[Closed] Is an iMac a good choice for a kids computer?

[i] dragging and dropping files onto my MP3 player, installing obscure system add-ons, [/i]

I don't do any of that, ever. I use i-tunes and my PC automatically installs he system upgrades.

i-tunes!!! heretic!! traitor!! you have been sucked into the Apple lifestyle tyranny!!

What I don't have is the hassle of the disk images and mounting that you do on a mac!

Hassle? what hassle?

i-tunes!!! heretic!! traitor!! you have been sucked into the Apple lifestyle tyranny!!

No Its just that Itunes is the only thing that works with my [whispers]ipod

runs for cover

Try googling PC problem surfer. How many do you get then?

Probably more but the "it just works" seems to be the mantra of Mac owners when it clearly isnt the case.
They are bought because they are more stylish and the "goodies" in the Hollywood blockbusters use them. Not because they are more or less reliable.
They are limited and they must be kicking themselves with that single button mouse thing!

lol

No Its just that Itunes is the only thing that works with my [whispers]ipod

runs for cover

Try [url= http://www.mediamonkey.com/ ]Media Monkey[/url]. It's far better than iTunes, especially for larger mp3 collections. Worth paying for but the free version is pretty good too.

Try Media Monkey. It's far better than iTunes, especially for larger mp3 collections. Worth paying for.

hahaha - exactly my point!! You spend time and money on an i-tunes replacement, for what improvement in your LIFE?

They are limited and they must be kicking themselves with that single button mouse thing!

ROFL - like this one ...
[url= http://www.apple.com/magicmouse/ ]http://www.apple.com/magicmouse/[/url]

Try Media Monkey.

I seldom buy software but i bought this. I dont use it however as the device recognition is not reliable and its simply not as user friendly as Itunes unfortunately.
I am not paranoid about ITunes however as some on here are.

And they will never lose their homework with time machine.

Heheheheh. Until it burns out after c.18months

thats an issue with the apple branded time machine hard drive - not the time machine software itself. You don't have to buy an apple harddrive to use time machine (in fact the key benefit of that drive seems to be wirless backup - not really needed if he's looking to but an iMac)

hahaha - exactly my point!! You spend time and money on an i-tunes replacement, for what improvement in your LIFE?

I am not paranoid about ITunes however as some on here are

I'm not paranoid about itunes but would happily pay for a replacment, why...because it's just sh!t.
Unforunatley my phone ties me into it, damn....

hahaha - exactly my point!! You spend time and money on an i-tunes replacement, for what improvement in your LIFE?

Money - there's a free version
Time - faster download than iTunes, easy install, sets itself faster than iTunes, far less resource hungry than iTunes - it'll actually save you time. The improvement in my life is that my music collection (c.20,000 plus files) is better organised and I experience none of the irritations and poor performance that I suffered with with iTunes. It's only a small improvement but they all add up, no?

I dont use it however as the device recognition is not reliable and its simply not as user friendly as Itunes unfortunately.

<shrugs> my mileage clearly varies 🙂 I find iTunes horrible to use. Plus, i use my phone as an mp3 player and MM works fine with that.

imho, iTunes is awful but at least it's not as bad at its job as Safari...

that magic mouse... Yeah its impressive, but its 55 quid, for a mouse!!! come on, get a grip of yourselves. my mouse clicks, scrolls all of that and it cost a fiver.

Apple can and will relase anything, and people will just buy it, amazing marketing, but if you spend 55 quid on a mouse you are well and truly mental

That's nonsense.

Not in my experiance is isn't

Money - there's a free version

So why did surfer pay for his?

Time - faster download than iTunes, easy install, sets itself faster than iTunes, far less resource hungry than iTunes - it'll actually save you time. The improvement in my life is that my music collection (c.20,000 plus files) is better organised and I experience none of the irritations and poor performance that I suffered with with iTunes. It's only a small improvement but they all add up, no?

No time to download and install iTunes - it comes pre-installed. Anyway - it takes 5 minutes, once! Time is spent locating and testing software, no? If your life is measurably improved by the way your music collection is arranged, then I don't think we have the same concept of a life.

its 55 quid, for a mouse!!!

You're talking on a forum where people buy Chris King headsets !!

