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**Chris** · 06-03-2009, 18:18

The only question to be answered here is, what do you want your home computer to do for you?

I switched from PC to Mac about 10 years ago and now I wouldn't get a PC again. I have no interest in setting up, maintaining or upgrading a computer (I have upgraded the Mac's memory, but then that's simply a matter of opening a door, not unscrewing the casing). Some folks get pleasure out of tinkering with their computers and that's great, but I'm no more interested in self-building a computer than I am in self-building a TV, and to me, my iMac is every bit as much a piece of consumer electronics as my TV is.

The OS just works and there's more than enough software available for it (iLife, which is bundled with an iMac, is superb: Garageband for music making, iTunes for your record library, iPhoto for your photo albums and iMovie for your home videos, then there's tonnes of other stuff as well, chief among it probably is NeoOffice, a fully Mac ported version of OpenOffice). The open source community is more active in Mac OSX development than you might think. I'm spending hours and hours at the moment playing a superb re-invention of Elite for the Mac called Oolite, which was developed for Mac and then ported to PC and Linux. It is every bit as functional on the Mac as it is on the other OSes.

The PC is a bigger target for developers to aim at so naturally there's more software for it, but as I often say on this forum, quantity is not quality. Much of what you could buy, you never actually would buy. Mind you the PC is a bigger target for malware developers as well.

Similar goes for hardware spec; yes, you can find more and bigger and put it into a PC casing, but as long as the machine you own comfortably does what you ask of it, do you ever pay much attention to how much of this it has, how big that is and how fast the wotsit goes? Obviously some people do mind about that, and if that's interesting to you, great, but it's of no interest to me, again, I don't care what capacity my iMac's power supply unit has, any more than I care what's inside the casing of my TV set. The iMac is intended to be a simple, all-in-one, set-up-and-use piece of consumer electronics.

I have a small desk with no room for a separate box either on it or under it, but I don't want the compromise on ergonomics that a laptop would be, so the flat-panel, all in one iMac fits the bill for me perfectly.

Final point others have already made, if you do find you have to have access to Windows for any reason, the Mac is now fully able to be set up to dual-boot. I thought this might have been useful but to be honest I have never even come close to deciding to do it. There has always been a Mac-native solution waiting for me.

If you have any Mac-specific questions feel free to fire them at me.

06-03-2009, 18:18	#18
Chris Trollsplatter Cable Forum Team Join Date: Jun 2003 Location: North of Watford Services: Humane elimination of all common Internet pests Posts: 38,534	Re: PC Vs iMac (Which to go for?) The only question to be answered here is, what do you want your home computer to do for you? I switched from PC to Mac about 10 years ago and now I wouldn't get a PC again. I have no interest in setting up, maintaining or upgrading a computer (I have upgraded the Mac's memory, but then that's simply a matter of opening a door, not unscrewing the casing). Some folks get pleasure out of tinkering with their computers and that's great, but I'm no more interested in self-building a computer than I am in self-building a TV, and to me, my iMac is every bit as much a piece of consumer electronics as my TV is. The OS just works and there's more than enough software available for it (iLife, which is bundled with an iMac, is superb: Garageband for music making, iTunes for your record library, iPhoto for your photo albums and iMovie for your home videos, then there's tonnes of other stuff as well, chief among it probably is NeoOffice, a fully Mac ported version of OpenOffice). The open source community is more active in Mac OSX development than you might think. I'm spending hours and hours at the moment playing a superb re-invention of Elite for the Mac called Oolite, which was developed for Mac and then ported to PC and Linux. It is every bit as functional on the Mac as it is on the other OSes. The PC is a bigger target for developers to aim at so naturally there's more software for it, but as I often say on this forum, quantity is not quality. Much of what you could buy, you never actually would buy. Mind you the PC is a bigger target for malware developers as well. Similar goes for hardware spec; yes, you can find more and bigger and put it into a PC casing, but as long as the machine you own comfortably does what you ask of it, do you ever pay much attention to how much of this it has, how big that is and how fast the wotsit goes? Obviously some people do mind about that, and if that's interesting to you, great, but it's of no interest to me, again, I don't care what capacity my iMac's power supply unit has, any more than I care what's inside the casing of my TV set. The iMac is intended to be a simple, all-in-one, set-up-and-use piece of consumer electronics. I have a small desk with no room for a separate box either on it or under it, but I don't want the compromise on ergonomics that a laptop would be, so the flat-panel, all in one iMac fits the bill for me perfectly. Final point others have already made, if you do find you have to have access to Windows for any reason, the Mac is now fully able to be set up to dual-boot. I thought this might have been useful but to be honest I have never even come close to deciding to do it. There has always been a Mac-native solution waiting for me. If you have any Mac-specific questions feel free to fire them at me.