{raises hand} Current PC user who wants linux / unix, but as a full time college student, I want to learn unix and such. and even though it isnt a part of my major, I love useing multimedia apps like GB and finalcut (or acid and Premere in windows although premere is really pissing me off...).
I just ordered a Mac MIni today and cannot wait for it to arrive, I cannot tell you how much my pc geek peers are making fun of me and teasing me for it, hell, you would think that I just came out of the closet at a Jerry Falwell seminar... I do not understand why this "macs are for artsy fartsys" attitude still exists in hardcore geekdome but it does... My linux and windows geek frieds say things like "aw come in, you are too smart for Macs" I cannot figure out one thing, are they jelous or just ignorant?
Perhaps a bit of both. Generally that's the source of irrational snarkiness like that. Tell the Linux folks that MacOS X is Unix under the hood, just like their OS. Tell the Windows folks that well designed systems don't need to be reinstalled regularly due to corruption (internal or external).
MacOS X is a huge leap forward in tech cred. The Unix base makes it the choice in my dept (Computer Science), and most of life sciences (biology, bioengineering, genetics), math, physics... you name it. Basically, anywhere there's a need for number crunching, Macs fit in nowadays, allowing researchers to replace older Unix workstations and minicomputers for a fraction of the cost.
*AND* you can run your consumer and professional GUI apps.
Yeah, I got some static for buying a mini at the mostly wintel forum mentioned above. However, many found my experience to be enlightening, as quite a few people over there are considering getting a mini as well. Honestly, people seem to get threatened about the silliest things. Somehow me buying a different kind of computer scares people. Meh, it doesn't sound like it's me who has the issues. Buy what you want, based on what you need. That's all I did. I play my games on a console, and now I do my computing on a Mac. I get my share of windows at the office.
Quote:
Don't get me wrong Wingnut. I didn't mean "junior" in an offensive manner.
Heh, you'll have to say more than that to get me going. I thought it was funny, too.
I have a friend (an old Commodore 64 & Amiga devotee) who has become quite evangelical about PC's. We often have "discussions" about PC's and Windoze and I remind him how much he used to despise Wintel stuff but now gets defensive whenever someone has a negative word to say about it (which is incredibly often ). He actually thinks it's normal to have to format your hard drive and reload the OS, says he does it at least once a year, as if it's no big deal. \
His reaction to me ditching my PC for a Mac mini was as if I had changed my sexual preference, joined the Neo Nazis, had my wicked way with his deceased dog and drank all his beer.
I wonder if we'll stay friends now I'm not calling him every 2nd week for help with that retarded PC.
I'll still call him up to gloat about how great things are on "the other side".
I think I should make it my mission to get him to switch.
Why would anyone need 2Gb of RAM in a mini? I run graphics, video and music apps on my G4 with 1Gb of RAM and it's perfectly OK. Increasing to 2Gb of memory will simply increase your costs dramatically and I doubt the performance boost will justify the outlay. If anyone's worried 1Gb of memory will not be enough for their needs, they really should be looking at a G5..
That's true for most users, but I use the extra memory I have as RAM drives. I like the extra speed this brings when using large files in photoshop and VirtualPC.
He actually thinks it's normal to have to format your hard drive and reload the OS, says he does it at least once a year, as if it's no big deal.
Actually this practice isn't just for PC users, I reformat my Mac once every three months if needed or not. I'm a freak I know, but I'm yet to have a serious crash and my computers are always working at their max potential. I don't like fragmenting, never trusted moving and copying on such a mass scale. This process literally takes me 15 minutes to do, My OSX has a three partitions, system, swap, data. My data is synced daily on to a NAS using Rsync. I have an external drive with a image of my System, once in a while I boot from it and do updates, when I crash or do a system redo all I have to is format, copy the images across, reboot, Rsync the data partition. DONE, 15 minutes!
lol, I'm a pretty religious reformatter myself. I've probably installed Windows over 200 times.
