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Will Mac mini Lead the Charge to Smaller Desktops?
elecngnr writes "Maybe size doesn't matter. ZDNet has a story about how the Mac mini may shift consumers away from the larger tower style desktops to smaller ones. Other computer makers, such as HP, have so far been unsuccessful in marketing small computers to consumers. However, Apple does have a history of leading the charge in paradigm shifts in certain aspects of consumer products (e.g. GUI's, color changes, the iPod, and the list goes on). It is also important to recognize that they have been wrong at times too (e.g. the Cube, the Newton, and the one button mouse). Time will tell which list the Mini will belong to."
"What we found was, at least at that time (before HP bought Compaq), that people were still concerned about expandability," Anderson said. "It's been an important feature of the PC for the last 20 years, but as the PC has gone mainstream, it's been something that people liked but that they haven't used."
;)
Will it make a shift to smaller sized desktops? Maybe. Most people never need to open their case for a memory upgrade or some other piece of hardware being added but a lot of people do enjoy the ability to do that. As long as these small form factor machines are still able to be upgraded fairly easily I don't see why they wouldn't be popular... Personally I am rearranging my computer desk to accommodate the Mini. Not because of its size but because I want to show off the fact that I have this sleek, little, quiet, box sitting on my desk (BTW - I took Slashdotter advice from yesterday's article about the Mini and hardware upgrades and went with 512MB. I couldn't justify the $210 for 1GB when 512 was only $80). I am not looking forward to using two thin putty knives to open my brand new machine though. Why couldn't they have just made it user serviceable for RAM?
For the first time since I was 12 I am nervous about opening a computer case and swapping out some stuff inside. To me, that's just wrong.
Most buyers tend to purchase PCs based more on price and quality of technical support than on design, analysts said. Yet executives such as HP's Anderson see a market for unobtrusive desktops that consumers would purchase as second or third computers and use in settings such as kitchens, where large desktops are impractical.
Ok, I'm a geek and I love to have the Internet wherever I am but why in the kitchen? Like I don't have enough shit on my crappy counter space... Why not do something like those failed Motorola wireless AIM clients and have a docking station and wlan? Why do we have to have a small form factor machine in the kitchen? Most people here seem to be using this machine in the media room because it's small, quiet, and has DVI. That makes more sense to me.
Building in 120GB, 160GB or higher capacity drives, for example, will mean miniature PCs able to match larger machines in storing large numbers of MP3 files or even digital photos.
Oh come on. Not many people have enough photos and MP3s to fill even 10GB nevermind 120GB or 160GB. I am still using a 10GB HD in my XP machine. Yeah, my music is stored elsewhere but it's still less than 7GB of MP3s and 10GB more for SHN/FLAC (which most people aren't into). I want to know how many regular computer userse have 100GB of music and photos. Geeks are in the minority when it comes to computer purchases from major vendors that would be hurt by this "gamble". I'm sure it won't be anything for them to worry about.
I didn't get the Mini because it was small, quiet, or good looking. I got it because OS X is not Windows, is built on BSD, is now affordable, and isn't as susceptible to all the bullshit that my Windows machines are. If anything the Mini might open the door to more users for Apple which may or may not be a good thing
People like big things. Big TVs, big SUVs, big houses... big computers. Size still matters. I bet if they started selling room-size computers again, people would be buying them.
How was the Newton wrong? It may not have taken off, but it definitely had an impact. Palm would likely never have existed if Apple hadn't tried the Newton.
"Mod, mod, mod...and another troll bites the dust."
Let's get this out of the way right now. Please make all your valuable n-button-mouse replies to this post.
Perhaps the title should be that size does matter. Rather, being small is becoming more important. Perhaps we can think of this as Maslow's Hierarchy of Computer Needs. First we just want a machine that has enough power to do what we want. Then we want a machine that is small and unobtrusive and with enough power to do what we want.
Of course, the cube's problem wasn't the design, it was the price tag. If they'd sold the cube for $500, it would have been a big hit, and you'd see grey cubes everywhere, from other computer manufacturers to George Foreman CubeGrills.
Don't blame me; I'm never given mod points.
It is also important to recognize that they have been wrong at times too (e.g. The Cube, the Newton, and the one button mouse)
God will you people PLEASE come up with something more original to pick at Apple with than the One Button Mouse. They obviously weren't THAT wrong about the one button mouse, they still use them. And they like it!
Smaller is cool. Saves you having to buy a desk with one of those PC tower compartments.
