OSX Mavericks and new iMac Review

Well, we are finally settled into the new apartment. The movers where awful, everything is scratched at minimum and flat out ruined at worst.

So while we are fighting the movers to replace or fix our stuff, we decided to retire the 2009 Dell that was our desktop, and upgrade to an Intel Haswell/Mavericks iMac.

I opted for the 27-in with a 2560X1400 display. 3.2GHz quad-core Haswell processor, 8 gig of RAM, and a 1 Tera HDD. This set up also includes a NVIDIA  GeForce GT 755M.

So first impressions of Mavericks is that it really doesn't feel much different from several of the older versions of OSX that I've used over the years. However, we did decide to invest in an AppleTV to take advantage of the wireless desktop extension to the TV in the living room.
This. Is. Awesome. I prefer using a wired mechanical keyboard and a Logitech mouse for my serious typing or gaming, so I'm not much of a fan of the bluetooth keyboard and mouse that come with the iMac. But when these are combined with the extended desktop onto the TV and the fact that Mavericks considers both screens to be primary, it's brilliant. I have my good keyboard hooked up to the actual iMac, and the bluetooth one out in the living room with the TV. This is probably about 15 feet away from the actual computer, and I have had zero connectivity issues so far. 

I've been on Windows computers primarily the last several years, so I'm re-getting used to the maximize/minimize/close buttons being reversed, and having the toolbars for all programs up top. 

The dock still works well, and this is something I've worked hard to imitate on any of my Windows computers that I use on a daily basis. 

I've already downloaded and tested Steam, and it works exactly the way I'm used to. I am disappointed at how few games are actually Mac compatible, 9 out of my 30-odd games. As ubiquitous as Mac/Linux has become the last several years, I was expecting a much higher compatibility ratio. This makes me wonder just how effective the Steam Machines are going to be at playing all games, considering that SteamOS is a Linux platform. 

I'm having fun with the App store, Launchpad, and Mission Control. 

Having free access to the full versions of Numbers, Pages, and Keynote is going to be really nice.