Just threw the baby out with the bath water and bought an iMac!

[Jason B]

Not sure how steep or slow the learning curve will be however I have just switched from a lifetime of PC use to an iMac 27 ultimate. Mainly for photo editing.

So far the kids have watched Alvin and the chipmunks, while I have been downloading photoshop and Lightroom.

Looking forward to getting in front of it and working out its idiosyncrocies.............I think.

If you have done the same any tips and trick would be appreciated.

Jas

[Bullant4x4]

Download Lynda tutorials, worth watching and great for cs5

[Jason B]

Download Lynda tutorials, worth watching and great for cs5

Cheers mate, good idea I used the some time ago when I got the 5D3 to get my head around it. Will have another look.

Jas

[Bullant4x4]

I got all the series and Lightroom in depth.

[Bullant4x4]

If you want me to copy the DVDs let me know and I can send to you.

[Jason B]

If you want me to copy the DVDs let me know and I can send to you.

Cheers mate that would be great. Will shout ya a beer around a campfire one day!

[Bullant4x4]

Send me a PM, I got most adobe from photo to vid stuff. I was right into it and going to get back into it when we start our trip. Got that many photos and vids to edit that I might need to go around twice

[BTMNDR]

G'day Jas,

I beat you by about 9 years. My number 1 child talked me into it and then when I told him I was going to buy he tried to talk me out of it, saying I wouldn't cope and would blame him..

Anyhow, my advice is:

• the first 6 months or so will be the most frustrating, as the learning curve is steep and things you do instinctively on a PC won't yet be instinctive. Don't give up.
• take out Apple Care Protection Plan (if you haven't already), it entitles you to phone tech support for the life of the Apple Care

I cannot imagine the circumstances under which I'd go back to a PC.

[Jason B]

G'day Jas,

I beat you by about 9 years. My number 1 child talked me into it and then when I told him I was going to buy he tried to talk me out of it, saying I wouldn't cope and would blame him..

Anyhow, my advice is:

• the first 6 months or so will be the most frustrating, as the learning curve is steep and things you do instinctively on a PC won't yet be instinctive. Don't give up.
• take out Apple Care Protection Plan (if you haven't already), it entitles you to phone tech support for the life of the Apple Care

I cannot imagine the circumstances under which I'd go back to a PC.

Cheers for the advice mate. Agree with the initial frustration. Took a while to work out what happened to minimised program's. Finally worked out that you can just swipe the mouse from screen to screen like on the iPad!

If nothing else it's pretty to look at!

Regards

Jas

[gclan]

I am basically computer illiterate, but I love the Mac for photo and video editing.

Have fun!


Karen

[Bunyip]

After 15 years in the IT industry I decided it was time I learnt about Macs so went out and bought a you buet iMac. It has now sat unused for about 5 years as the son who said he had to have one only ever used it for internet browsing, the daughter who is doing graphics at school now uses her PC based laptop and I almost taught the thing how to fly in the first few hours.

Give up now and right it off to experience, save youself the grey hairs.

Honestly, good luck with it, those with more patience than me seem to really like the transition, sort of like those going from Patrolss to Landcruisers really.

[dazzler]

Welcome to mac world.

Best thing we ever did.  Our iMac is now six years old and unlike every PC we ever had has given no trouble.

Grab yourself an el cheapo wireless mouse so you can use right button if your mac mouse doesnt have it.  Makes life easier.
Also, if you have an old monitor grab the cable to connect it to the iMac and run it dual screen.  Just plug it in.  It asks whether you want it on the left or right - thats it!

If you need office you can get office 365 for a yearly fee and is works on up to 5 computers. Office in Mac seems to be a little behind PC but is fine. 

We run a 4TB external hard drive and store all the movies and photos on that and use Apple TV ($100) to stream them to our TV.  The kids download the movies to their two Ipads and two iPods as well as our three iPhones and the MacBook Air.  We travelled from Tasmania to Qld and they had more movies than they could watch. 

Yep we are an apple crew now!

This will join us at Xmas - https://www.apple.com/au/mac-pro/

ENJOY!

[Bird]

Hand in your man card at the door as you leave..

[noel_w]

Give up now and right it off to experience, save youself the grey hairs.

