Desktop or laptop?iMac?

[pigsinmud]

Desktop has nearly died. Dh has laptop that he wants to keep child free. Do we get replacement desktop or another laptop? Is there a big advantage in having desktop? Dh is keen for another laptop, whereas I want desktop.....think ds1 will keep wandering off with laptop if we get one.

We got an iPad last year and I love it. I am lusting over an iMac. Anyone got an opinion on them?

I would normally have responded to this thread as it's something I can, in all honesty, give helpful answers to.

However following Mumsnet's decision to launch a campaign (www.mumsnet.com/campaigns/porn-default-filter to filter adult material on the Internet, after having ignored countless technical responses as to why this would not only fail to work but would make our children less safe, I feel that I can no longer answer technical queries on this thread.

I apologise that I am holding an answer back from you, but please read my reasons (www.mumsnet.com/Talk/geeky_stuff/1144717-No-more-technical-help-until-Mumsnet-listens) and if you agree with them contact Mumsnet and ask them to listen to technical advice and to do things that will protect our children.

Anyone help?

I can see your point about the laptop being hijacked. Normally I would say "get a laptop" as they're so useful for watching TV on the sofa and stuff but if you need a tethered computer and have been lusting after an iMac I suggest you get one. It's the kind of lust that can be gratified simply and ethically just by spending money, and you won't regret it- they are as gorgeous in practice as they are in the shop.

Prism - do you have an iMac? Dh was keen yesterday, but now says what makes them so different and more expensive!

Part of it is that we are going to finally decorate our living room. Tv lives in the cellar - cosy den with tv and wii. Now i'd like a lovely computer screen in living room so that I can watch iplayer or DVDs when kids are watching endless simpsons in the cellar. I have this vision of beautifully decorated room, new sofa and wood burner and me watching iMac! Now I open my eyes and see the tip of a living room with crappy pc screen in the corner!

When our Mac died we went out and bought another one straight away. We have two laptops also but dh said that neither of them could hold the amount of music and photos as well as other stuff that we have on the hard drive. I think it depends on what you use your computer for though.

lap tops are not good for your posture,
affecting your neck, shoulders, wrists. etc., and eyes too no doubt.

apple - had conversation about this yesterday with a couple of geeks and when they do photos at matches (for press) those with apple get the photos in without any swearing - the other 10 with out apple swear a lot and lose photos along the way.

advantage is once brought soft ware is free - so you get your money back in comparison

We have an iMac. We've had it over a year, previously had always had Dell desktops. DH's dad has always used Macs (their home is like a Mac museum, is v funny) and got dh a Macbook a few years ago. DH then became a total convert and persuaded me to replace the desktop with an iMac when it was needing replaced.

I am so glad we did, it is WONDERFUL. From the very beginning it made me ooh and ahh just because it is beautiful.

I work from home part-time, on website maintenance-y stuff and I can have two full sized windows comfortably open and zip between them with ease. Plus my calendar and mumsnet. It suits dh too, some of his work involves a lot of proofreading and he can do it on the screen, 2 full sized A4 pages.

I have the wireless keyboard and magic multitouch mouse (or whatever it's called), they just WORK. I can zoom in and out of the screen, scroll up and down, all so intuitively.

As I say we've had it over a year, it has NEVER crashed, it updates software seamlessly, it's as fast as the day we got it, I can search through everything I have on it super-fast - I don't bother creating folders and filing stuff any more.

It's in a small room we use as a study but it also has a sofa bed in it - so when I am not working it's like a little cinema room, the screen is as good as HD (or better according to Apple) so we watch rented films from iTunes, DVDs, or dh and I catch up on iPlayer or 4oD. We only have one TV (with Wii attached) so this is a great extra and makes use of a room that might otherwise be underused. When the kids watch it we give them 'tickets' and they get popcorn etc which they love (they don't touch the iMac then! They do use it though, with supervision)

I don't feel I am using even 20% of its potential and plan to learn basic photoshop and video stuff to do so.

I can't really answer whether you need a desktop or laptop, but I would definitely recommend an iMac!

And you can now get Angry Birds from the Mac app store....

I work on Windows based stuff all day long, and have many PC's at home. But since I got an iMac I never look at the other ones. If I really need to run a windows based piece of software that needs to run on a PC (rarely as there are equivalents in the mac) I use the iMac's 'bootcamp' feature which will let you reboot the iMac and use it with a windows operating system as a PC (and a bloody fast one at that).

Oh god i'm swaying back. The problem is it's not going to get used for much really. Bit of iplayer, bit of Internet, photos, homework etc..

