It's only been a month with the new imac 27" I got for christmas. I LOVE the hardware, thin, quiet, doesn't get hot, beautiful non-reflective display etc. I believe Apple makes the best computer hardware and no other competitor even comes close including HP, Dell, and Samsung. Some think Apple prices are too high, however when you look at the full specs the 27" display is IPS and that kind of monitor would cost around $1000. The i5 processor, 8G ram, 2G vram nvidia 775, 1tb WD HD, Camera, Speakers, microphones, bluetooth keyboard, bluetooth mouse, etc., would be around $1000 for a pc. In an imac you get all that for $1800 so in a way its actually a bargain. Even though a high initial price.
Anyway after a month of doing almost everything possible in OSX including writing my own applescripts to automate things, installing Homebrew to install all my favorite linux apps, and running Linux in virtualbox. I still missed running linux native. So I downloaded and installed rEFInd and downloaded and installed all my favorite linux distributions. I thought Ubuntu would probably work best on this newest hardware but after trying several different distributions I found that Arch linux actually worked the best. I finally settled on an Arch linux distribution called Manjaro Linux. It even has EFI boot loader support and NVIDIA drivers included so install was quick. I am now writing this on Manjaro Linux and enjoying my iMac.
Some would say, why would you buy an Apple product that has a great OS based on UNIX (OSX) and then replace the OS? For me it's still about choice. 1. I can still not configure OSX to the level I want. 2. Apple wants to promote apps that cost you money (Many great free apps are not included in the Apple App store). 3. The performance I get from linux far exceeds what I can get from OSX.
Is OSX bad? no, its probably the best OS made to date. However, its "walled garden" approach means you have to do everything the Apple way and limits your true potential. The Apple way works and very good for those that want "just works" but very limiting to those that want "I can make it work better".
So in the end, I am a fan of Apple Hardware and appreciate their work to make an OS that works for the masses. However, the geek in me will not allow me to be content with an OS where I can't change the source code or modify every aspect to my liking. I know I am probably in the very minority of computer users these days but why spend
$1800 on the best hardware and settle for something less than gratifying. Now if only Apple would offer a Linux only version of iMac for $1600 :)
