Posted on 05/07/2008 3:33:53 PM PDT by amigatec
I am considering getting the Mother-in-Law a new iMac to replace her 5 year old W2K box. I don't know a lot about Mac's but this is the model I have picked out.
They are a bit pricey, but I just can't buy her a MS Vista PC.
What do you think?
Here is the one I am looking at.
My advice, instead of spending a fortune on a Mac for the dear lady to blow up, why not get her a cheap Dell for less than $500 complete with monitor and etc. and then, if she likes it and gets her skills up to speed - then buy her the spiffy Mac.
Can buy an MS Vista PC, a copy of XP, and format-install right over that sucker.
I’m typing this on an iMac, but I bought it for a specific business purpose. I definitely wouldn’t spend the money on a Mac for a MIL’s Internet machine. Why? Fact is, since she’s already used to Windows, she’ll find Vista easier to use, anyway. Save your bucks and fight the urge to be trendy.
BTW, I also have a couple or three machines running Vista, and they’re just fine.
MM (in TX)
Your Mother in Law you say? Normally I would say get the IMac, but this is a much more interesting question. First off do you like your MIL and how much interaction do you want to do with her?
I have learned my lesson and try not to be the computer guru anymore. Let the MIL decide?
Forget MAC and their snooty computers. There is way for versatility at a much cheaper price for a PC. Apply and Ipods are evil.
I’m using the latest iMac right now. I’ve got multiple Macs and Dells. I think I’d go with the Mac - simple to set up and use. Comes with a ton of software pre-loaded.
About three and a half years ago I spent a few hours playing around on a friends Mac and was amazed. I bought one the next day and have never regretted it. You may spend a few more dollars, but you will immediately know the difference.
If you have a monitor and keyboard you can buy a mac mini, or you can go to the apple online store and get a refurb mini or imac for less money. You wont have to worry about viruses, spyware.....etc. anymore. Switching is a good move unless you’re a pc tinkerer and it doesn’t have to be expensive, check craigslist too.
For your MIL, I would suggest a Vic 20. If you really like her, maybe even get her a tape drive to go with it.
If you’re set on getting her a Mac, and all she does is surf the Net and check e-mail, she might be fine with a Mac Mini instead. And if she already has a good monitor, she can keep it and use it for the Mini.
But another factor to consider is how easily she can learn new things. OS X has some pretty significant differences from Windows. Trying to adjust to the new OS might be an exercise in frustration for her (and ultimately for you, too, since she’ll call you for tech support).
Also, how big is her base of Windows programs now? If all she does is the standard Net surfing, e-mail and Word docs, then no problem. But for someone like me, who has a big collection of Windows apps, it’s not so easy. I either have to re-buy native OS X versions or deal with a dual environment, running Windows in a VMWare Fusion or Parallels window for example. I can do that because I understand virtualization technology and can mentally switch between the two OS environments. Your mother-in-law may not be as versatile (to say the least. Most that I know would be confused as heck).
So you might just want to get her a new Windows PC. You wouldn’t even have to update to Vista if you didn’t want to. Just load XP on the new machine. It will definitely be zippier than her old one, will almost certainly be zippier than Vista, and it will be something familiar.
I got tired of the constant phone calls to help them try to cure their virus problems and registry issues and they got tired of wasting money on a local guy to reinstall their software every 6 months.
I got them an IMac and a McBook....
They never call me except to thank me for switching them to Macs.
If you love you MIL buy the Mac... it’s a better product and she will get a great deal of joy using it.
If you don’t feel the love... buy the Mac... fewer calls to you trying figuring out the disaster that is MS Vista...
You will pay more for the Mac at first if you compare to a low level Windows machine... but the hardware will last longer and have fewer costs and ongoing headaches down the road.
BTW... I own both a 5 year old Mac laptop which works great... and a T year old PC laptop which is on it’s last legs.
You'll save about 25% off the price, which makes buying a new mac a lot less painful.
