Horseface used Vista and go back to XP and Linux. Horseface not recommend Vista. Vista is a heavy boat with much manure in it!!

Horseface says “Neigh for world peace!!”

I’m another one of those PC by day, Mac by night users. I’m forced- er, privileged to use XP at work, hour after bleak, ahem, I mean joyful hour. Seriously, if you’re trying to have fun and need to play games on it, I suppose XP does have the advantage of countless games going for it. And countless other software titles. And countless viruses, tons of adware, spyware, malware – you name it, PCs win the “more” contest. Misery loves company.

I’m not kidding myself that Mac’s are perfect – I’ve had my share of blips and glitches, and occasionally I’d like to use a program that isn’t yet available for OS X. I guess that’s what Boot Camp, Parallels and other emulators are for, although I haven’t worked up the desire or nerve to install them yet. And I haven’t used Vista yet either, except in the computer aisles at Best Buy and Circuit City, so I wouldn’t be one to persuade anyone either way. But Vista does seem to be a pretty weak and lame attempt at copying the look and feel of OS X.

Overall, my Mac experience has been very positive – if you want to try something creative, music or video or whatever, or even just want to experience the web with a level of comfort bordering on complacency, I would heartily recommend a Mac, to ANYONE. And in the same vein, my overall experience with PCs has been somewhat less positive. You could even call it bad. Presumably you know what the PC experience is, and if you’re comfortable with it and don’t get the nagging feeling that you’re missing something, stick with the PC.

Just so you know, though, you ARE missing something: The ineffable joy (mostly) of Mac-dom. Smugness is an inevitable side effect, you’d get used to it.

I would go with Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition. or Media Center Edition.

However, the downsides i can see with an iMac for one is the onboard graphics that Apple use. The best graphics you can get for an iMac it seems is a ATI 2600. The lower model iMac sports a ATI 2400. While this is more than enough to run CoD2, its not exactly a powerhouse of a graphics card. As for office, well there is always Microsoft Office 2008 so thats not a worry, youll be able to continue to use Office while using an Mac. I very much doubt as well that you will have much problems with the iPhone, it being a Apple product and all, it should all work seemlessly with Leopard, but dont take my word for it, things can still go wrong.

As for the netgear compatibility, i see that the iMac’s come with onboard wireless, so as long as your router is wireless, i dont think your going to have many problems there unless there is some specific problem with netgear routers and MacOSX that i am unaware of. The Lexmark X3480 might be a bit more of a problem because from what i can see, Lexmark havent got a stellas reputation when it comes to Mac Drivers.

And from what ive been able to find out, from this forum
http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=287772 it appears your printer is not supported by MacOSX however even due to the fact that model isnt made anymore, they still made a Vista Driver. Also ill go ahead and point out that from what ive been able to gather, netgear wireless usb sticks wont work under OSX so if you use that to connect to the router there maybe some problems.

After giving your problem some considerable thought, i have come up with 2 solutions really. You can either go with Apple and get an iMac which will do most of the things you are asking for, however with a few snags but if your willing to look for and buy mac compatible hardware that you need then thats pretty much it, get an iMac. However if your not willing to change your current setup, aka printer and router if the router isnt supported, i know the printer isnt but im not 100% sure about the netgear router, it maybe, it depends on how you connect to it, then i suggest you go and buy a PC or build a PC yourself.

I’ll say this in defense of the PC, it may not be the best platforrm however it is currently the dominant platform and therefore you can be pretty much promised that your hardware will have drivers for it, dependant of course on the age of the hardware and what operating system you use. So if you want to keep on using your current printer+router than I would stick with a PC.

On a personal note, if it were really down to me to choose for you then i would go for the iMac. Even though ive been a Mac-Hater for a long time, i just cannot deny that right now, Apple are hitting home runs. With the failure of Vista, a lot of people are now genuinely considering the Mac as an alternative to a PC. Really though we cannot make this decision for you, you need to make it yourself. If you feel you are willing to change some of the other hardware you use though, i wish you all the best and i suggest you take the dive and get an iMac. And look at it this way, you get to experience a whole new operating system and a new way of doing things, which is always good because it means your learning.

Can you send a response to my gmail account?
Thanks from a fan and a subscriber!

First off if you get the new iMac then you will be able to play great games like COD2 seeing as Apple is beefing up their game support with studios like Activision and EA jumping on board. On the other side just about every game out there is on the PC so you can expect to play everything. With the PC you can customize just about everything with your PC but this is also a downfall. When you buy a new PC you usually have to update it to play the best current games, which usually gets pricey. With the Mac though you can expect your current system you can play all of the new games for the mac, heck they even support g4 hardware.

Now with web browsing you cant go wrong with either platform. But remember with the Pc you are open to many viruses that are not present on the Mac. So with either system it only matters what your connection speed is, and you can use Safari or Firefox on any platform.

With Office you can get that on either platform as well. Also with the Mac you can get iWork 08, which is Apple’s answer to Office. With iWork you can expect a better presentation program called Keynote that has outstanding transitions and effects.

With the iPhone, just go with the Mac, it was built for it :)

Your router should work flawlessly with both systems but there is some problems with printers in Vista so please use Google to find out if it compatible.

So its really up to you for what you want in your system. I am just saying from personal experience that I have had a better time with Mac, and I was a PC only user 12 years. Remember the iMac is a great value and with iLife 08 and iWork 08 you have all of the software you will need to get started.

Good luck and if you need any more answers… well answered you can always e-mail me at theofactor2066@gmail.com