Pros: Gorgeous form factor. Ease of use, interfacing a breeze. A creators machine.
Cons: 2 512 meg sticks of ram instead of 1, 1 gig stick. ram expensive.
The bottom line: The Imac is great if you do not upgrade because you would be so close to a Mac Pro. Carefully configured a great buy. The best first family computer.
I am vet of Windows since the beginning of 3.1 and have gone up to Xp Professional. Using my latest AMD Athlon 2100+, which now is a dinosaur. Up to now, the Xp machine had been good until it started crashing and locking up. I found out I had a bad USB adapter. Windows said everything was fine when it did boot up. I am not blaming Windows, but I need reliable and ease of use while creating platform.

Hmm, I have Linux and it has been rock solid. I run Ubuntu 6.06, and highly recommend, but it is top heavy in adding applications and doing media ops without being a geek.

Go figure. I found out this problem with my XP machine after I had just bought the NEW Apple I-mac 24. That is 24" diagonally by the way. Getting information on the Mac at www.apple.com/imac/.

The sizes 17 and 20 and 24 inches respectively. Performance differences lie mostly in Ram and the video graphics card. Pricing ranging from $1000.00 to $2000.00 depending on your choice of model and options. Options like on the 24" up to a 750 gig SATA drive, 256meg 7600 Nvidia video graphics card vs. the base 128 meg 7300 Nvidia video graphics card. Both by the way use the PCI express connection. 1920x1200 digital, and 2048x1536 analog to show the true 16:10 ratio.
A 178 degree view angle helps reduce crowding to see your creations.

I highly recommend the 24 if you are going to do video work due to the fire wire 400/800 connection. The USB 2.0 of which are 3 and 2 USB 1.1 compliant connections. A mini DVI connector to allow connection to an external monitor if desired. The faster fire wire connection is the best to pass video from your DV camera. The 1.1 USB connectors are on the keyboard itself. The cord from keyboard to the Imac is too short though. Well, there is the wireless Keyboard, and the Mighty Mouse. About say $138.00 or so for both. Sounds like I found where to use my gift card from Apple.

Consider also from the 1 gig system ram, upgrading to 3 gigs if video editing or using still photo applications like
Aperture, because these are resource hogs. Even Garage Band uses allot of CPU cycles and ram, and the additional ram is a must.

The audio jacks are 3.5mm inputs/output are here, with the proper accessories you can use the Optical inputs/outputs digitally. This is accomplished by pushing in this accessory plug in all the way and activates the digital optical in/out. Cool feature. A standard analog connection is short and will not activate the digital inputs/outputs.

A power switch as you face the machine front is lower rear left. The pivoting aluminum base allows the computer to be angled for best viewing angle.
Wired qwerty keyboard, and wired Mighty Mouse come with standard. Unlike the Minis.

Update 12-08-2006
Tactile Interaction: While I love the feel of the Mac Keyboard and the sensational looks and feel of the mouse,I found myself at times tiring of moving a mouse all over to get to a specific folder. Thank goodness for the docking panel, that is like the task bar in windows. The mousing around gets tiring because 1, the screen real estate is so large and perhaps my Middle Atlantic Desk texture is not ideal, though I can't see why since the mouse is an optical type. 2. My lack of wanting to hoof so to speak my mouse to cover the long distance, and no I hate mouse pads.

I like trackball type controllers better. I bought a Logitech Marble Mouse for about $22.00 from CompUSA. So far I am happy with it. Though I lost the cool one click for my Dashboard with weather,date,time, and calculator not a big deal so far. A nice go around is the fact the Keyboard has 2 USB 1.1 connections. So I hooked up the Mighty Mouse to the other spare port. Very handy I think. While I am not so certain about the wireless keyboard and mouse yet ( my bad experience with Bluetooth phones not helping here), this dual mouse and keyboard should keep me happy for the time being. Mousing for unique Imac features, and Logitech Marble Mouse for the long distance traversals across the screen, and fine movement in other features. Crazy solution I think, but isn't owning a Mac about thinking out of the box?

Life with the Mac. Very nice and easy. All devices interface with no difficulty. My HP CP1700 was spotted immediately unlike my other machines, though Linux saw it but was a bit clunky making it my default printer. The Mac was just a few clicks and I am printing.
The first thing you notice coming from Windows is that the conventions are different, but different is a good thing. If you close a Window in windows with the red "X" box you shut the app down. On a Mac, the red bubble closes the Window but not the app running. Things like top left on Mac vs. Top right on Windows for the max,min,close buttons. But other things look very familiar, like the pull down menus etc. are like Windows. Just done with more class and coolness I think. Using Windows reminds me too much of work. Using the Imac is time to make something cool.

I moved and put together a montage of photo presentations with music together way faster and easier than my Windows or Linux machine could only dream about.

Over 900 photos from Windows to the Mac was so easy.
I used some card readers and 6 gig CF card to help.

You get use to easy drag from window to the next and you are ready to go in a lot of instances. I love the Front Row feature with the wireless remote that allows use with I movie, I Photo, and DVD movie, and I tunes play are a snap with the I Mac. I am still learning the Mac life, and I have to say I took too long going in this direction. I love the personable interface with the Imac. The Dashboard feature with calendar,weather,clock,calculator are nice widgets/gadgets. I like the idea of running so many apps without having them shut down when I click the red bubble, unlike Windows. Seeing dual browsers side by side is very nice when doing research on things. Playing DVD movies on the IMac is easy and fun. I enjoyed A Bugs Life by Disney and had a great time with the wireless remote and the Imac's Front Row easy pro looking interface.