I would add Apple care and become care free.
The second biggest mistake was not waiting a couple of more months for the new Mac OS and the significant price drop.
I love my Mac! I'll never buy another PC.
I would second the refurb route but with Apple Care
Here’s my solution for antivirus, antispyware and firewall:
ESET Smart Security Suite. Set it to Auto mode and forget about it. Done.
Also use Firefox for your browser instead of IE, turn the pop-up blocker on and put the Adblock plug-in on it. Goodbye ads.
Run your system through the Shields Up! website’s all-ports-probe and make sure everything comes up green.
My system is clean as a whistle. No tinkering required.
That's an excellent computer that you're looking at. My current iMac is five years old, and still humming along.
You don't mention what your MIL uses her Mac for, but one of the other guys mentioned the possibility of a refurb, and they have the white 20" for $950 right now, and it comes with a new warranty.
Before making any recommendations, though, I'd need to know what she'd be using it for. That said, I'm an Apple fan, and far prefer them over PCs, and I use a PC at work, so am familiar with both systems.
For what it's worth, if I every buy another computer, it's going to be a Mac.
Mark
If you want to go over to your mother-in-law's house every couple of months to do maintenance tasks, and biannually re-install the operating system, though, you might like one of the $500 PC's. For my money, the Mac is a bargain.
Turn computer on.
Mac appear to cost more, because they do not sell junk and the macs come loaded with only fully working copies of what you need to use. No bloatware, spyware, hidden trial software to cut costs and no cheap plastic parts to break.
Macs, hardware to hardware are CHEAPER to buy than any other set up.
Macs, software to software are CHEAPER to buy than any other set up.
Macs, Learning curve to learning curve are CHEAPER to buy than any other set up.
The PC only looks cheaper because you have to KEEP PAYING once you get it!
You wont regret any mac purchase.
Enjoy!
You will be very happy with the iMac. The lack of headaches that you would get from Dell Hell is alone worth the price. And for the price, there is NOTHING on the market that can touch this machine.
My wife’s old XP machine, my 3 year old hand me down, went kaput after 3 years and we got a new Dell desktop through Costco with Vista and a nice sharp 19” LCD monitor. It came with MS WORKS, the usualy desktop goodies, a 250 GB HD. etc. I had to fiddle a bit to put on Quicken and buy the latest version of MasterCook but it all went well. She loves the machine. It’s relatively fast and Vista was easy to learn after using XP Pro on the old one. With everything, it cost something less than $700. I would suggest you get her something like this rather than spend a lot more on a MAC. I think she’ll like VISTA
So you’ll know, I’ve worked with both Macs and PCs in a university environment for the last 14 years. The Macs have ALWAYS had fewer problems and problems of less severity. And the OSX Macs, especially the newer iMacs, are great. We use Dells for some specific software that our DNA sequencers need and wouldn’t run on anything else at the time. Everything else we do on Macs. We have everything from the old teal G3, through a couple of different second generation iMacs, a cheese grater MacPro, a couple of pre-Intel iMac 20”, and finally one of the latest all aluminum iMac 20”. It’s the Dells that have to be coddled, not the Macs.
Don’t be lulled into a false sense of security just because you have a Mac. Yes, I know, for the most part you don’t have to worry about viruses and spyware with OS X.
The primary reason? Virus and spyware writers are interested in hitting the biggest demographic as possible. Macs are a minute demographic, hence a lot less malware is written for them.
Agreed.
I wouldn’t use a Dell if you gave it to me. And sadly I’ve had to use them at work at several firms.
On the plus side they do keep a lot of tech support people employed.
Thanks to all that replied, but I LIKE my MIL, she’s a good women. I found a place where I can buy used Mac at a good price. I will check there tomorrow.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
On a new machine with adequate horespower there is nothing wrong with Vista. Consequently, if one already has XP there is absolutely no reason at all to upgrade to Vista.
