Apple iMac DV m7683ll/a Desktop PC Indigo (400-MHz PowerPC G3, 64 MB RAM, 10 GB hard drive)

I had this machine for 5 years (except mine had a graphite-colored shell) and it worked great for what I used it for: surfing the web, writing papers, playing Myst 3.

Good points: While OS X gets all the attention, OS 8.6 and 9.1 are extremely reliable, and you can still get a lot of software for them (including photo- and video-editing software.) This machine didn't crash hardly ever and I used it a lot. It's got a REALLY small footprint for a desktop -- at one point I was living in one room, and the iMac perched happily on my bedside table, keyboard stored on top of the monitor. The 10 GB hard drive will be more than enough unless you're determined to store 18 alternate versions of "Citizen Kane" or something.

Bad points: There's no writable media drive of any kind -- if your printer breaks down and you need to take your paper to Kinko's, you'll have to find someone with a portable Zip drive. Or you could be sensible and buy one of your own, but that's an added expense. There are only 2 USB ports on the iMac, and you have to use one of them for your keyboard, which is a minus for some people. Because your keyboard itself has 2 USB ports, you can plug your mouse and printer into your keyboard, and then plug your keyboard into your iMac, and still leave one USB port open for your zip/floppy/CD-R drive. Plus there's 2 firewire ports and an ethernet port, so you'll be fine. Stop whining.

I'd give this 5 stars, but I have to pass on this piece of bad news: my iMac's motherboard busted after 5 years of service. It's WAY too expensive to replace (a new motherboard costs more than the machine's worth) so I'm selling my poor old computer for parts. My tech guy said that this has been a PERSISTENT PROBLEM with the G3 iMac's he's seen -- so please be wary when you're buying one used.
(A note for people not familiar with Macs: that C-major chord you hear when you turn one on is a system test. If you hear one or more tones instead of a chord, or nothing at all, something is very wrong. I didn't pay attention, and that's why I had to pay someone $50 to extract my hard drive and backup my data. Don't be dumb like me!)

I used this computer for a high school graphics arts class. Most of the computers my school had were Gateways with Windows on them, with the expection of one student lab and the graphics arts department.

I had a custom built Windows mutt at home and found using an Apple to be a bit of a challenge because the shortcut codes I was used to using didn't work.

However, after about a week, I was proficient in both. Even though I use primarily an HP Pavilion at home, I can use the Apple computers we have at our college newspaper office pretty well, with only having to ask for help occasionally.