As for defensive people, I think some get way to protective of their purchase decisions. Who cares if someone else thinks your nuts? As long as you're happy with what you have, there's no need to flame and rant about how smart your purchase decision was. I knew the Mac had it's limits, but I also knew those limits were big enough that I could do most of what I wanted.
Actually this practice isn't just for PC users, I reformat my Mac once every three months if needed or not. I'm a freak I know, but I'm yet to have a serious crash and my computers are always working at their max potential.
Yeah, you are. I haven't formatted a drive in, er... years, and I've yet to have a serious crash either. (But I do backup. )
Nice that you have the backup/recovery workflow down to a science like that, it'll keep you going quickly in case anything ever does happen.
for those of you who say that 256 mb RAM is unusable, i have to disagree. while i would personally upgrade to 512, 256 is in no way inoperable. i have a 4.5 year old G3 iMac DV+. its a 450 mhz with an 8 mb video card, and i used to have 128 mb ram in it. while it wasn't the most desirable setup, it worked just fine. i would often run itunes, photoshop, AIM, and safari at the same time with little trouble. i then bumped up to 192, then 384 when my girlfriends computer crashed, and have since gotten my hands on some extra ram and now run 512. my point is that while 512 is better if you can afford it, a 1.42 ghz G4 should in NO WAY have ANY problems whatsoever running OS X and a pluthera of applications. just thought i'd throw in my two cents
Im a 10 year windows veteran, I have two PC's and one at work.
YESTERDAY I purchased a mini 1.42 and on the way home bought a 512Meg stick of Corsair RAM.
I set it up and ran it first with the 256Meg stick. I transfered some photos and made a short movie after connecting it to my DV recorder. I burned a quick time movie and while it was burning I surfed the web and played some music on iTunes. I wanted to quicly try out the iLife suite I was so interested in.
Three applications running at once on 256 megs ram. And it seemed faster than my PIII 933 mhz,. Dell with 256Megs of RD RAM and 64 megs of Graphics ram.
Then I watched a 30 second clip on the Internet of how to open it up and replace the RAM. 25 seconds later, litterly I had the 512 in there. I restarted and it was recognized and this thing is WAY faster.
Yes its faster with 512, but for a switcher I though 256was fine. The cool thing is that with 512 the difference was NOTICABLE, that is cool a,d I dont see ANY reason to go beyond 1GiG. Seriously I have 500 photos, ten movies on this thing and i actually try to make it bog down and get slow. I open itunes and play music in the background, then i play a movie in Quicktime, and then open i chat , then open safari and surf, then go to iPhoto and pull up a 2.0 meg photo and rotate it and with all that going on it flips instantaniously.
POINT is, this little sucker is FAST, and it is simple and I FREAKING LOVE IT.
and iwth 512 it is all I could ever want, till a G6 comes out.
Yes its faster with 512, but for a switcher I though 256was fine. The cool thing is that with 512 the difference was NOTICABLE, that is cool a,d I dont see ANY reason to go beyond 1GiG...
POINT is, this little sucker is FAST, and it is simple and I FREAKING LOVE IT.
and iwth 512 it is all I could ever want, till a G6 comes out.
POINT is, this little sucker is FAST, and it is simple and I FREAKING LOVE IT.
If you really want to make it faster upgrade the HD to a 60gb Hitachi 7200 rpm drive, VAROOM! Course the fact that you have to open it with a f-cken putty knife could be a little deterrent, but I highly recommend it. I like my mini to, it makes a great TV computer, just call me a Lounge Surfer
It is an impressive little machine, even without a keyboard or monitor. I think we'll all agree 1.24 or 1.42 GHz isn't exactly a snail's pace. My roommate at college is talking about buying one to hook up with his PC so he can run his internet through it and avoid all of the viruses that have him constantly reinstalling software and patching his OS. And if I've ever seen a PC fanatic, this guy is it! So, Apple has obviously done something right. The simplicity and elegance of the Macintosh design combined with the power and speed of the G4 processor in a "low-end" consumer machine has made several people at least glance in Apple's direction for the very first time
For everyone complaining about RAM space - 256 MB of DDR333 isn't anything to sneeze at. It'll run Mac OS X just fine, which is great for most users that just need something at home to bum around on. I'd like to have more because I usually have multiple programs open at once and do some video editing and gaming, but 256 will run Panther pretty well. I honestly don't think Apple ever intended it to be an editing or gaming machine. That's why we have the iMac and the PowerMac G5 Beast. True, it's going to cost more, but it'll also cost you more in the PC world to be a gamer and editor.
