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Switching from PC to iMac.... my initial thoughts!

James Godfrey

James Godfrey

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Oct 13, 2011
2,074
1,713
Hi all,

Just thought I would post a thread regarding my experiences with the switch over from a PC to iMac... and also answer anyone's questions regarding switching and/or the benefits....

I bought my iMac early January this year...

The benefits:

1. Faster than a PC, non of this 3-4 minutes to shutdown, 6.5 seconds is the longest shut down I have had to wait for! Also, start up times is about 30 seconds... used to about a couple of minutes on my PC.

2. Clearer crisper screen, not these poor quality screens you get on so many PC's these days.

3. iTunes works a lot better and a million times faster than on a PC also, I find the wifi syncing seems to be miles better to.

4. Integration is better with iCloud.

5. Easier and faster install/uninstall procedures.

6. Better 'movie maker' with iMovie, and an extremely good music mixer with garage band.

The Downsides

1. Harder to find software fit for an iMac, although there is still plenty.

2. No decent word processor pre-installed 'additional costs'

3. The Finder, I'm still not a massive fan of it yet... probably one of the most confusing things on the iMac.

Obviously I am still in the early days as yet, but for those who are asking should i switch to an iMac? Definitely Yes!!!!

And those asking should I buy now or wait for the next release? Buy Now, best thing i ever done! also, if you are looking for touch screens (it won't happen) and if you want siri, this will probably be in a OS update anyway, Im sure the current iMac can handle it.

Hope this helps

James
 
Downsides:
1. Maybe this can help: Links to Software Recommendation Threads and www.pure-mac.com or the Mac App Store (MAS)

2. While there is no WordPad equivalent, TextEdit is quite powerful itself, it can even open OpenOffice text documents, which Windows can't. I just found that out yesterday. And Pages only costs 15 USD via the MAS.

3. Yeah, it gets time to get used to it, maybe try the different views (CMD+1, CMD+2, CMD+3, CMD+4) or have a look at PathFinder or TotalFinder.
 
I switched last year, took about two weeks for me to get the hang of OSX.

Which "decent word processor" is included with Windows? That said Pages can be easily downloaded from the App store.

Finder doesn't bother me in Lion like it did in Snow Leopard. It's not so bad when you get used to it. I hated Preview for looking at photos, but recently started using Xee and it's great.
 
Response in RED - try looking at it from NOT using a typical PC and that infact you are now using an iMac - two very different items!! In time you will grow to overcome the Mac way of things (very much like myself!!)

James Godfrey said:
Hi all,

Just thought I would post a thread regarding my experiences with the switch over from a PC to iMac... and also answer anyone's questions regarding switching and/or the benefits....

I bought my iMac early January this year...

The benefits:

1. Faster than a PC, non of this 3-4 minutes to shutdown, 6.5 seconds is the longest shut down I have had to wait for! Also, start up times is about 30 seconds... used to about a couple of minutes on my PC.

AGREE

2. Clearer crisper screen, not these poor quality screens you get on so many PC's these days.

AGREE

3. iTunes works a lot better and a million times faster than on a PC also, I find the wifi syncing seems to be miles better to.

AGREE

4. Integration is better with iCloud.

AGREE

5. Easier and faster install/uninstall procedures.

AGREE

6. Better 'movie maker' with iMovie, and an extremely good music mixer with garage band.

AGREE

The Downsides

1. Harder to find software fit for an iMac, although there is still plenty.

What like? Have you tried the Mac version of the App Store or even google? Plenty of good stuff like Caffine/Geektools/etc

2. No decent word processor pre-installed 'additional costs'

I used Bootcamp and installed AutoCAD 2010/Microsod office and run them using Parallels 7

3. The Finder, I'm still not a massive fan of it yet... probably one of the most confusing things on the iMac.

I admit that takes a bit of getting used to! However after using it often it will become easier to use than explorer!!

Obviously I am still in the early days as yet, but for those who are asking should i switch to an iMac? Definitely Yes!!!!

And those asking should I buy now or wait for the next release? Buy Now, best thing i ever done! also, if you are looking for touch screens (it won't happen) and if you want siri, this will probably be in a OS update anyway, Im sure the current iMac can handle it.

Hope this helps

James
Click to expand...
 