/steps out of thread.

Kids have a talent for breaking PCs

I've been an IT professional specialising in Windows for 15 years. I know alot about Windows. I locked down their accounts to the nth degree, limited read/write access, only use firefox, all the anti virus stuff kept up to date etc etc. They STILL manage to make odd things happen. I don't know how they manage it.

Next PC is going to have Ubuntu on it. If they have to use windows they'll have virtual machines.

Apple is just too propriatary for me. Its not more expensive because its 'better' its more expensive because its a closed shop in terms of hardware and even much of the software and standards.

hold up hold up, i got your problem solved sod both the PC and the mac if your buying your kids a computer lodious get them a Playstation 3

If your life is measurably improved by the way your music collection is arranged, then I don't think we have the same concept of a life.

Fair enough. Music has always been an important part of my life. If it's not to you then iTuines will be fine 🙂

Jon, then your experience must be rather limited! Ever tried adding a wireless printer or scanner? How about connecting to bluetooth phone to copy music across? How about plugging your laptop into your telly so you can watch iplayer on the big screen? All of those are a nightmare on linux. The list could go on and on as well.

Linux is very good on small to medium sized servers, outside of that niche it can work well but requires significantly more effort to do so than it's competitors.

its 55 quid, for a mouse!!!

My logitec one was £35, i dont think £55 is that expensive considering its got all that fancy touch sensative gubbins.

Linux is very good on small to medium sized servers

Depends on your criteria of "small" and "medium". Linux is a very reliable and robust platform in my experience, which is quite broad.

Jon, then your experience must be rather limited!

Clearly not as experianced as you then, but I got my laptop networked up with the vista machine and shared the printer, and I playing video through the TV as a second monitor. Not tried bluetooth, but I got it to do everything I needed / did before on Vista with no problems (in fact, drivers were less of a problem for me on Ubuntu for older devices).

Well if it works for you then good on you, but osx certainly felt like a big step forward for me. 😉

I would suggest (apologies if it has been said already) that you get the same system as your kids' school use otherwise they will be really proficient in something that is useless as an educational tool and have to re-learn.

If that wasn't a consideration I would suggest a Mac every time.

I've got five machines at home. 2x Vista, 1x XP pro, 1x Mac, 1x Ubuntu laptop.

The one that gets used the most is the Ubuntu laptop. I just works.

I resurrected a 6 year old laptop with it. No faffing about with drivers, no bloody annoying mouse or bizarre keystrokes to get things done. No worrying about AV software. Plus if I need an app to do anything, I just search for one and install it - it's free.

For me, it's the best of both worlds - you get a simple but reliable operating system that looks good too.

I work away from home, and I don't want to be fixing the computer every time I get home. They use my PC at the moment and I have had to reinstall the O/S from scratch after they had been using it.

If you had a Mac, you wouldn't have to do that.

You seem to be using your bad experience with PCs almost as an excuse for not moving to a better platform. Like a wife who stays with an abusive husband.

No, you may find it hard to believe, but there really is a better way … and not all computers are the same.

Buy a Mac; you'll love it and your kids will love you for it.

If you had a Mac, you wouldn't have to do that.

You seem to be using your bad experience with PCs almost as an excuse for not moving to a better platform. Like a wife who stays with an abusive husband.

No, you may find it hard to believe, but there really is a better way … and not all computers are the same.

Buy a Mac; you'll love it and your kids will love you for it.

Stop evangelising! Apple is a company with the sole intent of making money, it is not your friend!

Buy a Mac; you'll love it and your kids will love you for it.

That even sounds like a strap-line from an Apple Advert. 😆

Like a wife who stays with an abusive husband.

WFT?????

but there really is a better way

You should look [url= http://www.scientology.org/?source=ga&gclid=CJjS9MjN9p0CFUtp4wodxn6YqQ ]these[/url] guys up. You'll fit in perfectly.

that magic mouse... Yeah its impressive, but its 55 quid, for a mouse!!! come on, get a grip of yourselves. my mouse clicks, scrolls all of that and it cost a fiver.