I am also looking at a Mac Mini.
I cannot tell you how much I love my iMac!
We had issues w/ PC: viruses, spyware, inexplicable freezes and slowdowns. Switched to Imac and very happy. Got a refurb 2.4 GHz unit and maxed out the RAM (4 Gb for $50 from Buy.com) notable speed improvement.
Suggestions:
1) setup machine for her
2) if she is not computer savvy create a limited account (no install privileges no admin privs) and set that as default login.
3) max out RAM- speeds up tremendously
4) get cheap external hard drive for Time Machine- OUTSTANDING feature.
to those who say: buy a Dell and save 4500- how much is your time worth per hour? I don’t mind fussing with my PC but I am clear that I do so for the fun of it. When you want a computer to just work, Mac w/max RAM is the way to go.
For what you have listed, except for the 2GB of RAM, you could have this for $1399 with free shipping:
| Model | Refurbished 24-inch iMac |
| Processor | 2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo |
| L2 Cache | 4MB Shared |
| System bus | 800MHz |
| Memory | 1GB (one SO-DIMM) 667MHz DDR2 SDRAM (PC2-5300), supports up to 4GB |
| Hard drive | 320GB Serial ATA; 7200 rpm |
| Optical drive | Slot-loading 8x SuperDrive with 4x double-layer burning (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW) |
| Display | 24-inch (viewable) glossy widescreen TFT active-matrix LCD, 1920 by 1200 pixels, millions of colors |
| Video | Built-in iSight; mini-DVI output port with support for DVI, VGA, S-video, and composite video connections via adapter |
| Graphics | ATI Radeon HD 2600 PRO with 256MB of GDDR3 memory |
| FireWire | One FireWire 400 and one FireWire 800 port; 7 watts each |
| USB | Three USB 2.0 ports on computer; two USB 2.0 ports on keyboard |
| Audio | Built-in stereo speakers with 24-watt digital amplifier, built-in microphone, optical digital audio output/headphone out, optical digital audio input/audio line in |
| Ethernet | Built-in 10/100/1000BASE-T (Gigabit) |
| Wireless | Built-in AirPort Extreme (802.11n); built-in Bluetooth 2.0+EDR (Enhanced Data Rate) module |
| Hardware accessories | Apple Remote, Apple Keyboard, and Mighty Mouse |
| Other | Built-in IR receiver |
| Size and weight |
|
If you can afford to spend the extra $$$, get the 24” version instead of the 20”. The 20” iMac uses a cheaper-quality display (”TN” type) than does the 24” model.
I would suggest you get the “basic model” (i.e., don’t buy any “extras” from Apple). You can buy and add memory yourself if you wish. Apple ALWAYS overcharges you for additional RAM.
As somone else mentioned, you can also pick up iMac refurbs from the online Apple Store. They should have both the newer (aluminum) and older (white) versions available. One major difference between the white and the new “aluminum” iMacs is that the white models used a “matte” display, and the new models come with a “glossy” display that reflects light more easily. Whether this bothers her or not would matter depending on where the iMac will be located - a lot of light coming from behind translates into more reflections on-screen. Then again, it might not bother her at all.
The “Mac Mini” is also an option. Keep in mind that these are due for a revision or upgrade within the next month or two.
I would suggest you consider Applecare for the iMac as well. If you get it from somewhere like the “LA Computer Company” (no financial interest), it’s cheaper than buying from Apple. It will extend the warranty from one year to three. You can buy it any time before the original 1-year warranty expires.
Also keep in mind that with the new Intel-based Macs, you can run Windows on it as well as the Mac OS. If you use “Boot Camp” you must reboot to change OS’s, but if you use a 3rd-party solution such as “Parallels”, you can have both OS’s up and running side-by-side, and switch back and forth between them.
- John
She's already had the Windows experience. Let her experience computing as it was meant to be. My 92 year old mother is happily surfing the internet, sending and receiving emails, and writing letters on her spiffy iMac.
