Twenty-eight years after it was introduced with great fanfare, I'm finally using a Macintosh computer on a daily basis.

That may seem unusual for somebody who is a "computer guy," and I confess to having great interest in the Mac mystique through the decades.

Several factors conspired to keep me firmly entrenched on the PC side.

The price of a Mac has traditionally been more than a similarly-powered PC. That's mainly due to the fact that Apple is the only place you can get a Macintosh, so they have an effective monopoly on the hardware.

My entree to personal computing came in 1981 with something called a Commodore VIC-20, which (by today's standards) was an extremely primitive device with a minuscule 5,000 bytes of memory. File storage was on audio cassette tapes.

But the $300 VIC-20 cleverly let you use a TV set for your monitor, and it was relatively easy to create games and simple applications by typing in the code.

The Commodore 64 addressed many of the shortcomings of the VIC-20 — More memory (64 kilobytes); more characters on the screen; even a floppy disc drive! I soon had one of those on my desk.

But when it came time to graduate to my first "real" computer system, it was a used IBM PC with dual floppy disc drives (no hard drive, though).

Intrigued though I was with the Macintosh of the day, it was simply too expensive for my computing budget.

As the years went by, I upgraded my IBM with a hard drive (20 megabytes, as I recall), and then assembled my own PC-compatible computers using relatively inexpensive components from a variety of sources.

While Macs were (and still are) widely used in Channel 8's graphics department, the rest of the station was strictly PC-based, and so I had no real need to delve into the world of Apple-based computers.

But a few weeks ago, a beautiful new iMac (starting at $1,799) showed up on my desk at work, with a vast 24-inch wide screen that dwarfs the three PC monitors now vying for my attention.

This is an all-in-one unit — the guts of the computer are tucked away within the slim aluminum case.

There are only two cables attached to my new iMac: power and a network connection.

Apple's Mighty Mouse ($69) and Wireless Keyboard ($79) both work via Bluetooth wireless connections.

For someone accustomed to a full-size keyboard, the Wireless Keyboard is a disappointment. It's elegant, to be sure — thin and delicate, yet rugged thanks to a sturdy aluminum frame. But its compact form factor eliminates the familiar numeric keypad, and it's just not all that friendly to touch-typists.

Fortunately, because I use the iMac primarily to produce graphics for our Web site, I don't have to type on it very much. I'd have to substitute a more traditional letter-entry device otherwise.

I've grown to like Mighty Mouse, however. It features an impossibly tiny ball where a PC user would expect to find a scroll wheel, but it's very responsive and has an array of clicking and squeezing shortcuts to enhance its usefulness.

My latest home computer (I paid $300 for it) came equipped with the Windows Vista operating system, which continues to taunt me at every turn. I still can't use it to connect to Channel 8's internal network, because the necessary software that provides that function won't run on Vista (although it's just fine on Windows XP machines).

I mention this only because Vista's attempt to mimic some of the niceties of the Mac OS X operating system is, at best, a pale imitation.

OS X is the real deal; very intuitive (for someone who was raised in Windows) and smooth as silk, as you effortlessly switch between applications.

Let me dispense with the notion that Mac applications don't crash. They can, and do; but I've not yet seen any catastrophes resembling Windows' infamous Blue Screen of Death.

Several other nice things to say about iMac: It comes with a very capable built-in Web cam and a generous selection of bundled applications, including iDVD, which — as the name suggests — helps you create DVD discs using digital video, photos and music. My first simple iDVD production featured an animated menu that's more sophisticated than most DVDs you'd rent at Blockbuster, and I wasn't even trying!

A couple of iMac quibbles: Its streamlined look means the speakers are at the bottom of its thin frame, so the sound projects down rather than out toward the user. It doesn't sound bad, but I'd be willing to sacrifice some speaker grille holes on the front of the unit in exchange for the asthetic disruption it would create.

Also, unless you use the Mac's wired keyboard (which has built-in USB ports), all the USB connections -- heck, all of the input and output connections — are on the back of the unit. Most of today's PCs are enlightened enough to have speaker, microphone, USB and FireWire connectors on the front panel for easy linkup to still cameras, video cameras and iPods.

I couldn't do my day-to-day work without a PC; our internal systems at Channel 8 require that platform. But now that I've been able to use a Mac to create screen shots and graphics, I'm feeling a lot more comfortable in that environment. It makes work almost fun!

Now if I only had enough money to buy an iMac to use at home.

Watch Computer Corner every week on News 8 Midday at noon (usually seen on Wednesdays, but this week on Friday), or online any time.

E-mail askwalt@wfaa.com