Gee, I'm envious. I'm in total agreement with you and wish I had the cash to switch. Tuezday's recommendation of David Pogue is a very good one. He 's a New York Times Online (and print) columnist for their "Technology" weekly magazine section called "Circuits" and a hip Apple-loving affectionado. I'm a Times subscriber, so I'm not sure there's a fee for getting Circuits weekly or not in your email. Its worth it, whether anyone is an Apple lover or not. His weekly Times video column as well as his forum is always a hoot. In the past, ususally you had to sign up to read any article from the Times Online, I don't know what they are doing now, but David Pogue alone is worth it. Also, they now provide articles, without extra charge (of his), published from 2004. I showed one of my Apple-loving cousins my 84 updates (most of them security) on my Add-Remove program list and they were shocked. They said their Mac's need nothing of that magnitude to remain secure. As far as Linux, I don't understand it and I could not get a retailer to install it for me on a new hard drive. That is a very unfair business practice. My broadband also stated that they will not "support" Linux, whatever the nebulous definition of support currently may be. Mac is probably the best choice at the moment. congrats! Marf Here is a link that might be useful: David Pogue's Web Page

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.

Here is a link about OpenOffice. I don't have good enough excel experience to be an advocate for the OO program. I love the concept of this project; professionals and users creating software for free (you can contribute toward costs), improving it as needed, and distributing for free to everyone - just for the public good, no profits involved. I hadn't heard of it until this last fall, but it's been around for over a decade. It is an org. and not a .com! http://about.openoffice.org/index.html Here is a list of features on their most recent release. Natal, I don't think I have "Pages". I haven't ever seen it and just searched finder for it and nothing shows up. Where would it be? Here is a link that might be useful: openoffice

call your telephone people or internet server. They can walk you through it. Our phone company will send out their telephone guy and he'll help you. It is most likly an easy fix. Our server has a program that I use. The only mail I get is people I have on my "allways allow list" Otherwise it all goes into my "spam" folder. Then I check it for other email I want or just delete it. not sure if I explained it verywell but I'd first call your telephone co.