We seem to have had various pcs and after a year or so they slow down and are generally problematic. I was wondering if that is the same with macs - bad poet has just answered this!

I have just been searching all in one pcs with tv tuner. I don't know what to do. I don't want to go and look at them again because I know i'll just stand there gazing at the iMacs!
Thanks for advice.

get a mac and say goodbye to windows

I am waiting until I have enough money after seeing them in RL at JL, sexy kit

Yes I do have an iMac, and indeed a few other Macs. Why are they more expensive? Several reasons really- obviously they are beautifully made, with high quality components- you'll see a lot more old Macs out there than PCs of equivalent age, because they last longer. More R&D- Apple literally wrote the book on the user interface, and it shows. They are quite obsessive about getting things right before going to market- quite the opposite of Microsoft; anyone remember Windows versions 1-3? The very first Mac was by comparison completely perfect (and earlier than Windows).

Obviously I'm evangelistic but only through experience- I used to be a PC doctor and got sick of solving problems that shouldn't exist. In fact it's a bit like a medical question- if you could take a pill that would mean that you would never get ill or tired and would look great, you'd take it, wouldn't you? Well, that's what having a Mac is like.

'The problem is it's not going to get used for much really'

Did you miss the bit where I said you can get Angry Birds from the app store?

Ha ha badpoet..I already have that on my iPad!

Just nosy, BadPoet, but what size screen have you and how much did you spend in total ?

27in, and I can't remember exactly. We get the education discount and also got a free upgrade to 27 inches as it was released just after we ordered but before it was dispatched.

I love my iMac. It never crashes or gets viruses and makes my kitchen-table workspace look like a proper office. Go on, you know you want to

I do indeed want to and I think dh does again now. He is a musician and I think he's eyeing it up for music arranging.

Does it come with a word processing program or do you have to buy that as an extra? Do most of you have the bigger screen?

We have MS Office for mac, which dh already had and we can install on 3 machines. But I use Google docs (free) almost all the time anyway. There's also tons of v cheap word processing apps on the app store, as well as being able to buy things like 'Pages' (part of the Apple iWorks set of products - a bit like Office) separately. it's £12 on the app store currently.

Thank you. Been to look (lust) today and we have decided to get one. Just have to wait until Saturday now.....

I have an iMac and a PC (well several to be precise).

I would say for most users, if you have the space then the iMac is perfect. It's a doddle to set up, a breeze to use. Comes with excellent out of the box parental controls. You don't have to worry about viruses & trojans and it looks damn sexy.

Oh and iLife is just fantastic. The only downside is the cost! But just hand over your credit card and join the cult of Apple!!

I am not geeky at all and always viewed our PCs (series of them over the years) rather grudgingly ... our last one had windows vista and was awful - soooo slow, constantly crashing and it drove me mad

Just over 18 months ago it exploded (yes, really! only a small fire, easily dealt with) and dh persuaded me to get an imac. I got a 24" screen and education discount and altogether it cost me quite a bit more than I would have spent on a PC

However .... as soon as we got it out of the box I fell in love - I am now a complete apple convert - it's so quick, never crashes, and it's so, so, so easy to use.

I use iWork - the word equivalent is pages which is gorgeously easy to use and you can make really good-looking documents - ds (10) has made a couple of websites with no help at all with iWeb - it's all just seamless and it looks gorgeous too - and never makes those awful clunking, grinding sounds that the PC used to make when it was deciding whether or not it was going to work that day ...

so I'd say - definitely get a mac - if your dc are in full-time education I think you can use the education discount - it's not a huge amount, but paid for a batch of software

Another way is to get a refurb one direct from Apple which is still given the same warranty as a brand new one:

link

Unfortunately noone told me about this until about a week after I bought mine!

Also you can use open office for Mac (if you don't want to buy Windows office for Mac or Iworks).. does the job fine!

I 'went Mac' 3 years ago and have never looked back.
my imac has never crashed, i's beautiful, it installs things without whining about it..:) I luuuurve it!
(oh and the macbook pro we added to complete my life!)

Another vote for Mac - it's a whole entirely different level of being...

The conversion process isn't painless though, be aware - it took me a while to get into the mac way of thinking, I kept approaching problems with a Windows head on. e.g. I remember spending ages trying to work out how to prioritise various "rules" I was applying to emails, and couldn't find the answer anywhere at all. DH had hysterics when I told him and said they would be applied in the order I listed them. He explained it that "macs work in the way that your brain works", i.e. the answer is always intuitive - it really is!