OT and Tech question-Going over to the Darkside

I've been using the Intell/Microsoft based PC's since the days of the
8088 chip and DOS 2.X, thats' what I know. After 20+ years of using
this platform I have decided to go to other side and purchase an iMac
since they now run on an intell chip and I can still run my financial
planning/modeling work stuff I carry home on a Window's partition.
What really surprised me was by the time I got done configuring
another Dell, it's price was only $75 less than the iMac but the iMac
had the faster chip.

I'm looking forward to playing with the system but per the local Apple
store, there's not a newsreader in the pre-loaded software. I've
ordered the Mac version of stuff like Office, and such but what would
the Roffian apple user recommend for newsgroups and stuff like photo
editing?

The Apple was just delivered this morning and I'm supposed to be in
Michigan fishing after tonight so I might not get to do much other
than plug it up and make sure it boots up before Sunday but it will be
nice to learn something new.

Thanks