Need advice from Apple users

Heh, probably a good idea.

As far as obtaining software... I have heard good things about Hotline, but I have personally never used it. But from what I hear, you can find just about anything on there.

Another option is LimeWire (Gnutella client), which I have used (but usually for MP3's). I would imagine you could find it there.

The eBay idea is a great one that I hadn't even thought of. Photoshop's pretty easily worth the $150 + whatever you pay for version 4.0 or something on eBay. Just make sure you get the <b>Mac</b> version - upgrades are not cross-platform, unfortunately.

As far as help... anything I can do to help, let me know. It's cool to me because I think more people should be using Macs. I'm willing to devote some time for advocacy because I believe that much in it. As a matter of fact, I believe so much in it that I believe if you give it a chance, you'll believe that much in it as well.

One thing that will bug the hell out of you for the first few months - you're used to doing things the hard way. It's almost easier on Mac OS X, and consequently, you'll find yourself trying to do something the hard way and it won't work. Fortunately, Apple has anticipated this and included the hard way as well. But here's an example of where they haven't (and it's stuff like this that'll drive you nuts until you figure it out and go "Of COURSE that's how it's done!"):

I had an inkjet printer that I wanted all of our Macs to be able to print to. I had been taking it from Mac to Mac, but this was a pain in the ass. Mac OS X 10.2 came out and supported USB printer sharing, so I thought I'd give it a try. In the Print Center, I checked the option for "Share this printer with other computers" (or whatever the actual text says). Then I went to Jenni's flat panel iMac and opened up Print Center. I noticed the old printer info there but didn't think much of it. Hit the Add Printer button... can't find any way to add a shared printer. Spent fifteen minutes trying to find it when I finally realized that Apple's Rendezvous had automatically discovered the shared printer and added it to the list (by replacing the old one). I went to my iBook and, sure enough, there was the new printer, automatically in the printer's list. I did test pages from both computers and it worked flawlessly. And then I banged my head against the wall for wasting fifteen minutes on something so simple.

You'll have experiences like this too, but once you get used to the Mac way of doing things, it's second nature (and you'll really appreciate it).

Also... Spring Loaded Folders. That's all I'm saying.