I decided to jump on the bandwagon in May and purchased an iMac as a replacement for one of my PCs. While I was not expecting an epiphany I must say I am a little underwhelmed by the experience. Apart from the small differences in mouse use and where to look for menus I have really not found it any different from a windows PC, and definitely quite similar in feel to my KDE desktop. I guess I expected to be more impressed with my experience.
So far the Mac has been justifying the main reason I purchased it admirably so far. The PC it replaced was the family one and even with anti-virus software I was still finding myself cleaning out some sort of trojan or malware every few months. After 3 months I have had to do zero maintenance on the Mac, so in that regard I am pleased.
Most of the actual issues I have with the platform probably relate more to my experience level than any inherent problem, for instance OpenOffice is still not running as well as I would like. I am also not that impressed with Safari even though v4 is a definite improvement (I see a Firefox install in the near future).
What I do really like is the quality of the design. The only cable involved is power and it looks good enough that I am considering moving it out into the family area. The one bundled app I have fallen in love with though is iPhoto, especially the face recognition feature. I haven’t found the photo editing any better though.
While I am not dissapointed in the Mac, it has not impressed me enough to change my main system from a Windows/Linux machine. If any of the experienced Mac hands out there have any suggestions on how to improve the taste of the kool-aid please send them in. As long as the box stays trojan free it will remain appreciated.