Apple can and will relase anything, and people will just buy it, amazing marketing, but if you spend 55 quid on a mouse you are well and truly mental

having used the multi finger gestures on a macbook pro for the last month i'm now getting one of the new apple mice for my tower. it's a fantastic system and very intuitive.

Linux is very good on small to medium sized servers

We run Oracle RAC on RedHat servers for 4 9's availability. Hardly a small application.
I've got a Mac at home because I can't be arsed to bugger about with computers when I get home. Linux is OK once setup for a range of tasks, but I'd bet you'll get an issue from someone in your family at some point about something... new printer that turns out to be Windows only etc... if you can live with that you'd be fine. Windows 7 is really rather good but will always be the target of choice for malware viruses etc.

There is no 'better' only different. I'm going to build a 7 home machine as I can't afford to replace the Macbook Pro with a bigger iMac.. but if I had the money I would.

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Under controlled conditions in a lab somewhere. An iMac and good PC will both do exactly the same probably equally as fast.

In the real world if your kids are using it your pc will get filled with sh*te from the internet and will break down on you/need a pc literate friend to look at it from time to time. This won't happen with the iMac.

I'm not biased as I use both, but would choose to use the Mac more.

The downside is that the hardware costs more initially.

"It's likely that your kids will be using a PC when they go to school." and will therefore loose the ability to think for themselves - not being confused when there is no little blue e to make the internet work is a good thing.

In the real world if your kids are using it your pc will get filled with sh*te from the internet and will break down on you/need a pc literate friend to look at it from time to time. This won't happen with the iMac

Not in my "real" world.

It's likely that your kids will be using a PC when they go to school and will therefore loose the ability to think for themselves

Think for themselves like all those people who have been seduced by Apple marketing machine you mean, and pay a huge premium for the privilege?

Macs are cheaper. It's been successfully argued plenty of times. More outlay (although not much if you really compare like with like) and then they just keep working for 3 or 4 years without crashing, getting infected etc - no downtime.

Looks like Windows 7 has closed the gap aesthetically but I can't see the security being as strong as a Mac.

If your kids are creative, having Garageband and iMovie (as part of the initial cost) will be great for them.

The argument that no-one wants to write malware for MacOSX is such a load of rubbish. It's a huge target - mainly because of how secure everyone says it is - what trogan writing geek wouldn't want to infect it?!

...like I said, what better start for kids than to go to school with an innate sense of superiority, you know it makes sense. When they grow up they'll thank you for it, then contribute to threads like this one.

...or alternately they will grow up all bitter and twisted for being denied a mac and feel the constant need to take a unnecessarily vitriolic stance in threads like this.

...just saying.

pjbarton - Member

Macs are cheaper. It's been successfully argued plenty of times.

If that were true, the majority of the worlds businesses would have moved over to them years ago.

lodious - Member

Looking at getting a computer for the kids (age 8 and 4). I made the mistake of calling into PC world on the way home. After playing with the imac for 10mins, the PC's look bloody awful. The imac looks like a much nicer, friendlier option.

Well done. You've successfully passed the audition. At least you're not trying to pretend that it's anything other than "looks".

We've got Mac's and Windows PC's (and Linux ones) at home and when replacing their desktops with laptops recently both kids chose to go with Windows ones. My kids are both teenagers though so having the ability to access most games and other standard software was important to them. They both have to use Macs at school but don't find any problems switching from one to the other. My wife also uses a Mac at work (she's a teacher) but chose a Windows laptop for home use.

Our office allows people to choose Macs or Windows PC's and, while Windows machines are in the majority, there are quite a few Macs in use. We don't seem to see a lot of difference with reliability etc. (we buy decent PC's and laptops not cheapo ones) although we seem to get more networking compatability issues with the Macs, especially when on customer networks or using VPN's.

If your kids are young and therefore undemanding users and you know little about computers then a mac might be ideal for you.

People who moan about macs are [i]just[/i] poor people, right?

People who moan about macs are just poor people, right?

they also ride inbreds, eat own brand haribo and use tioga tyres. 😆

[i]or alternately they will grow up all bitter and twisted[/i]

My first computer was a Mac, I still use one on occasion, as well as PCs. I'm strangely fortunate in that I'm able to see that the tool is less important than the job, hence my scorn for the golden delicious fanboys...