Looking for advice about Apple iMacs

[xenos]

I've finally had it with my old Toshiba laptop. It is a dinosaur in tech terms and needs to be replaced. Besides it has developed a bad habit of freezing when I try to watch videos. Just now it froze three times in three minutes. Grrrrrrr!

I ordered an Apple iMac with a big screen. I'm looking forward to the 27" screen because I have an eye condition that is causing my sight to dim. I find myself using Ctrl + more frequently these days to be able to read small type on the laptop's screen.

I have no experience with Apple machines, but hear good things about them and their customer support. One problem I have always had with the Toshiba was the rotten tech support. It's even worse than HP's. Has anyone here owned an Apple and made the transition from Windows to Apple?

Can anyone give me advice on making the transition from Windows to the iMac's operating system? Any comments , tips, suggestions will be gratefully received.

 

[gb2000ie]

Hi Xenos,

I use a 27" iMac and I simply adore the machine! In fact, I like them so much this is my second one, I bought the previous one back in 2009, and it's still in use in the family as a hand-me-down. The one I am using now is from 2013, and still feels like new - nice and snappy!

I made the move from Windows to Mac over 10 year ago (it was OS X 10.3 back then, we're now on 10.10, with 10.11 due in a few months as a free upgrade). The last version of Windows I used was Win2K (I stayed with it well into XP's reign), so I can't give you much concrete advice, just some rough pointers:

1) you have years of Windows experience, changing to something else will be frustrating for a while, because you'll have to learn new reflexes and muscle memories. You'll soon pick up new reflexes and muscle memories, and the frustration will fade into memory
2) some things are just different - you're better to embrace the differences than to try make the Mac behave like Windows. That road leads to much frustration, and little joy! For example, It's cmd+c to copy, not ctrl+c - you could re-map the key bindings, but for your own sanity, don't - leave the Mac as it ships, you'll develop the new muscle memory in no time!
3) you will almost certainly find that there is an app you used on Windows that does not exist on the Mac. Don't fixate on trying to get the exact app you used to use onto the Mac, search for a Mac app that does the same thing instead. I have yet to find anything I can't do on my Mac, but I use different apps to do many things than Windows people do.
4) The menu bar is at the top of the screen, not the top of the window! Yes, you read that right, you will not find the file or help or about menus clinging to the tops of windows - the menus for the current window will be at the top of the screen. This is a big change from windows, and really weird at first. Once you get used to it you'll realise that it's much easier, File is always in EXACTLY the same place, not in the same place within a movable window, in the same EXACT place. ALWAYS. This will freak you out at first though - I guarantee it.
5) OS X (Apple's OS) has fantastic accessibility features built right into the OS - you'll never have to pay for expensive assistive software again! Screen zooming - built in. High-contrast mode - built in. Screen reader - built in. And MUCH more. You mention a visual impairment - it is probably worth your while to ask the guys or gals in the Apple Store to show you how to use the built in accessibility tools.

Other than that - don't be afraid to ask for help, here or elsewhere on the web. As a rule, the Apple community is very welcoming and helpful. You will of course find the occasional asshole who happens to use a Mac, but on average the Mac community is a very wholesome place.

Enjoy your new toy!

B.

 

[xenos]

More Questions

One thing that concerns me is the possibility of losing data that I have stored on my current computer. I have had this laptop for seven years and have a lot of correspondence stored on it. Lots of videos, too. I remember losing some data when I moved from my old HP machine to my current laptop. That was only from one Windows machine to another. How much trouble can I expect in making this new move?

If nothing else, I guess I'm going to find out how good Apple tech support is but would love to hear from anyone with knowledge or experience about the change over.

 

[josh_the_hot_boy]

Hi Xenos,

I use a 27" iMac and I simply adore the machine! In fact, I like them so much this is my second one, I bought the previous one back in 2009, and it's still in use in the family as a hand-me-down. The one I am using now is from 2013, and still feels like new - nice and snappy!