Your list of "benefits" is not fair towards the PC... Windows 7 boots and shuts down almost as quickly as Lion on good hardware. Same with displays: if you buy a good display for your PC it will be good quality as well.

Now, to the "downsides":

There are tons of very affordable software tools for the Mac, and in general, OS X third-party software appears to have much better quality on average over the Windows third-party software. For instance, OS X has excellent — from both the UI and technical aspects — Sparrow, Pixelmator, TextMate, Cyberduck etc. applications which have very few or none similar-quality Windows or Linux alternatives.

Windows machines usually never come with word processors preinstalled as well, its always an additional cost (even if its hidden within the price of the computer). You can get OpenOffice or LibreOffice for free. I can't say much about word processors though because I avoid that horrible software with all my might. LaTeX is much faster and more convenient when you get used to it, and the quality of documents it produces makes any office suite out there look like a broken typewriter.
 
I agree with you on iTunes. Funnily enough I thought it was the biggest pile of crap ever on my windows machine.

Its a completely different experience on the Mac. :D
 
MonkeySee.... said:
I agree with you on iTunes. Funnily enough I thought it was the biggest pile of crap ever on my windows machine.

Its a completely different experience on the Mac. :D
Click to expand...

ya its funny that way. ;)

seems much in the same way that office for mac is nowhere near the PC version.
 
Text Edit blows away any of the included Windows text apps. I code in Text Edit. I save animated .gif's. I compile any scrapbook style thing and it works. Never really need too much more. If I do I'll "deal" with Word 2011.
 
derbothaus said:
Text Edit blows away any of the included Windows text apps. I code in Text Edit. I save animated .gif's. I compile any scrapbook style thing and it works. Never really need too much more. If I do I'll "deal" with Word 2011.
Click to expand...

Text edit is awesome. I don't have to use Word enough to bother owning it any longer. I switched to Open Office a while ago. I'm not spending so much to open Word a few times a year.

James Godfrey said:
Hi all,

Just thought I would post a thread regarding my experiences with the switch over from a PC to iMac... and also answer anyone's questions regarding switching and/or the benefits....

I bought my iMac early January this year...

The benefits:

1. Faster than a PC, non of this 3-4 minutes to shutdown, 6.5 seconds is the longest shut down I have had to wait for! Also, start up times is about 30 seconds... used to about a couple of minutes on my PC.

2. Clearer crisper screen, not these poor quality screens you get on so many PC's these days.
Click to expand...

You're a bit infatuated with that system. You really must take things in context. Typical PC towers are bundled with cheap displays when you buy them for much less. I own displays that blow the imac away, but they are expensive. The imac has a relatively poor implementation of an exceptional panel. I kind of suggest applecare with them, as display problems do pop up rather frequently as they age. If they're bad, you can get it replaced under applecare (according to other posters on here). Anyway if your budget is in line with the imac, you're not necessarily limited to poor quality displays.

If your Windows machine took 3-4 minutes to shut down, that was a problem with your computer rather than the OS. Still 6.5 seconds is damn fast. From your description I think what you're seeing is more a progression in drive technology since you last purchased a system, because on the same machine I can tell you the difference is not that great.
 
TextEdit

I'm with everyone else here who has mentioned TextEdit. It is a great app to use simply for free writing and quickly editing text documents.

Personally, I use TextEdit to being what ever text I write then copy and paste it into Pages to add what ever polish my documents need.
 
i run windows 7 on a older sempron le-1200 (2.1GHz)..ati hd-2400,2 gig rams,sata 250 gig hd

my shutdown times at most are 10 sec...and my startup times are 30-45 sec

like most store bought pc's maybe your computer was full of crapware? as a clean install of win 7 is really pretty fast with startup/shutdown times....
 
Some Windows versions come standard with a full version of Word. I think that's what the OP is refering to.

I switched 2 years ago, and the only thing I miss is the ability to move files with CMD-X and CMD-V in Finder, but that can be solved with third-party software.

(I also missed resizing windows on every site, but that was adressed in Lion)
 
lexvo said:
(I also missed resizing windows on every site, but that was adressed in Lion)
Click to expand...
Strange thing: I tried the 30 day trial of Avid Media Composer 6 on my 2009 MBP with 10.6.8. While AMC is made for 10.7 and not supported on 10.6 systems, it did ran okay.
And somehow I could resize the windows in it from all sides, which makes me think, that that is not a 10.6 limit, but rather, that the applications for 10.6 don't included programming for this?

