that dvd r/w et al? anyone here running debian on a imac?
4.in terms of performance, am i opting for style over substance? is 256mb of ram really enough these days? bear in mind that i'm a worthless student who only really plans to use the machine for the internet, tinkering about, and maybe the very occassional game.
5.is the imac likely to fall significantly in price in the near future? the lack of direct competition suggests to me that it won't, but i'm completely unfamiliar with price trends in the apple market.
6.thoughts/experiences on networking with a gnu/linux / windows x86?
thanks
gareth
my sum total of experience with apple up to this point is playing carmen sandiego on a macintosh about 8 years ago. however, the unbelieveable slinkiness of the new imac and unix based new os are attracting me towards one of these systems. however i have loads of questions and would appreciate answers and directions to web sites where i may find subsidary information. ok here goes!1.what is the footprint of the new imac?
2.adsl/cable is yet to be available here in ireland to the general public ( a regrettable state of affairs) what is the position of support for these network cards on imacs?
3.how much linux ppc support is available for the new imac vis a vis its features such as that dvd r/w et al? anyone here running debian on a imac?
4.in terms of performance, am i opting for style over substance? is 256mb of ram really enough these days? bear in mind that i'm a worthless student who only really plans to use the machine for the internet, tinkering about, and maybe the very occassional game.
5.is the imac likely to fall significantly in price in the near future? the lack of direct competition suggests to me that it won't, but i'm completely unfamiliar with price trends in the apple market.
6.thoughts/experiences on networking with a gnu/linux / windows x86?
thanks
gareth
Comments
10" diameter circle, not including cables out the back or keyboard/mouse
2.adsl/cable is yet to be available here in ireland to the general public ( a regrettable state of affairs) what is the position of support for these network cards on imacs?
I'm not sure I understand your question... Generally here in the US, a DSL/Cable modem is an external thing, which is hooked into the computer via either ethernet or USB... the iMac handles these just fine...
3.how much linux ppc support is available for the new imac vis a vis its features such as that dvd r/w et al? anyone here running debian on a imac?
I don't run LinuxPPC... from what I hear, it certainly does not support the DVD-RW drive.
Why run Linux (a shoddy user experience) when you can get all the UNIX-y goodness with a nice, consistent UI, and full support for all the features of the iMac? Frankly, Linux on a new mac is really a pretty dumb proposition, it seems... now, on older macs, where OS X doesn't run (or run well) ... it makes more sense...
4.in terms of performance, am i opting for style over substance? is 256mb of ram really enough these days? bear in mind that i'm a worthless student who only really plans to use the machine for the internet, tinkering about, and maybe the very occassional game.
While the iMac is certainly not as fast as the PowerMac line, you're getting a pretty speedy computer that will handle OS X and pretty much whatever you throw at it well. Games included. Everything is usably quick, in my experience. You can never have enough RAM, but 256 MB is adequate for most uses and OS X... it certainly wouldn't hurt to throw another 128 or 256 mb in there.
5.is the imac likely to fall significantly in price in the near future? the lack of direct competition suggests to me that it won't, but i'm completely unfamiliar with price trends in the apple market.
It's doubtful that it will fall significantly in price, as it was just introduced. The current models will drop in price when it is updated (still a long way off- probably fall). Basically, buy what suits you now, the waiting game is stupid and fruitless.
6.thoughts/experiences on networking with a gnu/linux / windows x86?
I'm not sure what you mean by this... Attaching to a standard ethernet network is not trouble... file sharing with Windows is not a problem, either using the SAMBA file sharing built into OS X, or a third party utility... I, once again, don't know about Linux...
If you could clarify your question, i'm sure someone will be able to give a much more succinct answer...
<strong>hiyas
1.what is the footprint of the new imac?
2.adsl/cable is yet to be available here in ireland to the general public ( a regrettable state of affairs) what is the position of support for these network cards on imacs?
3.how much linux ppc support is available for the new imac vis a vis its features such as that dvd r/w et al? anyone here running debian on a imac?
4.in terms of performance, am i opting for style over substance? is 256mb of ram really enough these days? bear in mind that i'm a worthless student who only really plans to use the machine for the internet, tinkering about, and maybe the very occassional game.
5.is the imac likely to fall significantly in price in the near future? the lack of direct competition suggests to me that it won't, but i'm completely unfamiliar with price trends in the apple market.
6.thoughts/experiences on networking with a gnu/linux / windows x86?
thanks
gareth</strong><hr></blockquote>
Maybe I can answer some of your questions a bit better...
1.) 10.6 inches in diameter, perfect circle. The LCD is a bit wider.
2.) The iMac needs no ethernet card to hook up to one, it has built in 10/100BaseT ethernet and a regular phone hookup if you wish to use a 56k (56k modem is built-in)
3.) I'm pretty sure that after using OS X, iTunes, iDVD, iMove, etc., you wont find a reason to use that burner in Linux. I'm not much of a linux guru but I have played with it a bit on my friends P2...I much prefer OS X.
4.) 256 MB is fine for OS 9, though for gaming in X I would up it to 384...512 seems a bit unnescisary unless you are wanting to do some serious Photoshop work or whatnot...and you aren't worthless if you are becoming a Mac user
5.) It took the original iMac around 2 years to fall to under 1k. I doubt the new one will fall that fast...but you never know. Still, the high end is a great value for the money.
6.) Networking with Windows is easy, should be as easy if not easier with Linux. Networking with other Macs is a cinch.
I hope I helped a little bit