I made the move from Windows to Mac over 10 year ago (it was OS X 10.3 back then, we're now on 10.10, with 10.11 due in a few months as a free upgrade). The last version of Windows I used was Win2K (I stayed with it well into XP's reign), so I can't give you much concrete advice, just some rough pointers:

1) you have years of Windows experience, changing to something else will be frustrating for a while, because you'll have to learn new reflexes and muscle memories. You'll soon pick up new reflexes and muscle memories, and the frustration will fade into memory
2) some things are just different - you're better to embrace the differences than to try make the Mac behave like Windows. That road leads to much frustration, and little joy! For example, It's cmd+c to copy, not ctrl+c - you could re-map the key bindings, but for your own sanity, don't - leave the Mac as it ships, you'll develop the new muscle memory in no time!
3) you will almost certainly find that there is an app you used on Windows that does not exist on the Mac. Don't fixate on trying to get the exact app you used to use onto the Mac, search for a Mac app that does the same thing instead. I have yet to find anything I can't do on my Mac, but I use different apps to do many things than Windows people do.
4) The menu bar is at the top of the screen, not the top of the window! Yes, you read that right, you will not find the file or help or about menus clinging to the tops of windows - the menus for the current window will be at the top of the screen. This is a big change from windows, and really weird at first. Once you get used to it you'll realise that it's much easier, File is always in EXACTLY the same place, not in the same place within a movable window, in the same EXACT place. ALWAYS. This will freak you out at first though - I guarantee it.
5) OS X (Apple's OS) has fantastic accessibility features built right into the OS - you'll never have to pay for expensive assistive software again! Screen zooming - built in. High-contrast mode - built in. Screen reader - built in. And MUCH more. You mention a visual impairment - it is probably worth your while to ask the guys or gals in the Apple Store to show you how to use the built in accessibility tools.

Other than that - don't be afraid to ask for help, here or elsewhere on the web. As a rule, the Apple community is very welcoming and helpful. You will of course find the occasional asshole who happens to use a Mac, but on average the Mac community is a very wholesome place.

Enjoy your new toy!

B.

I have a...

iMac (21.5-inch, Late 2013)
Processor 2.9 GHz Intel Core i5
Memory 8 GB 1600 MHz DDR3
Graphics NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M 1024 MB

and I love it. The only thing is that one I have a mobile graphics card and that it's not super upgradable but thats it.

 

[gb2000ie]

One thing that concerns me is the possibility of losing data that I have stored on my current computer. I have had this laptop for seven years and have a lot of correspondence stored on it. Lots of videos, too. I remember losing some data when I moved from my old HP machine to my current laptop. That was only from one Windows machine to another. How much trouble can I expect in making this new move?

This is not actually a Mac/Windows issue, but a 'knowing where your stuff is' issue. Files like videos and stuff should be easy to move - you should know where on your computer your files are, so you should be able to drag them onto an external hard drive, and copy them across.

If you're feeling adventurous, you could even try copying them across the network, but, if you have a home version of Windows, they networking support is piss-poor, so that may just make you cranky rather than help you.

It's stuff like email that causes the most problem because your emails are not like files in your Doents folder, they are data inside an app.

In the bad old days, your email was actually stored on our computers, but today, a lot of our email is in the cloud - so it's stored on the server, and our mail apps are just windows into the server.

If you use POP3 to connect to your mail on the server, then your mail is local, and you will have to transfer it. If you use IMAP to connect, then your mail is actually stored on the server, so all you need to do is input the correct settings into Apple Mail, and bob's your uncle.

Apple have a tool to help people migrate from Windows to OS X, you might find it helpful: http://anon.projectarchive.net/?https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204087

(I've never used it myself, because it didn't exist when I made the change a decade ago)

If nothing else, I guess I'm going to find out how good Apple tech support is but would love to hear from anyone with knowledge or experience about the change over.

Here in Ireland we have less good Apple tech support than people in most other countries do, because there are no Apple Stores here. We have to use the phone. But, despite that, my experiences with Apple Tech support have been overwhelmingly good. I did have one experience that went badly initially, but when I phoned back a while later and explained how cranky I was, and why, they worked twice as hard to fix my problem, and succeeded.

In my work life I deal with Dell's VERY expensive gold support service for server customers, and frankly, I much prefer Apple's support to Dell's.

Hope that helps,

B.