Many of us have suffered through the “pane” of installing / reinstalling Windows. Even the Vista installation experience is somewhat klunky in comparison to the OS X method. Mike Frink is a fellow “fencer” (someone who sits between the world of Windows and OS X, like myself):

First let me preface this by saying I’m a long time PC guy. More so because of the “it’s always been what’s available to me” situation, rather than me being a MS fanboy. Meaning that’s what we had in school and that’s what my parents always had. Anyway, I’m buying a used (under 2 years) mac mini w/ wireless keyboard from a friend for around $400. I’m not abandoning my PC (w/ Vista home premium x64) because that’ll be kept for a few PC only games. Such as LOTRO (Lord of The Rings Online), and Crysis. The mac will be for general surfing, email, creating documents, etc. I have a couple of questions, in hopes of being pointed in the right direction.

Windows is a wonderful gaming platform, no argument.

This is a mini from just prior to Apple putting Intel chips into their machines. Should I be worried about how it’ll work with Leopard?

You should be fine.

More Importantly, do you know of any online guide for helping new users setup and install a clean OS X? I ask because while I am sure I can figure it out, I just don’t want to mess anything up. Any tips or light you can shed is greatly appreciated.

Honestly? You can’t screw it up. If you really want to erase everything and start from scratch, simply select “Erase and Install” from the setup Options menu. Yes, it’s that simple. Your experience with WIndows may steer you away from the “Archive and Install” option, but thousands of long-time Apple fanatics swear by it. The biggest Tiger-to-Leopard upgrade snag that casual users hit was related to Logitech software and/or an unsupported sysetm hack – which may not be applicable to you.

Remember: OS X isn’t Windows – different rules apply.