On the graphics end, I know some people are disappointed at the paltry 32 MB VRAM. I was a bit skeptical myself at first, and then I saw this on Apple's website: http://www.apple.com/macmini/graphics.html. Those are pretty respectable graphics, I'd say.
It's a pretty solide little machine. It's not something I'd have because I just have the NEED for the big bulky iMac in front of me, but Apple has excited a lot of PC users that were complaining for years that Microsoft wasn't helping them out but Apple wasn't getting any cheaper. People selling them on eBay are making profits on them and Apple is selling them as quickly as they can get them out the door. And surprise, surprise, Intel introduced a "Concept PC" that looks very much the Mini. Once again, Apple is quietly redefining the world of the personal computer. Looks like this little guy is going to be here awhile.
I am absolutely amazed that you can buy a new Mac for that much money.
New iMac models have always made me think "this will help make in-roads", but this is the first Mac model that has ever actually showed up and done it for real.
And once my mom gets this thing (it's shipping to me so I can get it ready to go) and others in my family use it, other family members will probably buy one.
You can't be serious that you'd not recommend a mini because of *that*.
"I'm sorry, I can't recommend an Accord, you have to buy floor mats."
Funny thing is, Honda would never try to sell an Accord without floor mats, because they're not that fucking stupid.
RAM in the Mini isn't exactly floor mats. Floor mats are cheap and the car owner can install them himself. Install a stick of RAM in the Mini, and you void the warranty. So automatically, you have to pay for both the RAM and for some twit to plug it in. Yeah, great design, Apple.
Would it have killed Apple to add an extra slot for RAM, or at least to have made it user-accessible? Would adding a little door for the RAM slot have boosted the Mini's price significantly? These are the little details that matter, and Apple continually fucks them up on almost every product. It's been going on for years and there is no sign of this obtuseness abating. New iMac? Guaranteed to have a video chipset that's just slightly behind the times. New laptop? Count on it having ever-so-slightly too little vRAM to effectively run an external display. Want to plug a microphone into your Mac? Count on having to buy a USB microphone adaptor because Apple is too arrogant to put a damn mic port on their computers.
I LOVE Apple's computing experience, but their hardware is full of exasperating quirks that withhold it from greatness. Defending these quirks only makes one into a Steve Jobs-bitch.
People who complain about the 256 issue don't want to use a computer with less than 2 GB of memory. People need to realize that for 96.534% of the people buying the mini, it will work just fine.
Comments
I just ordered a Mac MIni today and cannot wait for it to arrive, I cannot tell you how much my pc geek peers are making fun of me and teasing me for it, hell, you would think that I just came out of the closet at a Jerry Falwell seminar... I do not understand why this "macs are for artsy fartsys" attitude still exists in hardcore geekdome but it does... My linux and windows geek frieds say things like "aw come in, you are too smart for Macs" I cannot figure out one thing, are they jelous or just ignorant?
MacOS X is a huge leap forward in tech cred. The Unix base makes it the choice in my dept (Computer Science), and most of life sciences (biology, bioengineering, genetics), math, physics... you name it. Basically, anywhere there's a need for number crunching, Macs fit in nowadays, allowing researchers to replace older Unix workstations and minicomputers for a fraction of the cost.
*AND* you can run your consumer and professional GUI apps.
Originally posted by slughead
You need at least a 9600 for core image acceleration, and many filters wont work.
Has Apple reposted the requirements? They were taken down when the mini came out.
Don't get me wrong Wingnut. I didn't mean "junior" in an offensive manner.
Heh, you'll have to say more than that to get me going. I thought it was funny, too.
