Looking to buy a new Mac... help?

[murs47]

I'll mimic DM's thread but with a small twist. I'm looking at getting a Mac for my next computer. I'm pretty tired of all the weekly/daily/monthly maintenance needed to keep PC's running smoothly. Cleaners for every possible threat, defragging, disk clean-ups, registry cleaners...etc. So I'm looking at getting a Mac.

Anyone use these puppies? Good? Bad? Excellent? Terrible?

[Tawodi Osdi]

Actually, I've been thinking of looking for a cheap but reliable laptop as a backup for my main computer.  I like Linux as my main system, but it is a pain for some programs that I would like to run that doesn't work well with Linux.

[Mr. Hamrick]

I work off of a Mac.  They are great for media editing of various kinds rather you are working with the photo, film/video (like I do frequently) or audio medium.  

I've never had a major issue with either the desktop I own (which is an older G5 model) or the laptop I own (which is a slightly older model too).  I've never had an issue with virus or anything of that nature.  In fact, the only issue that I have had on both of them is the CD/DVD burner giving out on both of them.  (I only burned 100 DVDs back to back on multiple days, no idea why that happened.  Actually, that was just on the desktop.)  I did lose the harddrive on my desktop but everything was backed up on an external harddrive thanks to the Time Machine program that comes with the Leopard operating system.  (The harddrive went back after having been in storage for a lengthy period of time and then an incident at former colleague's apartment. )

However, I don't recommend Macs for playing games.  While there are a handful of games for the Mac, the variety is not very extensive and leaves a lot to be desired.  The main game series I own on the Mac is Civilizations IV and I had to wait a while for it to be ported over from the PC.

They are excellent computers, though, and a fine investment.  

Oh, and the newer models have an Intel processor which supposedly can handle installing windows and thus you could install PC games.  However, my old G5 doesn't have that capability.  My laptop does but the memory size is a bit small for me to fuss with doing so.

[Tawodi Osdi]

I'm not a huge gamer.  Most of the games I like are many years old.  I would like to play FF with fewer technical problems; so, gaming isn't an issue.

As for the idea of being better for image manipulation, that sounds perfect.  I am taking computer science as my minor, and as I go along, I want to play around more with imaging.  I may have to give myself an X-mas present this year and get a Mac.  Do you have any problem with standard wireless routers, like Linksys or Belkin?