Some questions about purchasing first ever iMac...coming from PC

sandimacd said:
Your HD GB will go further is you dont configure OS mail.... But a small price to pay for never losing or misplacing email and recouping hundreds of GB over the years.
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If your mail is hundreds of GB, you're using email wrong.
sandimacd said:
MAC performance will become buggy and sluggish over time if you don't stay on top of things.
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Mac (not MAC) performance doesn't become sluggish over time. Performance is directly related to what you have running, not a time period or how much you have stored on your hard drive. I've been running the same MBP on Leopard for close to 4 years. I've never had to reinstall Mac OS X, repair permissions, reset the SMC or NVRAM, or run any 3rd party maintenance or "cleaner" app. It runs just as fast as it did out of the box. It's not "buggy" or "sluggish" at all. You don't need to "stay on top of things" to keep Mac OS X running perfectly fine. It takes care of itself, without the need for user intervention.
 
Just depends

I also have a MBA. Last thing I need is tying up another 3GB with keeping Mail in sync with iMac.
Doesn't take long to get huge GBs of attachments. We just closed a mortgage online and everything was received and sent by PDF. The attachments alone totaled 8GB over 6 weeks.
I have family that refuse to use online photos- so have those. I filter business and family emails with attachments and forward to my spouse if it needs his attention.
I am very aggressive about deleting forwarded message with attachments from sent folder but not everyone is.
Recently visited a friend with MAC Safari and Mail problems. She had over 20GB tied up in Mail!
So I guess it is different for each user. Online mail only is another option but of course, not for everyone.
 
GGJStudios

You are absolutely correct! Mail should never be anywhere near "hundreds of GB". I made a mistake in posting that. But if each of 3 users has 3-5 GB over 4 years that will add up.
I also agree that there are millions of MACs that run fine for years without maintainence. Depends on how it is used. I am not sure how rare it is to not repair permissions if you have family users accounts, especially kids on your Mac.
Perhaps I exaggerated the sluggish. New out of box, my MAC started up in seconds. Over time, new apps added, start up took longer- perhaps close to 2 min. I had to remove some apps from start up menu to regain the faster startup. For me that was maintenance. Over time adding and removing apps leaves traces in Libray and preference folders. Not a big deal usually but sometimes a software upgrade doesn't work because an old file is still hanging around. Plus with fast user switching enabled, all those open programs at start up affected things.
I admit, I have an organized uncluttered personality but I don't think I am alone in maintaining a MAC.
 
sandimacd said:
You are absolutely correct! Mail should never be anywhere near "hundreds of GB". I made a mistake in posting that. But if each of 3 users has 3-5 GB over 4 years that will add up.
I also agree that there are millions of MACs that run fine for years without maintainence. Depends on how it is used. I am not sure how rare it is to not repair permissions if you have family users accounts, especially kids on your Mac.
Perhaps I exaggerated the sluggish. New out of box, my MAC started up in seconds. Over time, new apps added, start up took longer- perhaps close to 2 min. I had to remove some apps from start up menu to regain the faster startup. For me that was maintenance. Over time adding and removing apps leaves traces in Libray and preference folders. Not a big deal usually but sometimes a software upgrade doesn't work because an old file is still hanging around. Plus with fast user switching enabled, all those open programs at start up affected things.
I admit, I have an organized uncluttered personality but I don't think I am alone in maintaining a MAC.
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Althought it's another app. Install an app called AppCleaner. That will sort out all the small details apps leave behind for you. :)
 
danielvanc said:
Althought it's another app. Install an app called AppCleaner. That will sort out all the small details apps leave behind for you. :)
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In most cases, app removal software, including AppCleaner, doesn't do a thorough job of finding and removing files/folders related to deleted apps. For more information, read this.

The most effective method for complete app removal is manual deletion:
sandimacd said:
I am not sure how rare it is to not repair permissions
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Many users repair permissions and many in this forum recommend repairing them, when they don't understand when it's appropriate.

About Disk Utility's Repair Disk Permissions feature
sandimacd said:
I had to remove some apps from start up menu to regain the faster startup. For me that was maintenance.
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You can certainly call that maintenance, but it's really just user preferences.
sandimacd said:
Over time adding and removing apps leaves traces in Libray and preference folders.
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See the link above about how to fully delete an app.
sandimacd said:
Plus with fast user switching enabled, all those open programs at start up affected things.
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Whether fast user switching is enabled or not will not affect performance or startup items. How many users are actually logged on will. Login items only launch when that user logs in.
 