His reaction to me ditching my PC for a Mac mini was as if I had changed my sexual preference, joined the Neo Nazis, had my wicked way with his deceased dog and drank all his beer.
I wonder if we'll stay friends now I'm not calling him every 2nd week for help with that retarded PC.
I'll still call him up to gloat about how great things are on "the other side".
I think I should make it my mission to get him to switch.
Originally posted by telekon
Why would anyone need 2Gb of RAM in a mini? I run graphics, video and music apps on my G4 with 1Gb of RAM and it's perfectly OK. Increasing to 2Gb of memory will simply increase your costs dramatically and I doubt the performance boost will justify the outlay. If anyone's worried 1Gb of memory will not be enough for their needs, they really should be looking at a G5..
That's true for most users, but I use the extra memory I have as RAM drives. I like the extra speed this brings when using large files in photoshop and VirtualPC.
Originally posted by Bart Smastard
He actually thinks it's normal to have to format your hard drive and reload the OS, says he does it at least once a year, as if it's no big deal.
Actually this practice isn't just for PC users, I reformat my Mac once every three months if needed or not. I'm a freak I know, but I'm yet to have a serious crash and my computers are always working at their max potential. I don't like fragmenting, never trusted moving and copying on such a mass scale. This process literally takes me 15 minutes to do, My OSX has a three partitions, system, swap, data. My data is synced daily on to a NAS using Rsync. I have an external drive with a image of my System, once in a while I boot from it and do updates, when I crash or do a system redo all I have to is format, copy the images across, reboot, Rsync the data partition. DONE, 15 minutes!
As for defensive people, I think some get way to protective of their purchase decisions. Who cares if someone else thinks your nuts? As long as you're happy with what you have, there's no need to flame and rant about how smart your purchase decision was. I knew the Mac had it's limits, but I also knew those limits were big enough that I could do most of what I wanted.
Originally posted by Relic
Actually this practice isn't just for PC users, I reformat my Mac once every three months if needed or not. I'm a freak I know, but I'm yet to have a serious crash and my computers are always working at their max potential.
Yeah, you are.
Nice that you have the backup/recovery workflow down to a science like that, it'll keep you going quickly in case anything ever does happen.
Originally posted by exhibit_13
for those of you who say that 256 mb RAM is unusable...
Perhaps you are more patient than most of the rest of us
Im a 10 year windows veteran, I have two PC's and one at work.
YESTERDAY I purchased a mini 1.42 and on the way home bought a 512Meg stick of Corsair RAM.
I set it up and ran it first with the 256Meg stick. I transfered some photos and made a short movie after connecting it to my DV recorder. I burned a quick time movie and while it was burning I surfed the web and played some music on iTunes. I wanted to quicly try out the iLife suite I was so interested in.
Three applications running at once on 256 megs ram. And it seemed faster than my PIII 933 mhz,. Dell with 256Megs of RD RAM and 64 megs of Graphics ram.
Then I watched a 30 second clip on the Internet of how to open it up and replace the RAM. 25 seconds later, litterly I had the 512 in there. I restarted and it was recognized and this thing is WAY faster.
Yes its faster with 512, but for a switcher I though 256was fine. The cool thing is that with 512 the difference was NOTICABLE, that is cool a,d I dont see ANY reason to go beyond 1GiG. Seriously I have 500 photos, ten movies on this thing and i actually try to make it bog down and get slow. I open itunes and play music in the background, then i play a movie in Quicktime, and then open i chat , then open safari and surf, then go to iPhoto and pull up a 2.0 meg photo and rotate it and with all that going on it flips instantaniously.
POINT is, this little sucker is FAST, and it is simple and I FREAKING LOVE IT.
and iwth 512 it is all I could ever want, till a G6 comes out.
im out
TROUT
Originally posted by trout
Yes its faster with 512, but for a switcher I though 256was fine. The cool thing is that with 512 the difference was NOTICABLE, that is cool a,d I dont see ANY reason to go beyond 1GiG...
