The "I just ordered/bought/got my new/refurb iMac" thread [merged]

[rufhausen]

I work in IT in a UNIX/Linux/Windows server environment so I have next to no experience with OSX.

With *nix experience, you should enjoy having the Terminal handy then (just Spotlight "terminal" or find it under Applicaitons->Utilities. For me, having a superior (IMO) GUI in OS X, the sometimes necessary evil of Windows, and a full unix-type shell in one machine is awesome for web development.

 

[No More Windows]

Absolutely... I was well aware that the OS was based on a UNIX system and the terminal was one of the first stops for me!! 😉

 

[nefan65]

For those that "Switched from Mac/OSX to Windows"...well..I LOL'd! Literally. What a joke, if that even happened.

For those that switched, congrats. I was in the same boat over 3 years ago, and never looked back...it's an awesome platform. It isn't without some blemishes, but they're few and far between IMHO.

I too work in IT, and mostly a Windows shop. However, the underlying network/infrastructure is all Cisco. It's a dream to work with an MBP, and have everything I need in OSX, right out of the box, to maintain, and manage, etc. Not to mention the ease of use, and reliability. Uptime is 32 days, and the only reason for the last reboot was from an update.

Don't get me wrong, I'm sure there are some folks using Windows who can claim the same things I did. However, in MY experience, I've never had that with a Windows system' XP - Win 7, ever...

 

[Xendin]

My 2011 BTO 27" i7, 6970M 2GB, 2TB drive, iMac arrived yesterday. Popped in 16GB from OWC and it was off to the races!

After reading the horror stories about yellow screens and dead pixels I am pleased to report that the display is flawless and jaw-dropingly beautiful. I've owned a lot of computers over the years but never anything like this. I am in awe of this machine!

 

[davidcmc]

bloatware still exists whether it be bundled in a brand machine or in windows ... Win 7 is a lot better but OSX still wipes the floor with 7

Are you sure that you are installing a fresh Windows 7 setup?
Saying that a retail Windows 7 installation has bloatware just tells everyone how ignorant you seem to be.

Also, both MacBooks Pro that I've bought in the past came with that ****** iLife suite, which I DIDN'T NEED AND I DIDN'T ASK TO BE INSTALLED.

Can I say that Mac comes with bloatware because of that, too? Not counting with all those useless widgets of Dashboard, not to mention those countless useless apps in the "Applications" folder etc.

Every OS comes with default applications, most of them are going to be useless to most of people.
Mac OS X is not different from Windows 7 from this point of view.

Your post denotes how ignorant and biased your words are.

can i ask you why did you switch back to win??
did you missed something in particular or..?

im currently thinking to switch to my first 27 imac, coming from 16+ years of windows...

Terrible performance for what I've paid.
It wasn't a hardware issue, since I've had 2 MacBooks Pro (one 2009 and another 2010 model). Both of them were not as good as the PCs I've had.

Mac OS X is nice, but the general performance was retarded.
If I was running Windows 7 in Parallels, even if it was running nothing, everything was getting slow (in Mac and in Windows inside Parallels).

I know some tards will come here and say that I'm wrong, that my Macs were faulty and bla bla bla.

Whatever, if a Mac gives you a satisfying performance, then go for it.
FOR ME, the performance is not good, since I can get something better with the same money.

 

[leon2arts]

Why are you thinking of switching to mac, if I may ask?

i do Art for a living, not design or graphics. i spend a lot of hours researching for my projects (reading, browsing tons of images, and so on) and as a side i do video and animation + do some editorial work (indesign layout etc) and i think the minimalism of osx and the minimalism of the imac design is just very inspiring.

i use win from 3.1 till win7 now, and im really tired of it.

osx is just clean and minimal...btw if you haven't notice, i LOVE minimal art 😉

congrats to the OP! im making the switch next week

 

[Domino8282]

If you want to see something amazing, go to YouTube and search something like "2011 iMac SSD Aperature." There's this one video where this guy (presumably a photographer) shows how fast he can scroll through thousands of huge images and have them load almost instantly. Very impressive. 🙂

 

[nefan65]

Are you sure that you are installing a fresh Windows 7 setup?
Saying that a retail Windows 7 installation has bloatware just tells everyone how ignorant you seem to be.

