the d3 works great for what I need, I would like the d800, then eventually the d4x

:1orglaugh:thumbsup

I'm not giving up my Windows computers, and will still do the bulk of my work on Windows. My wife just figured I would like the iMac, so I'll see where I can fit it in. Just wanted to know what tips or tricks I should know for someone who has never even turned one on before.

You do realize that you can import CDs, you can buy music from Amazon or any other source, and it's just a simple menu option to import them to itunes?

that will make a great windows 7 machine.

couple odd things about a mac.. 1. apps don't open full screen. kinda strange but I suppose you'll get used to it... and 2. the file tree seems a bit peculiar at first... then 3. can't run more than one instance of an app. I can open vegas and run a render then open vegas again to look at the video I'm importaning to check stuff. forget about that with a mac... few other restrictive issue like that... things that don't make sense to a wintell guy but seems like great ideas to macaphiles... let us know what you think after you mess with the mac..

One thing that is unbelievable to me is that Win platform allows multiple instances of the same application to run simultaneously which I think is what you are saying here.
To me this a sign of a poorly written OS.

And in general the Win UI is total crap. I can't find one thing that I like better than OSX. I did however like Vista better than 7. Just certain features that I don't find in 7. But theres no going back.

I look forward to the day when I won't have to use Win at all.:thumbsup:thumbsup

I know some people get off on the wrong foot but if it broke and still under warranty then why not take it back and get it replaced?

As far not being able to work on it, again you could not be more wrong.
I have owned Macs since '92. I have never taken one to the shop or had a tech make a house call. I have replaced hard drives swapped out memory, upgraded processors, added DVD drives and replaced a battery on one occasion.
And no, I had very little tech background. Just followed instructions, not much to it really.

and the fucking nerve of windows allowing a APP to open full screen... what a bunch of dicks :1orglaugh:1orglaugh:1orglaugh

My 27" iMac is the best purchase I ever made.

Get Transmit for FTP stuff, Burn for CD/DVD burning, Coda for coding

Again I don't see the problem, one click to full screen as a matter of fact most of the time I don't want or need full screen. I guess its all in what you are used to.

weird as this may seem, doesn't really concern me which computer you use... seriously :2 cents:

Word. iMac is AWESOME... and if you're really screwed get Windows on it as well.

Mac is just another *nix
is'nt it? 'Darwin' etc...

Under the hood, it is, with a whole lot of Mac customization. I didn't have too much trouble learning to admin a Mac server coming from a *nix background. The licensing is opposite of Linux, though. Whereas with Linux the only restriction is that you're not allowed to create restrictions on others, Mac is thoroughly proprietary and in fact will not run without a special Mac license chip on the motherboard.

That's part of the perfect integration of Mac - you won't have any driver issues with Mac because they build the only allowed hardware. On the other hand, it means even though I own a Mac server, I'm not allowed to run that fully licensed copy as a virtual machine. So that's different from most POSIX operating systems.

[QUOTE=bm bradley;18661817]like harley guys :2 cents: (btw have 22 clean)[/QUOTE

16 yrs, 2 hours, 5 minutes here.

Our business runs on Macs, I use a Mac personally. I don't feel the need to justify why other than saying stuff just works.

Some cool apps for Mac
Screen Steps: for making documentation.
Mars Edit: Blogging App. Handles multiple blogs on different platforms.
Screenflow: video of your desktop or apps
Fetch: FTP
TextWrangler: Plain Text Editor
Adium: Multi account IM

Markham must use a mac.... :2 cents:

let me ask you this: would you switch right now to wintel? how would that affect your work flow for the next few weeks? this is the issue I face when I'm told that I need to switch to mac to improve my life... as someone that works 80+ hours a week when could I possibly fit a new system into my work flow?

I think this is the real issue. how you get set up is how you need to roll... both are good systems with +/-'s

If Macs are so good, then why do so many people install Windows on them? I just think you guys like the shiny white box and feeling all hip and cool and exclusive and stuff.

I'll buy a Mac when Apple software (Quickitime, iTunes, etc) stops thinking it has the right to control my machine; when I can open my Mac up and randomly change parts on a whim, and - most importantly - when I can install and run Apple's latest OS on my PC.

You can easily install and run Win7 on your Mac? Why can't I easily install an Apple OS on my PC?

Apple doesn't care about the end-user experience. Everything Apple does is designed to suck money out of your pocket. They know they can't compete in an open environment, so they close their products off and force you to purchase what they want you to purchase.

I don't even know why I typed this. I don't even care.

Don't worry. In a few days you will realize how much better your world has just become, and you will make sweet love to your wife for 10 hours straight just to thank her.

Bleh, with the amount of third party software most webmasters use and window's superior file management/browsing interface I just don't see it being of any benefit to most people here. Sure the video guys might get something out of having a preferred flavour, but for most it's just a higher hardware bill for no gain. The way to do it though is use a mac for whatever tasks you find it more innately suited to (ie for me, RoR dev) until you are familiar with it, like a toe in the water for a few months until you warm to it. That only suits a sole webmaster though. You couldn't pay me enough to switch the whole office over. Just stick with what you're comfortable and set up to use. It's not like either operating system is objectively greater than the other overall.