But you know what I'd like to see more of? Quieter PC's. Everything seems to be getting faster and/or smaller, but quieter would be nice.
I tend to think of it as more an issue of intended use, rather than size. This is the ultimate iteration of the iMac... the Console Computer. Now it just LOOKS more like a console. I remember the first iMac. When I looked at the side of the box, there were 3 steps listed for setup: step 1) take iMac out of the box. step 2) plug in power and keyboard. step 3) there is no step 3. this is just the next logical step. A small, unobtrusive computer that anyone can set up and use. As to the poster above saying he/she dislikes the inability to open this and modify it... that's the point. Like a console, it is intended to be "perfect" from the factory and never need modification. Just plug it in and turn it on.
In Soviet Russia jokes are formulaic and decidedly non-humorous.
The cube was a brilliant design, and people I know that have it love it.
Only problem was that it was too frickin expensive.
Conformity is the jailer of freedom and enemy of growth. -JFK
I think its important to point out that size is lower on the list of reasons why the mini has been selling like hot cakes to all users (mac and pc)
For the simple fact that had the mini been 6x6 inches or 66x66 inches, the mini does not get infected with ad-ware spyware etc...
I think we are at a point in history, when a large number of people are finnaly just "getting sick" of dealing with windows... its almost that some have forgotten that they bought a computer to DO stuff with it NOT maintain it....
currently, support of windows is spiraling out of control..hatred of its inefficiencies is at an all time high.
people (especially that have bought ipods) are now realizing there is a better way. a way that simply let's them DO the things they really want to do with a computer...
Just because a product flops or isn't the mainstream flagship product of its type doesn't mean it's wrong.
Arguably, Apple was right with the Newton and the Cube - they were just a few years early on both counts. Arguably, Apple is right with the one-button mouse; just not right for everybody.
Within the context of pushing paradigm shifts, you could argue that these three were unsuccessful, but you can hardly argue they were "wrong."
When it came out, the only thing that was keeping me from buying one is that Apple was gouging for upgrades that would make the system minimally usable and that it isn't dual head. Since Apple has rethought their upgrade pricing, it is only the lack of dual head support. That said, I'd be happy to buy a mobile AMD64/Linux box in the similar form factor, so I hope Shuttle and some of the other micro PC vendors are paying attention. You would certainly need a fan for the AMD, but I could live with that is it was quite enough.
I think cost will be a huge part of this equation. Clearly Jonathan Ive's design team at Apple has been incredible fitting powerful components into minute packages. I doubt Dell and HP will be nearly as successful, and furthermore doubt that it is in their interests to attempt this. Dell has always found success through fitting inexpensive components together to market towards the masses. Focusing on design can only increase costs and reduce profitability.
Rome did not create a great empire by having meetings; they did it by killing all those who opposed them.
Although it wasn't well worded, I don't think the OP was trying to say that all of those ideas from Apple were failures in the sense that they don't work or are bad ideas, but rather that they failed to inspire industry-wide trends. The one-button mouse works just fine for the Mac because it was designed with a one-button mouse in mind, so they continue to use it. Nobody else picked up on it, though.
This small form factor could turn out the same way, but I doubt it. Small seems to be the way to go, especially now that upgrades are getting less and less significant to most users (is 4 GHz really going to be better than 3.5?) If you can't make them faster, or if the consumers stop caring whether or not their computer is faster, form factor is a reasonable direction to push research.
I wish that my inferiority complex were as good as yours.
-RenderHead
Surely you jest. They moved 4.5 million iPods just during the Holiday Season. The "geek circle" can't be that big. Go to a gym sometime; tell me that all the women working out with their shiny pink iPods are geeks.
Bloomingdales sells iPods; Nieman Marcus sells insanely expensive iPod cases. You can't possible believe that these are typical geek shopping venues.
Now I agree with the argument that maybe Apple should offer a better mouse out of the box, but, well, mice are pretty cheap.
--- Ban humanity.
Two big problems with the One Button Mouse:
1: They continue to refuse to admit that it is a mistake, instead touting it as the supposed superiority of Mac over PC. (Note: Every time I sit down at my Mac to work with Maya, the first thing I do is plug in a three-button mouse with scroll wheel -- and so does everybody else.)
2: It is all a Big Lie to start with! Mouse click, mouse double-click, mouse click and drag, mouse+alt, mouse+option, mouse+shift, mouse+Apple, mouse+control, mouse+every combination of the above!