Also, both MacBooks Pro that I've bought in the past came with that ****** iLife suite, which I DIDN'T NEED AND I DIDN'T ASK TO BE INSTALLED.

Can I say that Mac comes with bloatware because of that, too? Not counting with all those useless widgets of Dashboard, not to mention those countless useless apps in the "Applications" folder etc.

Every OS comes with default applications, most of them are going to be useless to most of people.
Mac OS X is not different from Windows 7 from this point of view.

Your post denotes how ignorant and biased your words are.




Terrible performance for what I've paid.
It wasn't a hardware issue, since I've had 2 MacBooks Pro (one 2009 and another 2010 model). Both of them were not as good as the PCs I've had.

Mac OS X is nice, but the general performance was retarded.
If I was running Windows 7 in Parallels, even if it was running nothing, everything was getting slow (in Mac and in Windows inside Parallels).

I know some tards will come here and say that I'm wrong, that my Macs were faulty and bla bla bla.

Whatever, if a Mac gives you a satisfying performance, then go for it.
FOR ME, the performance is not good, since I can get something better with the same money.

Wow, who sounds like a "Tard"! I've had MB's, MBP's, and iMac's. All have performed as good, if not better than any Windows counterpart with similar, or better specs. Sounds like either you don't know what you're talking about, or just don't understand systems in general.

Regardless, you're right. If Mac's fit your bill, go for it. If crappy Windows machines do it, cool. It's your life...bwaaaa hahahahahaha!

 

[Georgio]

I'm not sure if the card was defective or just not upto the job in OSX; Games that were both native to OSX and Win7 ran so bad on OSX it wasn't even funny. Specifically world of Warcraft would run at 100+ in Win7 and anything from 20-40 in OSX. But even the numbers don't tell the whole story as in OSX everything was quite laggy in raids even with everything on low/ medium.

Define "bug"? .. why you feel annoyed with 1Gb VRAM? Is something wrong with the performance? Anything feel laggy or something? Or you simply don't like it because it's written 1Gb DDR5 VRAM on spec sheet?

Please enlighten me, seriously, i'm not being sarcastic here .. just pure curiosity 🙂

 

[kuebby]

Are you sure that you are installing a fresh Windows 7 setup?
Saying that a retail Windows 7 installation has bloatware just tells everyone how ignorant you seem to be.

Also, both MacBooks Pro that I've bought in the past came with that ****** iLife suite, which I DIDN'T NEED AND I DIDN'T ASK TO BE INSTALLED.

Can I say that Mac comes with bloatware because of that, too? Not counting with all those useless widgets of Dashboard, not to mention those countless useless apps in the "Applications" folder etc.

Every OS comes with default applications, most of them are going to be useless to most of people.
Mac OS X is not different from Windows 7 from this point of view.

Your post denotes how ignorant and biased your words are.

Speaking of biased...

From the very first day my Dell PC NEVER EVER EVER booted as fast as my iMac still boots almost 2 years in. I can go from off to usable desktop in under a minute.

I also just looked through my Applications folder and I failed to find any true bloatware. iLife is most certainly not bloatware, and if you don't like it, it's easily removed. iPhoto and iMovie are great programs for managing photos or editing movies, and Garageband is an easy way to make music (though I don't have Garageband installed, since that's not something I use, but it was really easy to just uncheck the box when installing iLife 11).

PS. Why are you trolling a Mac discussion board if you have nothing to add to the discussion?

 

[thefreeagent]

Also a new iMac convert...

...here, and loving it. I've been using Windows PC's for the past 13 years, and felt okay about--especially since Win 7, which is much smoother--but, after being seduced by the iPod touch, then the iPad, then finally by the iPhone, it was time to go all the way in. I got the 21.5" iMac 2.7 ghz three days ago, and it just rocks! Sleek, elegant, premium hardware (of course) and a UI to match. I've always felt that the 2 OS's (Mac and Win) are fundamentally similar overall, but man, what a difference the details make! At any rate, I'm not a Windows hater (and may install Win 7 in the near future for accessibility uses) but I see no reason to go back to it after cruising along Apple's beautiful machine/OS combo.

