My new iMac G5 (17") arrived today. It's the lowest end model, but I'm still surprised at what Apple was able to pack into this machine for what it costs. For the same price as the current 20" Cinema Displays, one gets a 17" display that happens to also host a computer inside itself, for about $500 less than the 17" iMac G4. And a couple hundred dollars less than the iMac G3 (DV SE/400) that the new one is replacing.
With the G5 systems, starting with the Power Mac towers, Apple finally got around to including a transfer feature in the installation process. Using FireWire, the transfer process mounts your old Mac as a disk, and transfers over what you select (in the grouping of "applications", "files and folders", "accounts", "network settings", etc). It brought over my home folder perfectly, including all of my Unix settings (particularly - my .ssh directory), and all other applications and support files seemed to transfer over just fine. I had to dig up my license again for one application, that I assume does some tie in with the hardware of the machine. Other licenses transferred over fine, along with just about all of my settings, including Safari cookies and everything. Logging in to the new machine after the transfer was basically just like using the old one, only I have more screen real estate now and the system is certainly more perky. While I could have moved all of those files myself, it was nice having the system do it all for me. For less experienced Mac users, who may not know about the Library / Application Support folders, it should prove to be a very nice experience (so long as they have a FireWire cable on hand and a FireWire capable Mac is what they're replacing).
But the main treat with the iMac G5 is the computer itself. As someone who loves aesthetic minimalism, this has me whimpering with delight. Like the iMac G4, the tilt of the display is easy yet solid. The aluminum stand is well weighted and centered inside the computer. A nice surprise is that the base stand rotates easily and keeps its center. Granted, it's not as smooth of a movement as the floating arm that held the iMac G4's display floating in space, but I don't think it's a bad tradeoff. It's still a considerably smoother than any adjustable CRT stand that I've used.
The speakers are admirable. They don't sound quite as nice, in my opinion, as the speakers in the G3 iMac DV's. However, unlike the iMac G4, you do not need to use (or buy, if you went for the cheap model) extra speakers in order to get stereo sound. In an admirably small space for a desktop computer, Apple has built perhaps their most attractive system yet.