It has never been a single button mouse. It's just that the rest of the buttons are exceptionally inconveniently located on the keyboard, most of them in the lower left quadrant! It's all style over substance crap that doesn't endear me to Apple!!
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
what, do they just not realise it or something?
They realise it. That's why OS X has 2- and 3- button support out of the box. The availability of cheap high-quality multi-button USB mice from the PC world lets them get away with pretending that the one-button mouse isn't a problem, and not including a mouse with the Mini is another way to dodge the bullet.
I can just imagine it, another small fanless box with 250GB to 1TB in disks and just enough CPU power to serve it up to the network and play internet gateway, maybe even run some print queues.
This time not only no monitor, but not even a video out; Rendezous makes it easily available to all computers in the house.
Add "iVision", a dumb MPEG4 playback box for next to your television (plays just audio too!), the HDTV downloads predicted by Robert X. Cringely and you have the home multimedia promise delivered.
Cubes hold their value better than probably any other Power Mac model - how's that for "wrong"? Nobody I know ever thought of a good explanation for the cancellation of the Cube; it certainly wasn't technical failings - the most likely reason was low margins. The Mini is another low margin product but the engineering is much less ambitious I suspect.
you had me at #!
We've all wanted to see MS's dominance challenged. We've been working hard to make Linux a viable candidate and it is. We've always known Mac's were a better GUI experience and really a better desktop than Windows. We've always known if they would just bring it to the masses it would go far. Well, now Apple is doing just that.
The other consideration is psychological, consumers tend to gravitate towards big things because they think their more powerful. I've seen so many people by the 17in powerbook for absolutely no logical reason whatsoever. Yes, people doing video editing, sound editing, and graphics work can make us of a 17in, but the vast majority of buyers are normal users. I joke around with my one 17in wielding coworker, and call it the SUV laptop phenomenon. People are buying 17in powerbooks much in the manner that others buy hummer H2s.
Steve Jobs obviously has good taste in sensing trends and managing to bring them to market just a little more quickly than others. You could make a list of things that were more or less in the air, that the Mac wasn't first to offer, but successfully offered on a large scale six to twelve months ahead of the PC world.
All of these points can of course be debated depending on how you count "introduced on a large scale" and "when," but...
--Introducing the Sony 3.5" floppy in the first place
--Screens with black text on a white background
--Easy-to-use workgroup-strength plug-and-play networking
--Laser printers
--SCSI interface
--DROPPING floppies as standard equipment
--USB ports (!)
--Optical mice as standard equipment
Of course, the standard PC answer is to any Mac innovation is "Who cares? If it's of any real importance PCs will have it in a year anyway. And it will be cheaper." To which the Mac answer is, "Yeah, and it won't work as well."
"How to Do Nothing," kids activities, back in print!
Apples failure with the Newton, Cube etc. haven't been because the innovation was wrong... The Newton concept lead to Palm and then to PocketPC. The Cube beat Shuttle to the SFF. Apple's failures in these cases were due mainly to a lack of conviction... (and possibly money)... and maybe coming to market too early. Have they learned thier lesson? They got the iPod spot on... they didn't invent MP3 players... but they pitched thier product at eactly the right time to capture the imagination. I'm sure the Mac mini will do well... for a start it's soo much cheaper than the other Macs... and sooo small. I'm buying one for my mother-in-law...
I always laugh at HP's moto... HP invent. Do they? Naa...
I hope the Mac mini will encourage people to think small.
return 0; }
... is that they still need some work in the cooling arena. Unless it's an under-powered machine, of course (which the Mac mini appears to be).
I tried the mini PC thing for a while, and now I've gone back to a regular sized mid-tower, and am much happier. The reason? Cooling. From the moment I bought my first mini PC, I suspected that it would run a bit hot. And it did with a 3.06GHz Pentium 4 in it. The CPU temperature was always running near the limit and occasionally on warmer days the temperature alarm would go off. So I added an additional fan and, since it seemed stable, I just ran with it that way for a long time. Then one day I remembered that Pentium 4 processors had a thermal throttling feature that inserts idle cycles when the temperature gets too high. So I did some searching and quickly found a utility that could tell me if the Pentium 4 in my mini PC was throttling. Sure enough, it was. All this time I had basically been running a crippled machine because the tiny case simply couldn't adequately ventilate the high-performance hardware. I tried a second model of mini PC, but returned it because it too had this same problem.
I moved the CPU and all the other hardware (except the mobo of course, since they're always proprietary in these mini PCs) into a normal sized mid-tower case. Now that same processor with the same heatsink/cooler runs well below the Pentium 4's thermal limits. And it never throttles itself.