 

[davidcmc]

Why are you trolling a Mac discussion board if you have nothing to add to the discussion?

Oh yea. Obviously a post that doesn't say anything GOOD about Macs is equal to what you know as "trolling", right?

Shut up, kid, please. 🙂

Apple is not a religion, it's not your life. Accept critics, accept flaws, accept negative points.
Macs are not perfect.

I've been messing with computers since 18 years ago and I've had 2 MacBooks, not to mention some months I've spent playing with hackintoshes.

Now comes some ignorant and says that it's my fault the MacBooks are slow?
Are you sure you know what Windows 7 is?

Are you really telling me that Mac OS X is faster than Windows 7 in the same hardware?
Are you really comparing OSes based on boot times?

Oh yea. It really denotes your level of knowledge about computers...

So, yea, go for your Mac. I have a feeling that they've been built to be so simple that every ignorant can use and tell how Windows sucks.

 

[nefan65]

Speaking of biased...

From the very first day my Dell PC NEVER EVER EVER booted as fast as my iMac still boots almost 2 years in. I can go from off to usable desktop in under a minute.

I also just looked through my Applications folder and I failed to find any true bloatware. iLife is most certainly not bloatware, and if you don't like it, it's easily removed. iPhoto and iMovie are great programs for managing photos or editing movies, and Garageband is an easy way to make music (though I don't have Garageband installed, since that's not something I use, but it was really easy to just uncheck the box when installing iLife 11).

PS. Why are you trolling a Mac discussion board if you have nothing to add to the discussion?

In his defense, removing Windows apps is pretty easy. Control Panel>>UnInstall Software...wait...uninstalled, reboot. Wait 5 minutes. Then realize it's not really uninstalled, because there's a folder still under Program Files, and 20 registry entries still floating around. But the icon is gone! After about 4 months, there's so much ghosted junk from all this, a clean install is required. THEN it's in good shape; for another 4 months 😛

Sorry..couldn't resist.

 

[nefan65]

Oh yea. Obviously a post that doesn't say anything GOOD about Macs is equal to what you know as "trolling", right?

Shut up, kid, please. 🙂

Apple is not a religion, it's not your life. Accept critics, accept flaws, accept negative points.
Macs are not perfect.

I've been messing with computers since 18 years ago and I've had 2 MacBooks, not to mention some months I've spent playing with hackintoshes.

Now comes some ignorant and says that it's my fault the MacBooks are slow?
Are you sure you know what Windows 7 is?

Are you really telling me that Mac OS X is faster than Windows 7 in the same hardware?
Are you really comparing OSes based on boot times?

Oh yea. It really denotes your level of knowledge about computers...

So, yea, go for your Mac. I have a feeling that they've been built to be so simple that every ignorant can use and tell how Windows sucks.

I admit I was teasing. It's just who I am 😀

All OS's, and systems are flawed in one way or another. Systems are tools, nothing more. Whatever tool you want to use to get things done is the most important.

In terms of least flawed? Oddly enough, one of the most robust, and efficient systems I've ever used in my 20 plus years in IT was DEC OpenVMS. In fact Windows NT 3.1, and 3.51 heavily plagiarized OpenVMS for the memory portion. They didn't do as good of a job, but hey...no one is perfect. We had a DEC Alpha running OpenVMS, with a DB2 Database in a hospital that ran for over 16 months with ZERO issues, crashes, or speed degradation.

I've NEVER had that with any Windows based system, including Servers and Desktops. I have gotten much closer with OSX [UNIX], and some Linux variants. That isn't to say that Windows 7 sucks, or 2008 sucks, they just don't perform at that level. It's common practice to reboot systems every 30 days as good practice. UNIX/Linux system don't need it, it's just good maint. Windows DOES need it...it's the truth, no BS on that...

So, in the end, do what you like, and want. It's your $$, spend it how u please...

 

[davidcmc]

In his defense, removing Windows apps is pretty easy. Control Panel>>UnInstall Software...wait...uninstalled, reboot. Wait 5 minutes. Then realize it's not really uninstalled, because there's a folder still under Program Files, and 20 registry entries still floating around. But the icon is gone! After about 4 months, there's so much ghosted junk from all this, a clean install is required. THEN it's in good shape; for another 4 months 😛

Sorry..couldn't resist.

