I've set up new Macs several times, and I have always simply copied my user folder to an external hard drive and reinstalled applications one-by-one. Even Macs can accumulate errors and bad apps, and the oppornity to start fresh on a new machine has always been worth the effort for me. I guess this reflex is because of my experience with Windows boxes, which I always had to take down to the bare metal on the hard drive and reinstall every three months until I got my own PowerBook 9 years ago.
Reinstalling also gives you time to reflect on the software that you have installed, and which you plan to have on your new machine. You can ask yourself: "Do i really need this?" I've ended up ditching dozens of apps that I no longer use each time, which I would not have the opportunity to do when migrating from one machine to another. Many times I try out apps, conclude they might be useful enough not to trash immediately, but then never go back to really use them.
Of course, the most painful part of the process is reinstalling the Adobe Suite. It takes forever, and requires several updates in order to get it fully updated. Several times the updates hang, and I have to go back and reinstall the offending app then go through update hell again. Why Adobe doesn't make rollup updates to their apps I don't know. I'm talking about CS3. Does anyone have any wisdom about CS5 for Mac? I generally don't use my Adobe products enough to spend the cash for the CS5 upgrade, but if the experience is any better, I might take the plunge when I upgrade to Lion.
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