The mainstream press has ALWAYS said kind things about Apple's designs. What's new with this iMac is that they're finally pointing out that the PRICE is a good one for what you get.

Of all the wrong ideas people have about Macs, the fact that they're extremely over-priced is the worst, in my opinion. Almost every review of this iMac have mentioned that the price is...well...not bad!

There's still the problem of needing to buy all new software, but there's no getting around that. (Unless Apple does some Office trade-in deals like they did with Adobe Premiere last year. Hmmm...)

Mr. Mossberg's article is very effective. My wife's grandmother - someone who "just wants to learn the computer" - read the article, without knowing I'm a Mac-man, and decided that the iMac G5 was the computer for her. Not some $500 POS, but a new iMac. Priceless.

>most people will have to spend at least $150 for a Mac version of Microsoft Office

...where do I get Office for $150? Is there a cross-upgrade price I don't know about? Maybe the Student/Teacher edition, but shouldn't one be a teacher or student to get that?

Check the complaints at Apple's discussion boards. More new G5 iMac owners are complaining about their Mac sounding like a vacuum cleaner. Not exactly "whisper quiet" as claimed by Apple.

http://discussions.info.apple.com/webx?14@114.eWV9aT8Axro.0@.689b1277/0

Apple will deny any problems like it did for the iBook logic boards and PowerBook white spots, then a year later after angry consumer petitions and lawsuits announce a program to fix the problem. Wow what a great company.

I've lived my entired life without having Office on my computer. There have really only been a couple occasions when it would have been nice.

Had the 20" G5 iMac for a couple of days and there is no vacuum cleaner here.

You need to remember that they fan speed is automatically controlled by software to respond to heat. If iMac's fans are running at full speed Apple support (or some message boards) can give you the fix for zapping the problem - requires a restart & holding some keys down.

Can the Windows support guys give YOU that simple a fix to take care of all the malware that your PC gets hit with? Right, sure they can.

Sorry RC, another post showing how little you know.

By the way, on a scale of 1 to 10 where Windows gets a 1 my new iMac is 12.5.

why spend even $1 on Microsoft Office when you can free yourself from Microsoft all together by getting Open Office which just so happens to be free. And yes it can read .doc files written by Word. You can get it from http://porting.openoffice.org/mac/ooo-osx_downloads.html

Actually, if you had paid attention, Apple owned up to the white spot issue. I know, because they repaired my 15" AlBook in November 2003, with an incredibly fast turn around time (they even got it back to me within 5 days). The logic board was, however, an issue...

I come not to feed the troll but to morn him.

RC, you have become a sniveling moron. Really.

You don't make intelligent points. You don't challenge our thinking.
You don't raise our ire generating frustrated responses. It's actually sad to read your posts and see how fall you have fallen (I have read your comments on 'white spots' at least a half dozen times, clearly it is the best you can do and no one cares about it).

If you are in fact Paul Thurott of the SuperSite for Windows, as many have said, you have long ago destroyed whatever respect anyone on these sites may have had for you with you sophmoric Reality Check posts (I had no respect for you but manybe someone had).

Good bye. Good night. It's time to move on.

I come to pay my respects to RC, Paul Thurrot, or whoever he wants to go by. You see I had RC pegged as a 14-18 year old male with lots of free time on his hands. Now that it's out that he's a ~30 year old who writes articles for PC mags and runs a spiffy Web site, his RC postings no longer anger me, they sadden me. Where it was easy to hate the anonymous man known only as "Reality Check" who spouted endless dis-information on this and other Mac sites, now that he has a human name, face, and story, I can no longer hate my enemy, only pity him. Farewell Reality Check, I hardly knew you.

I agree... they have owned up to the whitespot issue, I had it with my PowerBook as well, I sent it off on a Wednesday morning and it was back in my hands on Friday Afternoon, fixed and free of problems. They have great service.

Do not feed the troll. He is a sniping poster who does not even read your responses. The only thing they do is cause him to come back more often.

[political spam deleted]

This doesn't seem like the proper place for this topic.

As a matter of fact we have a thread in the forums just for politics. Check it out.

Any mods want to break this off?