[stony]

Hey all, I guess I'm the new guy here.

I have been a Windows guy for as long as I can remember. I work at a printing company that use Macs almost exclusively. I guess I got sold and have now just purchased my first iMac.

It's a 20" G5 with 2ghz and 2GB of ram. I know I will have a few questions come up in the future but I have a few questions right now.

1. I have heard that it is maxed out on RAM. It currently has 2 GB DDR SDRAM (two 1 GB chips). Do they make 2GB chips in that format so that I can put in 4GB?

2. It comes with the Airport wireless card. I am looking at getting a wireless base station. I am not completely sure if my wife is going to switch to the Mac with me so she may continue using the PC. Anyways, if I connect the base station to my cable modem, will she still be able to access the internet at the same time as me?

3. The iMac came with some software pre-installed but without back-up disks. Is it possible to create my own back-ups of the applications that will still work?

Thanks in advance for your help.

[stwain2003]

1. They do make 2GB chips, but the iMac G5 will only support 2GB, so its not worth upgrading...
2. Yes, she will.
3. No. You can probably pick some up on eBay, but it probably isn't worth it because a new version of OSX, Leopard, is coming out in October.

[stony]

Thanks.

The pre-installed software is
# Adobe Creative Suite 2
# File Maker Pro 6
# Final Cut Pro HD
# Macromedia Dreamweaver MX
# Macromedia Extension Manager
# Macromedia Fireworks MX
# Macromedia Flash MX
# Microsoft Office 2004 (Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Entourage)
# QuarkXPress 6.0
# QuickBooks Pro 6
# Quicken 2005

[CheesePuff]

You can just move the application folders to a blank DVD or CD and burn them as a back up, but most of those are getting out dated now anyway. (Quicken is up to 2007 with 2008 being released in a couple months says Intuit, Adobe is up to CS3, all those Macromedia apps and been rebranded to Adobe, etc.)

[Chinasaur]

Did you get the original disks for that loaded software? Otherwise, you have illegal copies.

Congratulations on your new Mac

[0157988944]

So if I buy a copy of Office for Mac and then lose the discs, it's an illegal copy?

Just sayin'.

[angelmb]

Do you have any external hard disk?, then you could back-up / clone the whole system + apps with utilities like SuperDuper, just in case of disaster… it lets you to clone the hard disk for free, advanced options require a license.

SuperDuper!

Congrats getting in the Mac world.

[stony]

Originally Posted by Chinasaur 

Did you get the original disks for that loaded software? Otherwise, you have illegal copies.

[stony]

Originally Posted by angelmb 

Do you have any external hard disk?, then you could back-up / clone the whole system + apps with utilities like SuperDuper, just in case of disaster… it lets you to clone the hard disk for free, advanced options require a license.

SuperDuper!

Congrats getting in the Mac world.

That sounds like a plan. Thanks for the link.

I am pretty excited about the Mac. My wife just thinks it looks cool but really doesn't seem to have a desire to learn about it.

"Hey Honey, I just got an Apple"
"Soooooo, what are you planning on doing with our current computer?"
"I dunno, we can give it to [our daughter]"
"No, we can't, I hope it's going in your area."

[mduell]

Discussing #3 is likely against the policies of this forum. It appears you're asking us to help you continue to commit copyright infringement, since you have not legally purchased the software licenses.

[rubaiyat]

Originally Posted by adamfishercox 

So if I buy a copy of Office for Mac and then lose the discs, it's an illegal copy?

Just sayin'.

As you well know, just the lack of the original disks does not make your software illegal.

As long as you have proof of purchase.

[rubaiyat]

Originally Posted by stony 

Hey all, I guess I'm the new guy here.

I have been a Windows guy for as long as I can remember. I work at a printing company that use Macs almost exclusively. I guess I got sold and have now just purchased my first iMac.

It's a 20" G5 with 2ghz and 2GB of ram. I know I will have a few questions come up in the future but I have a few questions right now.

1. I have heard that it is maxed out on RAM. It currently has 2 GB DDR SDRAM (two 1 GB chips). Do they make 2GB chips in that format so that I can put in 4GB?

2. It comes with the Airport wireless card. I am looking at getting a wireless base station. I am not completely sure if my wife is going to switch to the Mac with me so she may continue using the PC. Anyways, if I connect the base station to my cable modem, will she still be able to access the internet at the same time as me?

3. The iMac came with some software pre-installed but without back-up disks. Is it possible to create my own back-ups of the applications that will still work?

Thanks in advance for your help.

Just curious because I have a similar machine, how much did you pay for it?

[Simon]

Originally Posted by angelmb 

Do you have any external hard disk?, then you could back-up / clone the whole system + apps with utilities like SuperDuper, just in case of disaster… it lets you to clone the hard disk for free, advanced options require a license.

There's no need to buy commercial software to clone a disk. Apple has included asr for cloning (which is what SD is actually using under the hood). There's a simple GUI for asr included with every OS X for free:
/Applications/Utilities/Disk Utility > Restore

Drag your Mac's disk onto 'Source', drag an external disk onto 'Destination' and hit restore. There's your clone.

[peeb]

Originally Posted by rubaiyat 

As you well know, just the lack of the original disks does not make your software illegal.

As long as you have proof of purchase.

Ah, yes. Guilty until proven innocent by a proof of purchase.