The First Step

Is there a reason you want to upgrade to Tiger? It's pretty easy to do, you shouldn't have any problems.

I think the older iMacs will only read 120 gb hard drives. You can put a larger one in, but you'll only be able to use 120 gbs of it. You might want to check on Apple's website to make sure.

I had a G3 400mhz that I changed the hard drive on. It wasn't really difficult but be careful with the screws. I lost one of them and couldn't get it out of the case. It didn't seem to be all that necessary though as my mom and my nephew have used it now for 3+ years with no problems.

I've heard the missing manual is a good book. There are lots of resources on the internet as well. Be sure to check out Apple's new "Tutorial" section. They have some good stuff there.

I'm not sure about the original iLife. You might check eBay for iLife '06 discs. I believe that iPhoto will work fine but iMovie probably won't. iDVD definitely won't work.

In case Word 2004 doesn't work, you could download NeoOffice. It's open source and works really well.

As far as any general suggestions go, it really depends upon what you're planning on using it for. It'll probably be easier to address that once you get it and have questions.

Enjoy!

 

Old iMac??? I still use one of those every day! Can't believe it went for £51!

You'll have no problems with Office 2004, looking at the specs I think Tiger might kill it (or at the very least make it clunky slow), but I know how you feel because we are now at the stage where all new software is Tiger minimum.

Chap above is correct, iLife 06 should work based on the system specs but iDVD probably won't work unless there is a chance that's the slot loading DVD burner (doubt it.)

I've got an external iomega 120GB HD that runs off the firewire, you can pick them up quite cheap and for a lot less hassle than changing your internal HD.

And don't worry about viruses! Enjoy your

 

Your mac does this too!

Couldn't work out how a 'noob' could have 67 posts but I see it's the iPhone that has brought you over from the dark side, young Skywalker.

I guess the best place to start is try iTunes with your iPhone, then try iPhoto with your camera, and try to edit some movies on iMovie. Try downloading these programs, all findable on Google; Firefox (web browser if you don't like Safari), Google Earth, MacMame play some old arcade games), Graphic Converter, VLC (will view any video), MPEG Streamclip (will convert movies to iPhone-friendly format.) That's pretty much all you need.

 

Good 4 U, that's a wonderful attitude. So many PC users say their PC does everything and won't try the Mac OS because people tell them not to. More people like you who give it a try end up loving it and wondered why they waited so long. You'll shock yourself once you see how much the Mac OS really can do for you. Gaming is lite on the Mac OS but by no means non-existent. There are some really great up to date titles, so always look for the Mac versions first before buying the Windows version and this goes for any type of software.
Aside from gaming you should be able to easily duplicate every piece of software on Windows to the Mac.

It's really a shame things have come to this as the Macintosh was the first to arrive and so many people treat it as if it's the new kid on the block. Let us know if you have questions about using the Mac OS.

 

Mac will do anything you can do on windows and if you need it you can put windows on your mac. The book you mentioned is very good. An old cheap mac is great for starting

Why do people call windows the Dark side that's stupid it's just different.

 

It was a humourous attempt to perpetuate the whole us v them attitude held by some members; good v evil, light v dark, Jedi v Empire, MacOS vs Windows. Besides I'm forced to use Windows every day at work, but choose to have (3) Macs in the house. I don't know anybody who does it the other way around.

 

mattpreston11 posts:
"4th question: missing manual (making the switch to tiger) book, any comments on it?"

I can't speak for Tiger, but I do have the Missing Manual for Leopard and as a new convert myself it has been very good to have for reference. I also have the Peachpit Press Leopard book by Robin Williams and while that is good for a first glance, nothing is very in-depth. The Missing Manual is where I go to really find out about a subject. So both are good, but I use The Missing Manual more. Hope this helps,
Morod

 

Ha ha, I read that same question so many times on from noob switchers, believe me this is not to insult yours or anyone else's intelligence but you gotta know that just as Microsoft optimizes their software to run better on Windows Apple does the same for the Mac. You can definitely count on Safari, iTunes, Quicktime, the iPhone and the iPods to all work better on the Mac as they should.
You'll find connectivity of the Apple toys to be better on the Mac and of course iTunes will be an immediate improvement over the Windows version. I tried iTunes on the Windows side the other day and it was pretty shotty but in defense to Apple Office 2008 for Mac doesn't do the Mac justice either, Thanks MS.

 

Editing movies on a G3 would be hell...on a stock 1.25GHz mini (256RAM/40GB) it took a long time to import a 30 minute clip

 

All the Missing Manual books are good, especially for switchers.

 

Address book and Calendar on your iPhone will sync perfectly as the do with the iPod. Anyone to say otherwise is just hating on Mac. It wouldn't make any sense for Apple to make the iPhone work and sync better on Windows than their own operating system. The reason the Mac is so successful is because of the seamless integration. Apple's products are all made to integrate 100%.
You should have very little compatibility issues with hardware from 3rd parties and hardware from Apple will always be 100% compatible.