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sandimacd said:
Sorry if I offended. My spell checker auto-corrects/types Macdonald (family name) when I input those 3 letters so I have the habit of using caps to bypass it and differentiate the OS computer type.
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You didn't offend at all. It's just that Mac and MAC mean different things. I thought you'd appreciate understanding the difference, for future reference.
 
Again, you may want to get a external hard drive to bump up your system capacity. A drive that matches beautifully the imac, is this drive below, its silver alluminum:

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/772994-REG/G_Technology_0G01817_G_DRIVE_mobile_USB_Hard.html

Its firewire, wich is the fastest hdd conection on the mac, not considering thundebolt wich is very expensive at the moment.

If youare a fan of glossy white:

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/746519-REG/G_Technology_0G01960_750GB_G_DRIVE_mobile_USB.html

also, a thunderbolt option if you can afford it...

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/824960-REG/LaCie_9000106_1TB_Little_Big_Disk.html
 
On Fast User Switching performance

In response to:
"Whether fast user switching is enabled or not will not affect performance or startup items. How many users are actually logged on will. Login items only launch when that user logs in."
I was sort of a PC techie user for nearly 20 yrs and moved back to Apple in 2008 after not quite getting what I wanted from Linux on my home network. So I was fairly hard on my Macs as I delved into their architecture and Unix.
But I am not a programmer, I just enjoy learning.

So is it correct to say that if I start the iMac, my spouse logs on and then my grandson logs in and we utilize Fast User Switching that the iMac is then running all the Applications on all 3 accounts?

Without Fast User Switching, the user actually logs out when another user logs in. Anyway I think that is how I understand it. Just setting that preference won't cause all the User Accounts to load start up software when the iMac is turned on but I am thinking if all 3 Users are logged in and we utilize Fast User Switching instead of logging off, then the performance might be affected due to the software automatically opened through startup plus what each user has left opened and running.

My Mac Mini has only one User Account (mine) and less RAM and processor than the iMac. It seems to run some of my software (like embroidery editing) a bit smoother during rendering but I am sure there are other factors. But I have never had to use a Force Quit command on the Mini or send an Apple report on a crash. So I am thinking that some of the problems I am getting with the iMac may actually be due to the way it is being used by the various users.
 
sandimacd said:
Just setting that preference won't cause all the User Accounts to load start up software when the iMac is turned on but I am thinking if all 3 Users are logged in and we utilize Fast User Switching instead of logging off, then the performance might be affected due to the software automatically opened through startup plus what each user has left opened and running.
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Correct. That's why I said:
GGJstudios said:
Whether fast user switching is enabled or not will not affect performance or startup items. How many users are actually logged on will. Login items only launch when that user logs in.
Click to expand...
 
GGJstudios said:
In most cases, app removal software, including AppCleaner, doesn't do a thorough job of finding and removing files/folders related to deleted apps. For more information, read this.

The most effective method for complete app removal is manual deletion:
Click to expand...

Granted it's not perfect. But for your average normal person, it does a very good job and you can't tell me you can expect say your mum or dad to go through that list of 10 things just to remove an app everytime, can you? lol
 
danielvanc said:
Granted it's not perfect. But for your average normal person, it does a very good job and you can't tell me you can expect say your mum or dad to go through that list of 10 things just to remove an app everytime, can you? lol
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If your goal is to simply uninstall the app, dragging it to the Trash does it, with no need for app removal software.
If your goal is to maximize saving disk space by completely removing all components of an app, the manual method is the only effective method, with no need for app removal software.

Either way, app removal software is useless. It doesn't completely remove everything associated with an app, to save disk space, and it's not as simple as dragging an app to the Trash.
 
Found this thread very helpful :) I even went and ordered a new 27" iMac this morning, can't wait for it! Though I'm a little nervous getting used to it since I've been PC for the past 10 years..
 
mau5ville said:
I even went and ordered a new 27" iMac this morning, can't wait for it! Though I'm a little nervous getting used to it since I've been PC for the past 10 years..
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Good for you! Great choice and you will be blown away during your first start up. Enjoy.
 
No get a mac Mini instead

For the money buy a mini get bluetooth keyboard and Magic mouse.(greatest mouse ever. It a computer in itself). Buy a 19-23" tv monitor and you'll think your talking to Steve Jobs because you'll be in heaven. Every PC'er I have changed to mac still thank me to this day.
You should have no questions, It's a Mac.
 
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