But as far as I remember, there is a hack around to enable resizing windows from all sides for 10.4 and higher/lower.
 
I only posted to express what my opinions are of the iMac over an older PC, my PC was a vista machine lol... not the best windows have ever come up with.... but overall, even after trying PC's in the shop, I would say the iMac is way faster imo... just the time it takes to load programs etc is so much faster.

In regards to the word processor, on my vista PC, I had Microsoft Works Word Prcoessor, Spreadsheet, Excel etc... all pre-installed, and have always had microsoft works on every computer I have ever bought. Just missing it in OSX.

James
 
I transitioned from windows to mac about a month after the iMacs were refreshed last year.

From never having a decent windows pc/laptop the iMac seemed amazing to me, did almost everything I wanted it to do with no trouble at all. (Main gripe is the mac versions of office/autocad, I cant get used to them!)

I do prefer OSX to windows (haven't used 7), though I wish i'd picked the 13" macbook pro instead of the iMac because I realised how much I hate being confined to a desk.
 
Terabit said:
I transitioned from windows to mac about a month after the iMacs were refreshed last year.

From never having a decent windows pc/laptop the iMac seemed amazing to me, did almost everything I wanted it to do with no trouble at all. (Main gripe is the mac versions of office/autocad, I cant get used to them!)

I do prefer OSX to windows (haven't used 7), though I wish i'd picked the 13" macbook pro instead of the iMac because I realised how much I hate being confined to a desk.
Click to expand...

I don't use Autocad but I understand your comment re MS Office. I have both Mac and Win versions and use either one depending on what I'm doing. The MS Office runs great in Win 7 through VMWare (or Parallels).
 
Seeing the discussion about startup and shutdown times. You shouldn't care, especially with a desktop. Set the iMac up to sleep when not in use. You get a 1 second start up with power consumption on the order of a nightlight when sleeping. I've got mine set to lock the screen as well, so it's like an automatic logoff for security.

Word processor choice is highly depending on your use. Textedit is sufficient for 99% of home use, but not so good for college or business. I use Pages for everything I write for which I can get by with either printing or PDF distribution. But I also receive lots of documents in Word or OpenOffice formats, so I own Microsoft Office (the only true compatible with Microsoft Windows Office), LibreOffice, and NeoOffice which is supposedly more Mac-friendly than Open/Libre. I consider Open/Libre/Neo office to be very clunky and Microsoft Office to be over-bloated. Pages is "just right." If I were writing a book (I've written several in the past, but none currently) I'd jump at Scrivener. And I also use Circus Ponies Notebook, which I prefer over Microsoft OneNote that I've used on my work PC. I've got several hundred pages of notes in Notebook files, plus embedded PDF documents.
 
For me the osx experience is much quicker, cleaner and easier. I love the way apps all function in a similar manner. The toolbar at the top with app preferences in the file tab make customizing apps a cinch. The overall experience is much cleaner. OSX does a wonderful job of keeping things in order. I used to have to clean my desktop of icons every few weeks which also increased boot time. Not needing kaspersky also makes boot up quicker and doesn't get in the way when launching new apps. Having a centralized app store is also amazing, being able to update apps with the push of one button is a dream come true.

I have purchased the mac equivalent of word (pages) and excel (numbers) and couldn't be happier. With ms word and excel i always had issues with docs my suppliers send me whenever i place an order. Now they open seamlessly. I also used to have issues with my xerox color laser printer on my old windows machine, not so with osx.

All in all switching to osx has been a life changing experience. I cringe anytime i have to use a windows machine. I had so many issues with windows 7 that i wouldn't even want to upgrade to windows 8 when it comes out. I find i actually do more gaming on my mac than i ever did with my gaming windows rig. I had paid over $3k several years back for my old machine and played a fraction of the games i play now on my entry level iMac. Not to mention the same apps i used for SEO before run 100% better on my iMac. Its really been quite a wonderful switch so far.
 
James Godfrey said:
2. Clearer crisper screen, not these poor quality screens you get on so many PC's these days.
Click to expand...

You get what you pay for. $499 Walmart PC with all the bells and whistles (i.e. display, mouse and keyboard) won't get you a good screen. However, if you spend about $200 on the screen itself, you can get a decent e-IPS display with LED backlight, which is similar to iMac's screen.
 
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