Having recieved my first iMac last week I can honestly say I’ll never look back. This my unbiased review of my iMac and OSX.

I wish I made the decision to switch to using a Mac years ago. I’ve been using Windows for the last 10 years and OSX has managed to undo any ties I’ve had to that OS in less than a week.

Firstly, a tip of the hat to Apple for the effort put into packaging. Nice presentation does make a great impression, yeah it’s a frill but I imagine it does wonders for bolstering the Apple brand.

As for OSX, I love it. Vista doesn’t come close. I used Vista for the last 5 months and to be honest if it was any good I wouldn’t have bought my iMac. I’m glad Vista was so bad, because I wouldn’t have discovered just how easy life can be on Apple’s side of the fence.

OSX boots very quickly. Really though I just ’sleep’ the machine when I’m not using it because it ‘wakes up’ unbelievably quick. In about a second it’s up and alert and ready to go, not like a Windows machine that kind of has to rub the sleep out of its eyes for about 5 minutes before it’s truly ready to do what you ask it to.

Applications start really fast. They close in a fraction of a second when you want them to. I may just have gained an extra hour in my day by not having to wait for these things to happen anymore.

Exposé is rocks my world. I actually prefer that to Apple/ALT + Tabbing through open appliactions. MS tried to do something along the same line in Vista but it is just a fancy alt+tab and isn’t as productive.

I love how OSX comes almost anything a home user could want in order to start doing whatever they want. There was only one piece of trial software and that was MS Office.

The way iPhoto manages photos is quicker and easier than anything I’ve seen under Windows.

Spotlight is the fastest search utility I have ever seen. Vista’s search doesn’t even come close.

Photo Booth is great fun.

Garage Band is so extensive it’s just hard to believe it’s a bundled app. But then when I think about it, it’s just hard to believe because I’ve been a windows user for so long. My iMac did cost the bones of €2000 so I know I have paid for all this.
The unfamiliar feeling is that even after spending so much hard earned cash. I’m still very happy about it and I feel like I’ve still got outstanding value for money.

My youngest brother never really knew about Macs at all until he saw mine and was amazed. Now he’s buying one in the next few days. Even my parents want one now. I know this feeling of satisfaction with a machine that just works is old news for a lot of mac people and you’ve been saying this to your friends for years. Well now it’s my turn.

This is one very satisfied Apple convert. And I’ll be spreading the word from here on.