To be honest, I think the previous iMac will do just as well. The differences to the new ones just seem to be technical. They're both fast, pretty and have a huge screen and make you sigh when you have to plug in USB devices (both because the ports are hard to reach and because wired USB devices spoil the overall prettiness). And who cares for 64bit anyway? Consumers?
All this ist just based on my experiences with a friend's iMac. I'm still into portable computers. Even if I don't strictly _need_ a computer to carry around, I _like_ having my work environment, addresses and all with me everywhere, I _like_ having not use Linux at the office or Windows when visiting a friend, I _like_ catching up with my e-mail while on a long train ride. (Did you get rid of your MacBook Pro? Only that would make your argument against portability convincing.)
And that's what drives the decisions. If you start doing price comparisons, you could also compare a MacBook (Amateur) plus a large screen against the iMac and the price difference will be less significant. So it's not primarily about money but more a pretty single screen vs. portability tradeoff.
by ssp — Sep 16
All this ist just based on my experiences with a friend's iMac. I'm still into portable computers. Even if I don't strictly _need_ a computer to carry around, I _like_ having my work environment, addresses and all with me everywhere, I _like_ having not use Linux at the office or Windows when visiting a friend, I _like_ catching up with my e-mail while on a long train ride. (Did you get rid of your MacBook Pro? Only that would make your argument against portability convincing.)
And that's what drives the decisions. If you start doing price comparisons, you could also compare a MacBook (Amateur) plus a large screen against the iMac and the price difference will be less significant. So it's not primarily about money but more a pretty single screen vs. portability tradeoff.