Tech support calls from her to me since she got it two years ago? ZERO.
If she already has and is happy with the monitor, keyboard and mouse from her old PC, you can get her a Mac Mini instead, and save quite a bit of money.
I bought an iBook as an apple refurb, and it died on me last month.
Of course, it's worth noting that I bought it in December 2002, and while I owned it I toted it about 50,000 miles and dropped it several times.
OS X Macs are secure from self-replicating, self-transmitting, self-installing malware of all kinds. It is certainly NOT because of the "Security by Obscurity" canard. That reasoning has been shot down many times.
"Security by Obscurity" is NOT the primary reason there are ZERO viruses, ZERO spyware, and ZERO adware in the wild for the Mac. OS X Macs have been in the wild now for seven years. There are NO successful viruses, spyware, or adware in the wild targeted at OS X Macs. The real primary reason is that it is much harder to write self-replicating, self-vectoring malware for the Mac.
As an experiment, I have been running my primary computer, a Mac G5 PowerPC Tower, for almost two years without a firewall. So far, nothing has gotten through. It also has NO anti-malware apps of any kind. It is on 24/7/52 on a DSL line. How long could your typical Windows XP survive unscathed in that kind of environment?
As for your claim of a "minute demographic," there are currently approximately 33,000,000 OS X Mac users in the world. Approximately 26 million of those are in the United States. Apple is adding 8 to 9 million new OS X Macs just this year to that number. That is NOT a minute demographic, especially when you consider that crackers have written viruses for computers with an installed base of fewer than 12,000 vulnerable units. They have also written viruses for cellular phones with fewer than 30,000 installed units and a virulent virus for the under 1000 iPods that had been hacked to run Linux. In addition, when Macs ran on the older MacOS prior to the introduction of the UNIX based OS X, Apple had a far smaller installed base yet there were 114 known Mac viruses and variants. There are ZERO for OS X.
Demographic studies of computer users have consistently shown that Mac users are more affluent than PC users... and that Mac users as a rule do not run any kind of protective software. That should make them sitting ducks for hackers who want to harvest credit card numbers, build spam-bots, or generally steal personal data and passwords. So why are the crackers ignoring 33 million plus Mac users, with large disposable incomes, who are running their computers bare-naked without ANY anti-malware applications of any kind?
It is also telling that the US Army switched to Mac OS X Server to run their public facing website because it was more secure than the alternatives. Since they switched, the websites have not been hacked... which was a weekly event with their prior software. They have also recently announced that the Army is incorporating Macs into other military areas because of security concerns and issues.
Incidentally, Fortune Magazine recently completed a study that showed that OS X Macs were used by 20% of all computer using consumers in the United States! This comports well with the statistic reported two years ago by the Software Publishers Alliance of America that 18% of all software sold is Mac software. In that same time period, Consumer Reports found that among their members, Macs were used by 16%, and Popular Science found a similar usage among their subscribers in a scientific survey sample.
Is the snotty nature of your post, combined with what I HOPE were intentional typos and odd word usages, an attempt at sarcasm, or is it a genuine case of not knowing any better?
Don't hesitate, just order it...
For a mother in law? Wow.
Also, Swordmaker, I picked up a MacBook on Sunday. Love it. I was holding out for the redesigned models, but I just couldn’t wait any longer. (Cheap Dell laptop was on its last legs.)
I don’t see a greater need for AppleCare on a refurb as opposed to a new machine. But if you want an extra measure of peach-of-mind, then go ahead and buy AppleCare... BUT remember two things:
1. You do not have to buy AppleCare at the time of original purchase. Just be sure you buy it and activate it before the original factory warranty runs out (1 year).
2. You don’t have to buy AppleCare directly from Apple, as you can buy it from other retailers who discount it rather heavily. One good source for AppleCare is Small Dog Electronics (an authrorized Apple reseller).
Congrats! Fun, ain't it.
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