[skilled2k1]

In feburary I decided to make the switch. After being a wintel user for my entire computing life I finally became a Mac user. And for the first time I do not own a PC or have direct access to one, so this was a complete switch. Being a college student I had to sell my laptop to fund the switch so it was like it or die. After doing alot of research into OS X and PowerMac models in general i purchased a Dual 1ghz PM Quicksilver with 1gb of Ram, a superdrive, and a Radeon 8500 for $950. Now I am big on graphic arts and I demand high resolution displays for large work areas. With the Apple LCDs being far out of my financial reach I fell back and purchased 2 Apple Studio Display 21in CRT's and despite their size (and weight) they are beautiful. About acouple of weeks after I had the PM I bought a Nvidia GFFX 5200 Ultra 128mb and flashed it with a Mac Bios. It was perfect because I had two analog displays. The added 64mb over the Radeon really helped smooth out Expose` and now Im Core Image ready. My only gripe with the hardware is that I couldnt ween myself off a two button mouse and scroll wheel. Now the second button yes I could live without but the lack of the scroll wheel was something I couldnt get use to. So i purchased Dvforge's MacMouse and im a happy camper.

Well i can safely say the switch has been everything I could have imagined (and I hoped for the best) and then some. I considered myself an enthusastist power user back on tthe PC, and I knew switching over I would have to relearn many things. At this point I still dont consider myself a Mac power user but i was pleasently surprised in the fact that I didnt have to be. I remember years of watching the Switch Ads and the famous slogan "it just works", well I can say that has to be the most accurate statement to describe my experience with OS X (Panther to be exact). I have been able to find my way around without much trouble and just does what I want it to. Features like Expose` have become so apart of my everyday use (its comparable to losing the scroll wheel). But my main reason for purchasing this G4 was to use Final Cut which, with the aid of a lengthy guide book, has lived up to expectations also, so much so that im thinking about getting buying the new verison of Motion when it is released.

I know this post doesnt serve much purpose but I have just been so pleased with the whole switch.
Im glad I joined the club.

[chris v]

Cool! And welcome.

You got a pretty decent deal on the Quicksilver dualie, too. I use one of those at work and it's still a very capable machine.

[driven]

Welcome to the party!

[Garage81]

welcome to the club.

your bank account will never be the same

[olePigeon]

Expose = 50% of switchers.

Well, maybe not. But it's definately the best window management system out there. F11 baby.

[PurpleGiant]

F9 kicks F11's butt.

[Mastrap]

Active screen corners kick both F9s and F11s butt. Couldn't live without them anymore.

[skilled2k1]

Mastrap, agreed

And yes my bank account will never be the same... and thats a good thing haha

[mdc]

i love the fact that the "it just works" got added in there, especially since microsoft wants to own that slogan now.

but yeah, welcome to the club. i don't think you'll ever look back.

[chris v]

Originally Posted by Mastrap

Active screen corners kick both F9s and F11s butt. Couldn't live without them anymore.

I moved all mine to the separate F14-16 keys. Now Exposé has its own little section on the keyboard. I hate hot corners-- I'm all over the place with the mouse, and hit them by accident all the time.

[PurpleGiant]

I vote for new apple keyboards to have independant expose + dashboard keys. I want my function keys back for Flash.

EDIT: Hot corners are cool, but I only like them in the bottom corners, and now I want 4 different functions. Octagonal screens would give us more hot corners.

[Oisín]

Originally Posted by PurpleGiant

Octagonal screens would give us more hot corners.

Rotating octagonal screens are the way to go. Psychedelia to the extreme. Fede farver.

[Mafia]

Originally Posted by chris v

I moved all mine to the separate F14-16 keys. Now Exposé has its own little section on the keyboard. I hate hot corners-- I'm all over the place with the mouse, and hit them by accident all the time.

6 button mouse = expose ownage.

[macintologist]

I love mouse corners, and it's great when a PC weenie uses my Powerbook and accidently hits a corner and goes "huh?"

[itistoday]

Originally Posted by skilled2k1

...
About acouple of weeks after I had the PM I bought a Nvidia GFFX 5200 Ultra 128mb and flashed it with a Mac Bios.
...

Please more detail
Where'd you buy the card, and where can I find a tutorial on how to flash it?

[DarwinX]

Welcome to world of Apple.

[blackstar]

i dont even have expose, I decided to skip panther and go right to tiger, so im still at 10.2.8... looking for a speed boast on the 29

[Superchicken]

Welcome to the fold... turn down the hall way to the left for your free shower and ceremonial robe

[DeathMan]

Originally Posted by PurpleGiant

I vote for new apple keyboards to have independant expose + dashboard keys. I want my function keys back for Flash.

Who the hell at MM thought it would be a good idea to take over the function keys. Function keys are meant to be global, system wide things. That is one of my big beefs with Flash and Director.

I also disliked F9 for setting debugging point in Visual Studio.

[Superchicken]

I always hated how flash expected you to use the function keys... I always had mine set to launch all my Apps using quick keys under OS 9... it got really frustrating...