Apple is claiming that you can't do things straight from the box, but why would a PC manufacturer ship a PC without updated drivers? Also, Windows comes with many applications to get started. Here's a list of a few:
Windows Media Player--Play music
Windows Mail--Send/Receive and organize e-mail
Windows Movie Maker-- Create home movies
Windows Contacts-- Organize Contacts
Calculator-- Vista comes with Scientific and Standard, 7 comes with others to expand calculation possibilities
Windows Photo Gallery- import, organize, and edit pictures and videos.
Windows DVD Maker- Create DVDs
Windows Media Center- Allows to view pictures and videos, and listen to music. Also allows you to get live tv on your PC
Windows Meeting Space-- Allows you to easily share documents with anyone anywhere.
Notepad and Word Pad-- Assuming you only have basic word processing needs, these programs will be quite sufficient for all tasks. Windows 7 will also ship with Microsoft Office Starter which is comparable to Microsoft Works.
Microsoft Paint-- Allows for picture editing and virtual "painting"
Many games-- (Chess Titans, Freecell, Hearts, Inkball, Mahjong Titans, Minesweeper, Purple Place, Solitaire, and Spider Solitaire)
Internet Explorer-- Allows you to surf the web, connect with friends, and expand the possibilities of your computer by downloading third party software (Which is less available for Mac.)
The only thing you have to do before using any of this is insert a username for your computer and an optional password. This will take a total of less than two minutes. My point is, when you first get your PC, your possibilities are endless.