What was the last Windows version that you have used?

Also, are you telling me that by simply moving the .app to the thrash it means that it's been wiped out of your shinny Mac OS X?
LOL. Once again, another post showing the level of knowledge of the average Mac user.

After moving your .app to the trash, look for how many little files you just left in all those subfolders of your home folder (preferences, libraries etc.).

Even more: try to uninstall all those apps that put kernel extensions, libraries and preferences in your /system subfolders. Do you think that they'll be wiped together with the .app? They won't. By just moving the .app to the trash you're leaving tons of little files behind.
Those kind of applications need an uninstaller, but it must be made by the own developer, because Mac OS X doesn't have a proper universal uninstaller, like Windows does.

Oh wait! Mac OS X doesn't tell you that. Mac OS X doesn't tell you that all those files are being left behind when you move the .app to the trash.
Oh wait! I have a feeling that Windows 7 tells you when it can't uninstall some files, but it tells you where they are, so you can go and delete them.
Oh wait! In Windows 7 I don't have to reboot after uninstalling 99% of application (it was a fact back there, in Windows XP age, you know, 10 years ago).
Oh wait! I don't wait 5 minutes to reboot my notebook, I only wait less than 1 minute (40~45 secs) because I can easily put a SSD into it, since I don't need to mess with a proprietary piece of crap firmware and a non-standard SATA power cable.

Anything more, sir?

Ps.: it's sad that MacRumors forums have been transformed into some kind of cultism place of retards; it's sad that there's almost no technical debate here, only "Windows sucks" and "Mac owns" blabbering.

 

[ilikecorn500]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPod; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_3 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8J2 Safari/6533.18.5)

can i ask you why did you switch back to win??
did you missed something in particular or..?

im currently thinking to switch to my first 27 imac, coming from 16+ years of windows...

I'm confused about people that say they switched back to Windows when the option is there to install it on the Mac also, seems like there be some trolls afoot.

Don't worry about it man, if you're anything like me, the only thing you'll miss from Windows is the constant shut down updates, DLL errors and complete system freezes.

Hope I don't come across as too much of a fanboy -- I still enjoy using Visual Studio on Windows, and it's great for things like 3DSMAX.

Yeah, it really doesn't make sense to "switch back" to Windows.

 

[cocky jeremy]

just over 72 hours into mine and i love it. its so fast and the display is beautiful. i pretty much havent left my desk since i set it up. only gripe i have is the magic mouse, a trackpad is definitely in my future.

Magic Mouse is amazing once you get used to it. Having BetterTouchTool and MouseZoom helps a ton too. I wouldn't use any other mouse now. My only complain about the MM is the way it eats batteries.

 

[Fuith]

What was the last Windows version that you have used?

Also, are you telling me that by simply moving the .app to the thrash it means that it's been wiped out of your shinny Mac OS X?
LOL. Once again, another post showing the level of knowledge of the average Mac user.

After moving your .app to the trash, look for how many little files you just left in all those subfolders of your home folder (preferences, libraries etc.).

Even more: try to uninstall all those apps that put kernel extensions, libraries and preferences in your /system subfolders. Do you think that they'll be wiped together with the .app? They won't. By just moving the .app to the trash you're leaving tons of little files behind.
Those kind of applications need an uninstaller, but it must be made by the own developer, because Mac OS X doesn't have a proper universal uninstaller, like Windows does.

Oh wait! Mac OS X doesn't tell you that. Mac OS X doesn't tell you that all those files are being left behind when you move the .app to the trash.
Oh wait! I have a feeling that Windows 7 tells you when it can't uninstall some files, but it tells you where they are, so you can go and delete them.
Oh wait! In Windows 7 I don't have to reboot after uninstalling 99% of application (it was a fact back there, in Windows XP age, you know, 10 years ago).
Oh wait! I don't wait 5 minutes to reboot my notebook, I only wait less than 1 minute (40~45 secs) because I can easily put a SSD into it, since I don't need to mess with a proprietary piece of crap firmware and a non-standard SATA power cable.

Anything more, sir?

