UK Switcher - Progress Report

[Tonerl]

My 24" iMac arrived yesterday and (I never thought I'd say this about a computer) is rather beautiful.

My wifi network was detected immediately though I didn't connect to it till I'd set the firewall up. Speed is very good so far.

I'm getting used to the new keyboard and Mighty Mouse and have transferred my Firefox and Thunderbird settings from my PC.

I've also downloaded VMware Fusion and will create a VM for Windows XP so that I can use my old programs to begin with. If all goes well, I shall convert to Macs completely in due course.

I haven't yet downloaded any upgrades in case they make a mess of my lovely iMac! I'll leave that for a while.

All in all, I'm impressed and happy and enjoying a new adventure in my 64th year!

 

[72930]

Congratulations on your switch

I definitely recommend trying Mail and Safari before going to FF and Thunderbird, many users prefer them and they are much more integrated with the OS.

I recommend Growl and Inquisitor respectively for the apps...

 

[Carniphage]

Congratulations on your switch

I definitely recommend trying Mail and Safari before going to FF and Thunderbird, many users prefer them and they are much more integrated with the OS.

I recommend Growl and Inquisitor respectively for the apps...

I second that.
The Apple Mail *looks* very basic at first glance, because the interface is so minimal. But mine has around 50 mailboxes with mail going back 5 years. The same mail accounts are identically mirrored on my laptop. I can find any email in a couple of seconds.

Mail integrates with Address Book, Calendar, Time Machine and I'd not give that up.

C.

 

[Siriosys]

Toneri,

I'd second the above advice. I've recently switched also and have in fact purchased VMWare Fusion, but I made a decision to try and make as much use of the 'bundled' apps of OSX as I could - Immersion I call it!....and it's been every bit worth it.

To be honest, mail.app is excellent and its integration with Spotlight is amazing. I'd highly recommend you visit http://www.hawkwings.net for any mail.app plugins you may want. I have installed a couple. Safari, same thing - have a good go at using it...definitely worth it. Again, I've added a couple of plugins which make it more 'compatible' with everything.

For Ad blocking, I'd recommend Safari_AdBlock from http://safariadblock.sourceforge.net/

For video / audio streaming playback compatibility you can't go past Flip4Mac and also Perian. These enable me to surf ANY website with video or audio content and it just works....like it did in iE7.

Make sure you install your Apple Updates. They addressed a number of issues with mail.app not so long ago so by doing them, you'll get a better experience of what mail should be like.


Cheers



Rob

 

[Tonerl]

Thank you for the kind words of encouragement.

Remember that this is my first full day of iMac ownership! I'm not sure about updates, though, as they seem to have caused some users quite a bit of trouble - I'll hold off for a while.

So far, I've got my data across but have to check the files thoroughly as Windows XP on my PC gave some odd, apparently irrelevant, errors while copying to USB HDD. My HP printer and Epson scanner work fine. Windows XP runs ok under VMware Fusion and my Palm Treo 680 synchronized fine with MS Outlook 2003.

Once I'm confident in my new environment, I can start to replace my Windows programs with their OS X equivalents; it'll take a while since it could be a touch expensive.

My desk is tidier and my iMac still looks great. It's been a good day!

 

[Siriosys]

I forgot to mention, apart from VMware, all the other software i have on my iMac has been free.

The only upcoming issue for me will be to decide whether or not to purchase Office2008 or use iWork (which incidently, for home use is amazing value).


Cheers

 

[tersono]

I forgot to mention, apart from VMware, all the other software i have on my iMac has been free.

The only upcoming issue for me will be to decide whether or not to purchase Office2008 or use iWork (which incidently, for home use is amazing value).


Cheers

Don't buy Office. If you need something more than iWork, try NeoOffice, which is damn good and open-source

 

[Siriosys]

This is probably what I'll end up doing as I've got MSOffice2003 running under VMWWare.....which I do need for work.

Cheers



Rob