Re: Another mini-Mac owner ;-)

[Don McAllister <donmc@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

My 2ps worth:

I have been getting more and more p*ssed off with windows for the past=20
6 months (if not longer).

Some background -
I bought a Pentium 4 3Ghz hyperthreading, 1GB RAM, 120G SATA HD,
19"=20
TFT machine before xmas through my firms "work at home" scheme
which=20
will cost me =A3800 over the next 3 years.

Performance on it has been lacklustre to say the least. The machine=20
just slows down and becomes unusable if you run PAR2.

The kids playroom PC is a Windows XP machine and I spent a couple of=20
days over xmas clearing out all the crap spyware etc that had built up=20
on it. I ended up rebuilding the machine.

The wife is constantly on at me on how her windows PC is always falling=20
over, word crashing, blah blah, blah.....

So I had seriously been considering alternatives at least for my=20
machine, just to get the performance and usability I'd always wanted.=20
Funnily enough, buying an Apple machine just wasn't on the radar! Sure=20
I was aware of them and had even stopped by the local PC world and=20
admired the design and appearance of the mac but just really had never=20
seriously considered getting one. I think it was down to my perception=20
that they were:

expensive
specialist
too different from Windows(?)

I sort of considered if I needed to go over to Linux but you know, I=20
really didn't want to spend a lot of time getting to grips with one of=20
the many variants. I've dabbled with Unix in the past and whilst can=20
appreciate the power under the hood did I really want to invest the=20
amount of time required getting up to speed?

Consequently, there really wasn't an alternative - quite depressing=20
really :-(

On a related note I started using iTunes as my main music library=20
package from when it was released for the windows platform. I've always=20
been impressed with the package and the way it's put together.

I've not got an iPod!

So, I saw the Apple keynote speech last year and found it interesting.=20
I downloaded the keynote from this year and was blown away. Sure Mr=20
Jobs is an effective speaker but it all just seemed to fit into
place.=20=20
The introduction of the mac mini at that price point together with the=20
apps included looked like a no brainer.

A lot of research later and trawling the Apple forums gave me the=20
impetus to go and get one of these things and check it out!

I've had mine now for 3 weeks and it's great. Upgraded to 1GB.

The performance of the machine is fantastic in it's ability to=20
multitask and load multiple applications. The windows management=20
(expose) is superb. The number of Apps available has exceeded my=20
expectations - most of it really good quality stuff incl freeware and=20
shareware.

I've tried some of the OpenOffice stuff for word and excel capabilities=20
but now I've got a copy of Office 2004 it is great. Works just like=20
Office on the PC but looks tons better! No problems with file=20
compatibility.

Connects to my windows shared printer for printing.

Connects to my windows shares for file access and storage.

Have subscribed to .mac to give me offline storage, offline backup,=20
simple web hosting (incl integration with iLife)

The standard apps that come with the mac including Safari (browser) and=20
Apple mail are fine for day to day work but you have access to a ton of=20
other apps.

Did I mention no viruses or spyware.

I got a KVM switch to switch between the mac and the PC but to be=20
honest I hardly ever use it. I use MS Remote Desktop to "Terminal=20
Server" into the PC - works great.

To be balanced, there have been some issues:
Keyboard mapping on a PC keyboard - struggled a bit with mapping the=20
keyboard but fixed most of my problems. Finally went for a mac keyboard=20
(=A319) coz I use the mac almost exclusively now and it seemed a
sensible=20
thing to do.

Application crashes - despite all the hype OS X is still an OS and OS's=20
can go wrong. I went through a 48 hour period where I started to get=20
occasional application crashes on startup for no apparent reason.=20
However, it didn't stop the machine, al crashes were properly logged=20
and a run of the disk repair utility seems to have cured my problems.

Graphics - The mac mini is not a gaming machine (although the kids have=20
found some pre-installed games which they like and seem OK). Apparantly=20
3D graphics is a bit lacking but 2D is great. The windows handling is=20
faultless.

Bottom line :

Am I glad - you betcha

Would I go back - no although I'll still use my windows PC for things=20
like file transfers, etc. I also need to use a windows PC for work.

Would I do it again - my next purchase will definitely be an Apple=20
machine either a powerbook or a G5. I'll probably but a mac mini for=20
the kids.

Oh and the iPod halo effect has worked in reverse for me - I'm going to=20
buy an iPod based on my experiences of the mac!

Couldn't recommend one more highly!

Don



On 1 Mar 2005, at 08:21, christopher purves wrote:

>
> To all who have gone the mac-mini route:
>
> Would you do it again? or would you regard it as an impulse buy?
Are=20
> you all
> now Mac converts ?
>
> I ask because I am sitting here on the fence surrounded by impulse=20
> buys and
> cannot decide whether to get one or not.
>
> Chris
>
>
>
> ----Original Message Follows----
> From: Don McAllister <donmc@xxxxxxx>
> Reply-To: ukha_d@xxxxxxx
> To: ukha_d@xxxxxxx
> Subject: Re: [ukha_d] Another mini-Mac owner ;-)
> Date: Tue, 1 Mar 2005 07:55:51 +0000
>
>
>
>>
>> Went for the bluetooth/airport option and wireless kb/mouse, but
did
>> make
>> one token gesture towards sensibility by keeping the standard DVD
>> drive - I
>> have writers coming out of my ears (painful, believe me!) in my
PC's
>> and I
>> never use em - everything is streamed these days.
>>
>
> I also went with just the standard combo drive. In the iLife apps
> (iDVD) you can burn to an image file and ship that across to a PC to
> burn on a DVD, but again, most of my stuff is streamed across from a
> file server. Noticed that the mac OS X will just mount a .iso file
> without any additional 3rd party software - sweet!
>
> The only area I thought about later was backup - it might be nice to
> have a DVD drive in the mac so that the backup can write to DVD.
Again,
> I can backup to network share and burn it there so no big deal!
>
>> Thanks for helping me spend more money on toys Don ;)
>>
>
> All part of the service Tony, that's what we're here for!
>
> Don
>
>> Cheers,
>>
>> Tony.
>>
>>
>>
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