Anybody who has not used a Mac for at least 30 days, does not have a horse in this race IMHO ...

You cannot learn an OS and begin to become proficient in it in 1-2 hours or days ....

I cannot begin to tell you why China would be a better travel destination than India, as I have never been to China.

Pretty sure it doesn't.

In my case, cowardice! I was afraid I had made a bad decision in the first week, BECAUSE I WAS SO USED TO WINDOWS...

However, after a month, there was nothing I needed to do in Windows, that I couldn't do on the mac, so I forgot it was there... :2 cents:

I really dont think I have used the Win install once in the last 7 / 8 months... Why bother?

I use my girlfriends Macbook pro all of the time when she has it over, would I buy one myself? No. Apple makes nice laptops and computers but to me they don't justify the cost. Why would I buy an apple if I could build a custom pc with higher specs AND spend less money doing so? I would buy an Apple PC for my grandmother or someone who doesn't know to much about computers. Really it just comes down to personal preference, but for me personally...I love building my PCs myself and having the top video cards, processors, and motherboards and all at a lower cost, I love overclocking and getting the most I can out of my rigs.

I have never used macs thoroughly, i also find them unreasonably expensive. If i were rich, i'd go mac, just to see. Designers tend to love it, programmers tend to hate it so i think "what do to with it?" depends on what you did before and where you're aiming at. :)

I'd tend to think for designers the differences are few.. PS on pc is the same as on a mac, some programmers though are going to like a nix system. Some languages like Ruby are 90% mac users even though they don't have to be strictly speaking.

You just described my November 2011 perfectly

The irony of my post is, I have thick black framed glasses and I go to Starbucks. :upsidedow

My Mac experiences have been this:

I started out on a mac. Used to do print work, used Pagemaker and Photoshop a lot. I outgrew that mac, got a bigger one. It did everything I needed it to do.

Then I got into video editing and I upgraded to a big ass powermac and installed final cut pro on it. It crashed over, and over, and over, and over again. It was a nightmare. After about 4 months of non-stop crashing, a friend suggested trying a PC. I laughed at the idea because I liked macs, and at that time I thought the powermac was the only thing that could get the job done for me. But it only crashed so I broke down and bought a beefy PC.

I spent about a week overwhelmed and trying to wrap my head around it. My macs were simple, the PC was complex. But.... it got the job done when the mac couldn't. So my love for PCs began.

Years later, and many PCs later, my friend shows me his sweet macbook pro. He could edit and render video on his laptop with ease. I was like WTF, I want one! So I got one. Yea, it was sexy, sleek, simple, and expensive, but for whatever reason I just couldn't get into it again. I found it was taking me much longer to do things on the mac when I could have done 5 things already on a PC, so I put XP on it through Bootcamp and tried it that way. To my surprise, the mac ran XP better than my PC ever did. For a while.

It them starting having issues with XP and once again I was spending more time fixing things than I was working, so I stopped using it.

In the end I found I'm more productive on a PC than on a mac, for whatever reason, so on a PC I work, taking cheap jabs at Mac fan boys whenever I can, while contemplating buying an iPhone.

I do like the look and feel of macs, they are damn sexy. However, I unfortunately can't say I love macs because, "they just work."

Did the switch about 6 years ago. Coming from a PC IT background. The main reason for the switch at the time was I needed a laptop that had an express port, firewire800 and a fast DVD burner. (macbook pro) as it turned out there where only 2 other options at the time, one by dell and one by sony and both cost more... I figured hell, I'm getting what I need and knew I could install windows on it if need be... never did...

Then came support.

Working hard one day I slapped in my express card to hard and broke the locking mechanism. 2 phone calls and the part was overnighted and the machine was back to 100% and in my hands the next morning...

Then I moved. During the move I had the machines (the same macbook pro and an Imac) sitting on the floor encoding, and we had a flood... both systems fried. Both system over a year out of warranty at that point... I thought I was screwed. Called apple, told them, they had me take it to a mac center and rebuilt both machines, even upgraded the HD's (put a terabyte in my Imac) etc. Only charge was the upgrades, which they deducted the cost of what the normal drives would have been... so I ended up paying something like 200 bucks total... 3 years later, both machines are still in use, I'm typing on the Imac right now and the macbook pro is sitting on the other side of the house running Episode and chucking video from a watch folder...

6 solid years of service and use out of my investment... Never had a virus, never an issue other than the above mentioned which where NOT the hardwares fault... I'll be buying a new Imac soon and they will have my business for life.

Can someone recommend a Firewire external HD that isn't 8 million dollars for some simple file backups?

lacie? but why not just get one with gigbyte ethernet instead? Faster and can be anywhere on your network....

Maybe you're right.. I'm just looking for a storage place for my lightroom photo directories

strange, does it with email addys and shit.. I only type addresses out in quickbooks for checks... qb does it. don't really send out lots of letters etc..

I use fetch but for some transfers, only cuteftp for mac works.

Some peeps were having trouble opening zip files so now I use ZIPit.

Toast works better than the onboard burner.