I'll be getting a new computer

[nancylebov]

I haven't been posting lately because I've been borrowing Heather's computer when it's available. I'm going to be getting some money to get a new computer, and the arguments in favor of a Mac seem to be less vulnerable to malware (especially important since I'll probably have broadband), good for graphics (something I want to get into for my business), not significantly more expensive than PC's these days, more stable operating system. Afaik, there are no major arguments in favor of getting a PC, but I'm willing to listen if I've missed something.

Also, it may be a clue that I've got dozens of anti-Windows slogans (and am looking forward to more about Vista), and only one anti-Mac slogan which I actually looked for out of fairness.

I'm not sure how much money I'll have to play with, but I'm interested in recommendations for good low-end Macs. I think I'm not going to be doing anything computationally ambitious (I'm not a cutting edge gamer and I'm not going to be making movies). I'm also interested in recommendations for good Mac software, espcially if it's free. It should be much less necessary, but is there a Mac equivalent to Go Back, or should I just not worry about it?

Comments

[avram]

Open Source Mac -- a list of free, open-source software for MacOS X.

Cool OSX Apps -- a blog about just what you'd think from the name.

My del.icio.us bookmarks tagged with both "mac" and "freeware". Probably overly techie for your needs. You might at some point be interested in those tagged with both "mac" and "admin".

Quicksilver, a really useful freeware utility. Here are its Wikipedia page and a round-up of Quicksilver tutorials.

I've no idea what Go Back even is, so I can't help you there.

[nancylebov.livejournal.com]

Go Back is a program which reverts your hard drive. It takes a fair chunk of resources, I think, to keep track of what's changed lately, but you can go back between 2 weeks and 2 days, and that's enough to undo a lot of problems.

[chatworthy.livejournal.com]

I believe something similar will be built into the next version of OSX.

[avram]

Ah yes, Time Machine.

Also, my impression is that Windows is more susceptible to the kinds of problems that something like Go Back or Time Machine is likely to solve. I just back up my whole hard drive to an external drive, because the only things I really worry about are a hard disk crash or my laptop being stolen. Or spilling a Coke into it or something like that.