Update 12-13-2006

I-photo is amazingly simple to use. I shot a Ford GT and created a cool matte frame look to it, and I couldn't believe how simple it was to accomplish this. I wonder considering the editing features I-photo has if I should wait for the universal binary of Photoshop for the Win/Mac platforms, or go with Elements 4.0 for the Mac instead. Elements would only be $80-90 dollars, and CS would be considerably more. I am between an Enthusiast and above a beginner but not sure if I need all of bigger Photoshop power. Iphoto allows for contrast,brightness,sharpness,red eye and various other features that are cool, but I think if I am going to take my Digital Photography seriously, I would out grow I-photo before long. Very nice interface though. RAW shooters should delight too, because RAW is supported here. My Nikon D200 shooting in RAW is amazing, and the RAW editor though maybe limited, does a nice job getting the picture just right. Basic editing is up to the task so far.

On the quiet side this computer really is. No loud fans to distract and wear me out with its' noise like my Amd 2100+ computer. Even my Linux computer is quieter, but the Mac is dead quiet. Occasionally I will here the hard drive and that is it. The Super-drive is for burning DVD and or Cdrw etc. is about average for quietness. On the whole, the Mac keeps my sanity staying silent.

For music creators Garage Band is here to do the duties very admirably. I probably have little use for this app, but nice of Apple to include this application.
I downloaded Firefox and use it with no difficulties at all with the Imac. Unlike Linux, the Imac launched and worked flawlessly. I want to put more photo oriented apps like Photoshop Elements, and maybe Aperture.

My experience on the pre-sale of the Imac was outstanding. Sean Campanella was very professional, and made me feel very comfortable getting into this new world of Apple. I took a bite, and I am hooked. You will too. Di No computer in Pasadena Ca. 626-795-6674, I highly recommend them.

Opportunities with the Imac, a longer keyboard cable would make my routing of the cable easier to work on my studio bridge. A 1 gig ram stick would make upgrading easier. Instead you get 2 512 meg sticks that become basically useless if you want to upgrade to 2 or 3 gigs. Though changing ram is super easy. It is just underneath the main cpu unit.

With Leopard version of OSX on the horizon, you get even more capability, and a true 64 bit operating system.
The Imac is the true one form factor that the whole family, and even season music/video pro can sink his/her teeth into, and I love Apples.

Considerations. Assets: security,ease of use, great quality, stable and proven devices inside unlike Windows. Creators dream come true. Great Polished form factor and cool factor. Like the I-pod.

Liabilities. Business wants a Windows machine. But with Boot camp or parallels you can max the memory and run both Windows and OSX. Can you run Vista and OSX reliably, time will tell. With this big screen you can enjoy both. You might want to consider upgrading the drives and the Video Graphics to the 7600 256 meg Nvidia. Running natively, Vista could look awesome on the Imac with Aero Glass Desktop. Possibilities abound.

Update 12-08-2006 Memory upgrade cost. Consider your options carefully on the memory upgrade. 1 gigabyte of ram is $279.00, and $579.00 for the 2 gigabyte stick. Very unique this ram. Small Outline Dual Inline Memory Module. I am told that this is a new memory standard and it is expensive for the time being. My source, Di No Computers in Pasadena Ca. I will investigate further on this and update when new information is found. Obviously, this would translate to to over $800.00. You could have bought a Mac Pro for the difference here. Mind you less the Monitor of course. I am glad that this Imac 24 fit my desk needs so well, or I would have considered a Mac Pro for the difference. I think others should think carefully here where the blur in cost is small, and the performance difference could be large. Found a better deal than Di No on 1 Gigabyte SO-DIMM ram. 2 x 1 gigabyte ram for $279.00. Ram for the 2 gigabyte strangely was more money at $800.00 plus. Very steep for 3 gigabytes of ram. You only have 2 banks of ram space on the Imac 24.

Update: Note on upgrades. You must pre-order your Imac with the optional equipment at the beginning of purchase. Unlike a MacPro, or P.C., you may not upgrade the Imac after. Only Memory upgrade is possible. Attaching a NAS storage device could increase hard drive space later, or a Firewire,or USB drive may do the trick too, but do consider the 250gig hard drive space carefully. So be certain of what you want your Imac to do before buying. Asset,Liability? Depends on your applications, and your performance needs.
Update 07-04-07 upgraded to 3 gig of ram so running preemptive multitasking as a mac is great at is now playing in a bigger memory yard. My CS3 Photoshop saw that right away and now will dedicate 2 gigs of ram for its work flow.

Final thoughts. This I mac is friendly for everyone in the family. It has a great form factor, and a very un computer feel to it in use. Amazing machine. No virus and spy ware exploitation only sweetens the deal. As with any computer, keeping up with the latest security and software updates is critical. A Router to act as a hardware firewall is important too. So far, I am very impressed with the Imac 24 and if Apple continues to build these kind of technologies, than I am a convert for life. Try one out and see how it does for you. V.C.