Ps.: it's sad that MacRumors forums have been transformed into some kind of cultism place of retards; it's sad that there's almost no technical debate here, only "Windows sucks" and "Mac owns" blabbering.

I'm not here to Windows bash, I was one of the ones who said Vista was pretty good. But like 99% of people, I don't care about specs, I just want a system that works. I switched to Linux two years ago and found it way better than Vista. Switching back to Windows 7 (because I bought an iPad and Linux doesn't run iTunes), and a retail version at that, I still miss the speed and ease of Linux. Having said that, I'll be buying a Mac because of the "bloatware" that is Garageband. We got a mac at work and I was very impressed by not only the comparative speed to my Linux system but the range of software that is available. Just my two cents.

 

[mankymanning]

I switched about 3 years ago. It was quite a painful switch too, I started off with a Dell XPS 1530 with Vista, awful machine. Swapped for a Zepto (who? - Scandanavia's largest laptop manufacturer!!), daft mistake.

Decided on a Macbook pro 15". Wasn't keen on the low res available at the time, kept fighting OSX and wiping it to put Win2K8 on then switching back.

Eventually once I had worked out how to do most of the stuff I needed to I grew to love it. Best part I think is everything just works, no driver issues etc. Also resale value is awesome, I sold a £1400 MBP for £750 two years later, unheard of in PC laptops in my experience.

Now having had a 17" MBP since I am purchasing my first 27" iMac fully specced up - really looking forward to it.

 

[Binary Ninja]

Are you sure that you are installing a fresh Windows 7 setup?
Saying that a retail Windows 7 installation has bloatware just tells everyone how ignorant you seem to be.

Also, both MacBooks Pro that I've bought in the past came with that ****** iLife suite, which I DIDN'T NEED AND I DIDN'T ASK TO BE INSTALLED.

Can I say that Mac comes with bloatware because of that, too? Not counting with all those useless widgets of Dashboard, not to mention those countless useless apps in the "Applications" folder etc.

Every OS comes with default applications, most of them are going to be useless to most of people.
Mac OS X is not different from Windows 7 from this point of view.

Your post denotes how ignorant and biased your words are.

Yep a fresh install of Windows is alot larger then the out of the box install on my imac ... it also as just a o/s sitting idle uses more ram / system resources the osx ...

Even as a basic O/S Win 7 was bloated when directly compared to OSX ... Dont get me wrong Win7 was miles ahead of Vista, XP , 98 but the system took more drive space , more system resources , longer to boot / shutdown .... If that isnt bloatware as such it is more the OSX is more streamlined in its performance ..

 

[Georgio]

Just turn off the mouse when you're not using it and you'll find the battery usage much better; I use a MM for work i.e. 8 hours a day, 5 days a week and I replace the batteries every 2 months on average.
Double check that you have installed the keyboard firmware update as that sorts the mouse battery issues.

Magic Mouse is amazing once you get used to it. Having BetterTouchTool and MouseZoom helps a ton too. I wouldn't use any other mouse now. My only complain about the MM is the way it eats batteries.

 

[nefan65]

What was the last Windows version that you have used?

Also, are you telling me that by simply moving the .app to the thrash it means that it's been wiped out of your shinny Mac OS X?
LOL. Once again, another post showing the level of knowledge of the average Mac user.

After moving your .app to the trash, look for how many little files you just left in all those subfolders of your home folder (preferences, libraries etc.).

Even more: try to uninstall all those apps that put kernel extensions, libraries and preferences in your /system subfolders. Do you think that they'll be wiped together with the .app? They won't. By just moving the .app to the trash you're leaving tons of little files behind.
Those kind of applications need an uninstaller, but it must be made by the own developer, because Mac OS X doesn't have a proper universal uninstaller, like Windows does.

Oh wait! Mac OS X doesn't tell you that. Mac OS X doesn't tell you that all those files are being left behind when you move the .app to the trash.
Oh wait! I have a feeling that Windows 7 tells you when it can't uninstall some files, but it tells you where they are, so you can go and delete them.
Oh wait! In Windows 7 I don't have to reboot after uninstalling 99% of the applications (it was a fact back there, in Windows XP age, you know, 10 years ago).
Oh wait! I don't wait 5 minutes to reboot my notebook, I only wait less than 1 minute (40~45 secs) because I can easily put a SSD into it, since I don't need to mess with a proprietary piece of crap firmware and a non-standard SATA power cable.

