Ah, Sandy. I still have OS 8.6 functional on a Mac II CI. Still, I don't ever use the machine anymore, because it is soooooo slow! On the other hand, my Power Mac G4 400, is now an "old" machine also, and I have upgraded the OS to vs. 10.2.8, but that's as far as I can go, without a new machine. It is a never ending money pit, but new machines are unavoidable, just to stay connected to the web and email. Even your ISP will not support systems but sooooo old, and if you want things to work well, you are forced to upgrade at some point. I can tell you that you won't need anything more than an iMac, today, to get very adequate capabilities on a Mac. I can also tell you that the price gap between wintel and Mac has all but disppeared, if you compare functionality to funtionality. In fact, at work, I actually had to pay more for a Dell, that did the same job as a Power Mac G5. (smile) If you have an Apple store anywhere near you, it might be worth checking a new machine out. (Or a Fry's superstore, although they won't be able to offer as much help to you, as the Apple store, in looking at what the new machines will do.) Otherwise, my favorite on-line folks are Small Dog. Best support out there.....including Apple. (smile)

Thanks for the ideas and pics, dbfirewife! It's especially helpful because I wear Mac makeup too so it's like looking into my own drawer! raehelen, I spent about an hour on the drawer dividers last night and thought about that spice angle drawer insert too, but this drawer is too shallow for even that! A bottle on that would hit the top, I think. Although, it would be great for my little "pots" of eyeshadow. :) It's a funny story about our vanity, actually. When it arrived, I was furious bc the kitchen planner who ordered all the bathrooms too had said that four drawers on a side were standard. That meant we had THREE useless drawers and one deep one on the bottom!!! I went nuts and insisted that they do something about it and never recommend that set up again. They acquiesced and changed out the two middle drawers to another deep drawer, which is sort of better but still not ideal. What people should have is a slightly deeper top drawer, a middle height middle and then deep lower. We still have the four in the middle section, between me and my hubby's sinks, and it's only 9" wide inside and 2" deep. Totally useless. I have two or three washcloths in it. Can't even fit a hand towel! I'm thinking first order of business then is to go through all my toiletries and purge and organize to see the shapes and sizes I need? Then measure and fit like a puzzle? I do like those Madesmart containers - wonder of they are short enough? PS One thing I did that isn't quite traditional - I put a tilt out tray and both sinks - we each keep our own toothbrush and toothpaste in there. I thought it was quite clever! ;-) Here is a pic - not a great one (and before glass pulls and knobs,) but you can see drawers. You'll probably say that I have a lot of storage but the top cabinet has become home to all my face products, hair, lotions, etc. it's too awkward for makeup - I'd like to see if all.

I'm not a pro, but here's my two cents..........I switched six years ago after twenty years with PC. For me, the change has been wonderful. My down-time dropped to zero instantly and has stayed there. No hardware or software troubles and no bugs from the beginning until now....and I'm up and running 24/7/365. Of course I've had to learn new programs and aps but at least the machine doesn't fight me all the time like my PC's always did. Thing just sits here and runs. In response to the "Macs are expensive" argument so often encountered, I would like to say this: I used to bring in computer-techs twice year, on average, to straighten out my PC stuff. Not having to do that anymore has essentially paid for the machine at this point...and those service-dollars spent don't include the annoyance and aggravation and lost work-time that accompanied the issues. Your hot-button appears to be your particular kind of work...which I am not familiar with. Since it's important to you, I would advise finding an Apple Store and taking some of your stuff on disk or flash-drive with you. All their machines will be there up and running all the time. Let them show you how the iMac would work with your stuff and you can decide based on your actual experience. I do have several professional friends who are compelled to work with programs that only run on Windows. Those folks run Windows on their Macs via parallels and run their proprietary programs that way. However, except for those programs, they leave Windows off and run everything else with the Mac's OS. As far as "learning curve", you'll be amazed at what you can do within hours. In my case, having no previous experience, I was surfing within 45 minutes of the box arriving at the door. I was comfortable within days; confident in a week; proficient in a couple of weeks. And I was absolutely paranoid in the beginning because of all my PC hassles over the years. My advice would be don't worry about the learning curve. I have little doubt things will flow very naturally for you. At this point, I have many family members and friends who have made the switch and they've all said the same thing about that.

Yet another longtime iMac user here - I have 2, one at home and one at work. I bought the one at home new, but the one for work I found at macofalltrades.com for less than $300 and both have been working fine for years. They sell Apple certified refurbished products for a fraction of the price of new, upgraded to the latest OS, depending on the year made. I like that the screens are large enough to watch a movie, TV show or video from a distance. Both came with disc drives and my home one has a card reader too. I know I'm going to need to upgrade in the not-too-distant future. So far, my older OS has been functioning, but it's starting to have problems with a few websites and apps. The one at work isn't connected to the internet, so I never have any incompatibility issues at all. Never had to have anything repaired, and never ever had any viruses either...