Agree totally, now who would make a mouse with only one button. 

[BigJules]

After career in IT leadership and management, and much frustration at trying to integrate Mac's into a corporate environment I got a Macbook about 6 months ago. It is a beautifully made device, and although there was some adjustment required I found that there is usually great support advice for all things Mac (and you need them). My two minors complaints are the keyboard and keyboard shortcuts. Whilst the keyboard has a lovely feel I find, and notice amongst my colleagues, a lot of typing errors. WRT shorts, the Command key to is too close to the other keys and makes my hand hurt when using shortcuts a lot.

Paying for software is also taking some getting used to....

[DannyG]

We went to Mac after much reluctance from me and I have to say I was wrong. There is absolutely no circumstances I could ever imagine that would have us going back to PC.

I still have to use PC daily and it is a daily reminder why I now love Mac!

Once you get past the learning curve you will also love it, that I am certain of.

[Bullant4x4]

I would go Mac but all my locksmithing programs and download stuff is PC, so for now I'm stuck with PC

[dazzler]

I would go Mac but all my locksmithing programs and download stuff is PC, so for now I'm stuck with PC

We have a pc laptop that is about 3yo and fondly called the maggot.  Every now and then maggot comes out when we need it to run a pc program.  I think of maggot as that dirty little thing from the pub that is slow, dimwitted but gets the job done now and then.

Oh, the other thing you will enjoy is using the internet on Mac.  So relaxed compared to the pop up hell of PC worlds.

Have fun.

[Bunyip]

I did have a mac for work once, installed the dual boot program on it. Best machine to run Windows on as well. I never managed to get it going myself, one of the other guys did it for me.

[BTMNDR]

I run windoze 7 on both my iMac & MacBook Air, as virtual machines inside Parallels.

For the uninitiated Parallels creates a virtual PC on the Mac, to which one adds the operating system of choice.  Then one just treats the virtual machine like a PC.

I do this only because a couple of work applications won't run on Mac's OSX, nor will Hema Maps.

With my setup I can access both the Mac side and virtual PC side simultaneously.

[dazzler]

I run windoze 7 on both my iMac & MacBook Air, as virtual machines inside Parallels.

For the uninitiated Parallels creates a virtual PC on the Mac, to which one adds the operating system of choice.  Then one just treats the virtual machine like a PC.

I do this only because a couple of work applications won't run on Mac's OSX, nor will Hema Maps.

With my setup I can access both the Mac side and virtual PC side simultaneously.

I was going to say that as well.

If I actually KNEW what that meant but as Denzel said "I concur"

[xcvator]

Why not have the very best 
Take your pc and install a free linux distro (http://elementaryos.org/), install virtualbox (https://www.virtualbox.org/) (free) then install the Mac osx which is really another version of linux with a fancy gui over it and Windoze xp or 7 if you really need a certain program.
You won't need a new pc either, just about any pc built in the last 6 years will fly with this sort of system on it and will very rarely crash, you don't need anti virus software and you can do a complete system backup at the touch of a key/mouse click 

[Nifty1]

The best advice I got when making the transition is that the Mac is a lot simpler than it seems - and that's a bit hard to get your head around after a life with Windows. Make a change, then exit. Don't wait around looking for the 'Are you sure?' confirmations and that sort of thing cos you don't get them and you don't need them.

[Jason B]

Thanks for all the advice and opinions, guys and galls they are all giving me plenty of info. As for the nay sayers, to late for me, save yourselves! Lol


Regards

Jas

[Rogerthatv2]

Great bit of gear, I have been using Mac's all my life - love them for their ease of use etc. Jump over to MacTalk.com.au for a great Mac based forum with plenty of information.

Grab yourself an el cheapo wireless mouse so you can use right button if your mac mouse doesnt have it.  Makes life easier.

Also no need to buy a new mouse.  The magic mouse can support LH and RH click even though it has only '1 button' just go to System Preferences and then to Mouse. You will now have the options to choose how to use the different sides of the mouse, I made the right side of the mouse the secondary button. To right click you click on the top right hand side of the mouse and it becomes the right click, as you would with any mouse.  You may also want to change the scroll direction as apple do it naturally which is backwards to windows, if that makes sense. 

Have fun, cheers Dan