I dislike my W8 pc, but my XP died, so I configured an iMac, is there anyway to look at software and add it in during config, other than the 3 options they provide?

OS X is an entirely different matter than iOS. Don't let your experience with iOS software blur your understanding of computers.

While you will not be choosing software during initial configuration, you can always install software afterwards. And OS X does not come with the optional crap that Windows pcs always seem come pre-loaded with.

Read thisto see all the apps and utilities that come with every Mac. They are already installed at the factory. (Although you may have to download the following yourself from the AppStore: iMovie,iPhoto, GarageBand, Pages, Numbers & Keynote),

Apple Mail is an excellent email program (and it comes with every Mac) but if you really want Outlook you can always get it in Microsoft Office for Mac.

Outlook Mac is only available with the Home & Business version of Office 2011 for Mac. OSX Mail (part of the basic software on the Mac OS) is very much richer than the simple mail client on the iPad. It pretty much does everything you want from Outlook, including calendar/contact integration and allowing the creation of folders and rules.

We use an older version of Office:Mac that has Entourage, bascially Outlook in a Mac UI. When my wife got a new iMac she wantd to try Apple Mail becuse it better interfaces with mail she runs on her iPad. We were able to import all the Entourage mail and settings, and even the folders she created in Entourage were preserves and available in Apple Mail.

The Home & Student edition of Office/Mac 2011 does not come with Outlook.

More info here:

http://www.microsoft.com/mac/products

no

apple is not a dealer of 3th party software like office

when I buy a car from toyota they also don't try to sell me a tank full of gas from Shell

or fleetwood mac from itunes store to play on the stereo

toyota sell cards and a few other toyota extra products they stick to what they do best I suppose

WVL57 wrote:

Thank you everyone, very helpful. I still don't understand why Apple forces you into multiple transactions when buying and configuring a new computer, or why you would have to go to the app store and download the software that is suppose to come with the computer.

I think there are two reasons why Apple does it differently. There is virtually no difference between a Windows PC you buy from Dell or the one you buy from Asus. They all pretty much use off the shelf components and slap their name on the box. That left PC manufacturers with few options for differentiating themselves. One was price which is why they've all raced to the bottom and the other was service. One inexpensive service they could provide was pre-installing software. It cost them almost nothing, made them a tidy profit, and cost you more than it should have.

The second reason is that Apple likes to provide a clean service. A Mac has no stickers and no crapware. You decide what to install and, if you choose, what stickers to put on it.

why you would have to go to the app store and download the software that is suppose to come with the computer.

The software you refer to is tied to your account, not the computer. To download the software you have to provide your Apple User ID which now ties the software to you. If you sell the computer that software is still yours, as are any future upgrades you might buy for it.

You are wasting your time arguing. We are users and can't change anything. Go here to tell Apple what you want.

WVL57 wrote:

Thank you everyone, very helpful. I still don't understand why Apple forces you into multiple transactions when buying and configuring a new computer, or why you would have to go to the app store and download the software that is suppose to come with the computer.

I much prefer it to the Windows method, the one that leaves you're computer cluttered with software that you did not choose, or want.

This way you just download what you actually want, including Outlook if you wish.

Looks like arguing to me but to move on...with Balmer gone Microsoft may change quickly...or not...but even if Microsoft decides (or has decided) to decouple the tablet OS from the desktop Win8 will not be going away anytime soon. If you want to dip your toes into the Mac ecosystem look at Apple's refurb shop to save a bit of cash. I've been buying refurbs for years and usually get a computer that looks brand new. They have a standard 1 year warranty and are elligable for AppleCare extended warranty.

The Iris Pro integrated video on the low end iMac is very impressive. IT just put one on my desk last week and its performance is much closer to my top end iMac than my 2012 Mac mini. (Besides owning a desktop and notebook my work is split between two campuses so I have two offices with different computers as well as the computers in my labs.) The mini isn't a game powerhouse (no Mac is actually though the very pricy Mac Pro should be) but it is a very serious contender otherwise. The 13" MBA and 13" MBPr are both very attractive and the recent retina revs make it harder to justify the MBA line.

or why you would have to go to the app store and download the software that is suppose to come with the computer.

There is the matter of "free" and then there is the matter of whether or not they are preinstalled on a new Mac.

The only apps that "used to" come preinstalled on a new Mac - that you now *MAY* have to download from the AppStore are - iPhoto, iMovie & GarageBand. These were in the former iLife package that used to come preinstalled. To the best of my knowledge Apple no longer distributes these on CD/DVD - they are only available via the AppStore.

The iWork apps (Pages, Numbers & Keynote) formerly had to be purchased; they were never part of the iLife suite and were not preinstalled on new Macs. They are now free when you purchase a new Mac (or when you upgrade to Mavericks).

So is your complaint that you think they aren't free, or that you have to actually download them from the AppStore? The AppStore is Apple's new distribution method, that's all there is to it.

WVL57 wrote:

when I take the plunge I understand how the process works.

Once you've jumped in don't be shy about asking more questions. The Mac & Windows are similar enough that one can casually move between one and the other without difficulty but they are different enough that everyone will get stuck somewhere or other.