Could You Point Me....?

My wife and I are purchasing our 1st Mac(PowerMac G4 or G5) since my old Apple IIe in college... yes, it's been that long. We're currently using a Windows based PC(5 years old), and I'm more than tired with it and am not interested in an upgraded Windows platform.

Basically, I have too many questions to list. I've visited the local Apple store at least 6 times in the last 3 months, but am having problems getting questions either answered or answered coherently and completely.

I seem to remember seeing an article or book titled "So, You're Going to Buy a Mac", or something like that... this was years ago. I need to understand the process of switching everything from my PC to the new Mac, i.e. email addresses, bookmarks, photos, websites, programs, etc...

While the Apple store offers to copy my hard drive onto the new Mac(for $50), they have been unable to explain to me how it would be usable w/o having to dig for everything.

I realize that this is a pretty broad/general or even simple problem, but it does concern me... lots of information that I still want at my fingertips.

Any experiences, opinions, ideas or thoughts are more than welcome... and I'll keep my flame suit on.

Thanks for your time and consideration...
Peace,
Mark

 

Thanks, Sparky... I threw the budget out the window when I realized I didn't want an upgraded Windows platform. Doesn't mean I want to spring for the 2.5 dual G5, with the 20" screen, but probably something in between.

The PowerMac G4 Dual 1.25, upgraded to 160g hard drive, 512 RAM is a good buy. But, only being upgradeable to 2 gigs of RAM leaves me a little worried... "You never get your new system home and say... Gee, I wish I had bought the slower less upgradeable system". On the flip side, we've used the same PC w/o upgrades for 5 years(550 mghz Pentium III, 13 g hard drive... stop laughing at me. We've recently purchased a digital camera and have come close to maxing out the hard drive, plus all the applications now seem very slow.

I'd rather buy a little overkill now, and be able to take full advantage of it 2 or 3 years down the road. Having a "killer" system lends itself to be fully used... at least that's been my experience. The G5 dual 1.8 maxes out at 4 gigs of RAM, but when you move up to the dual 2.0, you get the 64 bit processor and a max of 8 gigs of RAM. Actually, either one is probably over kill at this point.

Since I've rebudgeted for a Mac rather than a Windows platform, the budget doesn't, unfortunately, include the purchase of the monitor. We'll be using a flatscreen I purchased last year when the old CRT bit the dust.

Conundrum: Save a little money now(G4 .vs. 1.8 G5 .vs. 2.0 G5) and abuse my solid wood computer desk with my solid rock head when I realize that I really do need "more".
Or, spend the extra now and beat head on desk wondering why I over spent on a system that I'll never fully utilize.

The funny thing is, I really like the case for the G4's... it's decidely modern/ahem, sexy looking. While the G5 case is very utilitarian looking. I'm kind of shaking my head and going "why is that important?". I don't know, but it is a factor.

OS 9? OSx? What this? Just joking, kind of. I haven't used an Apple in over 20 years, so I have no idea what the differences and/or benefits are. Having not used either, I don't think it'll make any difference to me... kind of like trying to explain the difference between the colors Blue and Red to someone who is blind.

I do know, that as many times as I've "abducted" an employee at the Apple store, the demonstrations showed how much easier/different the Apple is to use. Kept telling myself "why isn't this done for all systems?".

At any rate, I'm tired and getting more verbose, but I'll keep flipping to the Apple site and hope that enlightenment in granted. Either that, I'll have the "dream" and will know the answer when awake... the zen Mac User at work.

Thanks and...
Peace,
Mark

 

Bookmarked both links. I'm familiar with Peachpit Press, lord knows I've seen enough of them. Don't have a cd burner on my current/old PC, but might be able to "borrow" one from a friend. Also looking into whether there is some sort of "cabling" possible between the 2 systems that would allow me to "migrate" information(in large chunks/files/documents), probably so, along with the required software. As a last resort, I could email all the information from one to the other... eh, no, not going to do that. My toddlers would be in highschool before that finished.

Will definitely be going the G5 route, dual 2.0... unless some sort of "bomb" is dropped at the WWDC.

So, instead of buying this weekend, we'll be watching for what happens on the 28th... we've waited this long.

Thanks very much for the information and advice...
Peace,
Mark