Anything more, sir?

Ps.: it's sad that MacRumors forums have been transformed into some kind of cultism place of retards; it's sad that there's almost no technical debate here, only "Windows sucks" and "Mac owns" blabbering.

LOL...show's you what you know! Go poll how many businesses are using Windows 7. Not many moron. I BETA tested, and used both Vista and 7. 7 is nothing more than Vista SP1. Beyond that, still garbage. And no, sorry...99% DON'T uninstall without a reboot. Again, shows me that your experience with any version of Windows or any other system is that of a hobbyist.

UNIVERSAL! LOL. There's NOTHING in Windows that's UNIVERSAL. Installation and De-Installation is just as fragmented now as it was in XP. What you're seeing is a nice shiny GUI masking the crap. Again, show's what you really know. And who said anything about just dropping something in the trash, and being gone? I commented on the Windows process for that, and the constant reboots. I never claimed that OSX had a better process for that. Stop generalizing like a moron.

I just installed an SSD into my MBP. I didn't need any special cables at all. Again, stupid post, by someone who really doesn't know.

Most Windows 7 proponents argue, because that's all they can have. A cheap, crappy Windows 7 machine. So they argue to justify, and convince themselves they've done the right thing.

Iv'e read your past posts; none of them are technical. Talk about blabbering garbage. You should leave this forum, you have nothing to contribute...

 

[caughtintheweb]

After using PC for most of the life and working with windows based machines, I can say that Mac's are a bit better than PC's. I have a windows 7 i5 dell laptop and an i7 iMac. The processing speeds of both of them are different, but I still think some points can be taken into account

W7 cons / mac pros

1) Bootup and shut down time is extremely low. My imac starts in about 30 secs while dell starts in 2-3 mins. Even after startup, my anti virus software kicks in and uses a large part of my 4 GB memory rendering the system slow for another min or so.

2) Windows 7 has a feature similar to spotlight which they came up with. While the feature is really good, it does not automatically detect network drives and searching is much more slower than in mac. Also mac gives search results in a very organized way. For ex i can check all documents or mail matching search results. Pretty often I get an indexing msg even while searching in local drive.

3) The updates bloat in windows is pretty annoying. I mean cmon it has critical updates every other day. And if you look at the add/remove programs and select check for updates you can see all windows updates made in near past which are a lot.

4) Has a larger footprint when you start it up. Takes more resources in general than mac osx

5) I like ilife, especially garageband, and I dont know of an equivalent free software in windows.

6) I love the expose feature in mac. I can set some applications in one view and others in another and toggle between them. Windows does

7) Temp files being created which bloat my computer every now and then. I have to search for tmp files and clean them every month. Was a bigger pain in xp than w7.

w7 pros / mac cons

1) I dont like the fact that Control key is replaced by command key and its positioned right next to my space bar. I use windows at work and i usually end up using wrong key.

2) Accessories are cheaper in windows than in mac

3) I really want a delete and backspace button in mac. I am probably just used to it, but I like extended windows keyboard.

I guess thats it !!! Mac rocks !!! It was tougher to find actual faults in mac than I thought.. wow I guess I just took the leap of faith.

 

[iSayuSay]

The most annoying part about having a brand new of windows laptop or desktop is the crapware they gave us

Branded PCs come with windows preinstalled, too bad most of them has their own manufacturer software: HP assistant something, Acer something, it loads every startup, make everything unnecesarily heavy

It can be uninstalled. But i hate they have to install it at the first time. Yeaah macs have apple logos too on their OS, but they dont annoy us

Anyway this thread is meant for people telling whether they have gotten their iMac, doesnt it? Lets keep it that way

 

[caughtintheweb]

I got my imac 2.93 i7 a couple of days back. Nothing seems to slow this system down. I have VMWare running with windows 7 and performing antivirus opertions and disk cleanup. I have about 60 gb of data being copied from my external drive. I am also playing HD videos from youtube on my tv and ripping a dvd on to my desk. Even with all these my safari opens up quickly, i can still use my mail, connect remotely to my office desktop. Wow !!!