POINT is, this little sucker is FAST, and it is simple and I FREAKING LOVE IT.
and iwth 512 it is all I could ever want, till a G6 comes out.
A happy switcher.
What more needs to be said
Originally posted by trout
POINT is, this little sucker is FAST, and it is simple and I FREAKING LOVE IT.
If you really want to make it faster upgrade the HD to a 60gb Hitachi 7200 rpm drive, VAROOM! Course the fact that you have to open it with a f-cken putty knife could be a little deterrent, but I highly recommend it. I like my mini to, it makes a great TV computer, just call me a Lounge Surfer
It is an impressive little machine, even without a keyboard or monitor. I think we'll all agree 1.24 or 1.42 GHz isn't exactly a snail's pace. My roommate at college is talking about buying one to hook up with his PC so he can run his internet through it and avoid all of the viruses that have him constantly reinstalling software and patching his OS. And if I've ever seen a PC fanatic, this guy is it! So, Apple has obviously done something right. The simplicity and elegance of the Macintosh design combined with the power and speed of the G4 processor in a "low-end" consumer machine has made several people at least glance in Apple's direction for the very first time
For everyone complaining about RAM space - 256 MB of DDR333 isn't anything to sneeze at. It'll run Mac OS X just fine, which is great for most users that just need something at home to bum around on. I'd like to have more because I usually have multiple programs open at once and do some video editing and gaming, but 256 will run Panther pretty well.
On the graphics end, I know some people are disappointed at the paltry 32 MB VRAM. I was a bit skeptical myself at first, and then I saw this on Apple's website: http://www.apple.com/macmini/graphics.html. Those are pretty respectable graphics, I'd say.
It's a pretty solide little machine. It's not something I'd have because I just have the NEED for the big bulky iMac in front of me, but Apple has excited a lot of PC users that were complaining for years that Microsoft wasn't helping them out but Apple wasn't getting any cheaper. People selling them on eBay are making profits on them and Apple is selling them as quickly as they can get them out the door. And surprise, surprise, Intel introduced a "Concept PC" that looks very much the Mini. Once again, Apple is quietly redefining the world of the personal computer. Looks like this little guy is going to be here awhile.
- Mac mini 1.25ghz (512MB RAM, 80GB HD)
- iPod mini (4GB) silver (engraved name)
- Epson C86 printer
---------
$974.72
I am absolutely amazed that you can buy a new Mac for that much money.
New iMac models have always made me think "this will help make in-roads", but this is the first Mac model that has ever actually showed up and done it for real.
And once my mom gets this thing (it's shipping to me so I can get it ready to go) and others in my family use it, other family members will probably buy one.
Originally posted by Kickaha
You mean the RAM that you can upgrade easily???
You can't be serious that you'd not recommend a mini because of *that*.
"I'm sorry, I can't recommend an Accord, you have to buy floor mats."
Funny thing is, Honda would never try to sell an Accord without floor mats, because they're not that fucking stupid.
RAM in the Mini isn't exactly floor mats. Floor mats are cheap and the car owner can install them himself. Install a stick of RAM in the Mini, and you void the warranty. So automatically, you have to pay for both the RAM and for some twit to plug it in. Yeah, great design, Apple.
Would it have killed Apple to add an extra slot for RAM, or at least to have made it user-accessible? Would adding a little door for the RAM slot have boosted the Mini's price significantly? These are the little details that matter, and Apple continually fucks them up on almost every product. It's been going on for years and there is no sign of this obtuseness abating. New iMac? Guaranteed to have a video chipset that's just slightly behind the times. New laptop? Count on it having ever-so-slightly too little vRAM to effectively run an external display. Want to plug a microphone into your Mac? Count on having to buy a USB microphone adaptor because Apple is too arrogant to put a damn mic port on their computers.
I LOVE Apple's computing experience, but their hardware is full of exasperating quirks that withhold it from greatness. Defending these quirks only makes one into a Steve Jobs-bitch.
People who complain about the 256 issue don't want to use a computer with less than 2 GB of memory. People need to realize that for 96.534% of the people buying the mini, it will work just fine.