And if you're thinking, "Well Mr. Smarty Pants, I'll just buy a mini PC and soup it up with the sweetest CPU cooler I can find!", then think again. These cases are far too small for your typical enthusiast to install a fancier cooling system. Someone with a lot of skill and specialized tools might be able to engineer a proper solution, but you won't find anything off-the-shelf anywhere.
The moral of the story? Mini PCs are for the weak. If you want performance in a mini PC case, they're just not there yet. And the Mac mini does not appear to be an exception. It too comes fairly weakly equipped.
Despite what EULAs say, most software is sold, not licensed.
Laptops are expandable and hatches reveal the slots for RAM and other optional extras like wifi modules. Why this cannot be done for a small form factor PC I don't know.
Research has indicated that a huge portion of any family's time is spent in the kitchen. At least one member of the family is usually hungry or thirsty at any one time, and so family members who are conversing will drift along to the kitchen while the hungry one prepares a snack or meal.
It's classic ape behaviour. Apes like to hang out near food, just in case they happen to want some.
For this reason, it's very useful to have a TV computer there for the kids to fiddle with while they talk to you. It keeps them from hovering around your feet in the range of hot oil.
The tendency of peope to hang out in the kitchen increased sharply in the 90s with the growing popularity of "islands" in the kitchen. A row of bar stools along one side allow people to socialize in range of food. And beer.
Households that don't have their kitchens set up for socialzing tend to have much messier living rooms with dirtier carpets from all the food that's been brought in.
It's not universal, naturally. Maybe you don't often have enough people in your house for this behaviour to set in. Maybe, as you say, you're always cooking when in the kitchen, so you don't really notice the people hovering around you as you do. Don't know.
As for putting a G5 mac in the kitchen, you have to hollow a much larger space out of the wall if you want to seal it away behind plexiglass. I'd really recommend the mini and a small screen. Possibly a cheaper projector aimed at the counter.
I think one new thing with computers getting so cheap will be the distribution of machines with software. When per-seat costs are $1500 and up, machines like the Mini Mac start to look very affordable, considering the cost of supporting unknown hardware.
People said Bill Gates was crazy when he said hardware will be free, but I can see it happening now.
I'd rather go buy a cheapo tower that can take an ATX motherboard of my choosing...it's cheaper to deal with.
What Apple does is probably good for the people who use Apples and want a smaller, cuter LOOKING computer, but the market of people that use Apple is different than the market of people who use PCs.
Apples are the closest thing you can get to a car with the hood welded shut.
I believe your mistaken. Just because you'd rather buy a cheap tower and build your own PC doesn't mean "the market of people who use PCs" are anything like you. In fact, given that computer systems are just about commodity items, "the market of people who use PCs" are most likley people who will never, ever even open up their computer. And that's exactly why Dell is #1 and not the maker of some "cheapo tower."
Thus, a "car with the hood welded shut" (e.g. the Mac Mini) is not only attractive for Apple users, but also for most PC users.
For you and other "tinkerers" there will always be the option to build your own, but you're a rare breed. Dell isn't interested in your business, and neither is Apple.
I maximize my desktop space by putting the computer case on the floor. I like my cases to resemble the layout of a '56 Ford pickup engine compartment... room to climb in and walk around. If I want to change out a drive, it shouldn't be necessary to route my screwdriver through an alternate unverse to reach the screws. I don't want to disconnect the IDE ribbons to see the memory chips. I don't want to worry about the audio cables getting sucked into the CPU fan. For those times when a small form factor is important, such as hotel room microdesks or college dorms, there are notebook computers. They work great.
Some mornings it's hardly worth chewing through the restraints to get out of bed.
"It has never been a single button mouse. It's just that the rest of the buttons are exceptionally inconveniently located on the keyboard, most of them in the lower left quadrant!"
You need to switch to decaf. First and foremost, the Mac was developed to be used with the mouse and keyboard at the same time. The idea was that you had one hand on the mouse and the left hand on the keyboard (sorry lefties). The hand on the keyboard meant that you had all the modifier keys you needed already beneath your fingers, so extra buttons on the mouse aren't necessary if you work this way. Besides which, the common menu commands all have consistent keyboard shortcuts associated with them, and as you gain in experience with the Mac, you rarely find yourself mousing to the menu bar. Microsoft of course missed this with Windows and went to the philosophy that it was all about the mouse. I know Mac users who tell PC users that they only like multi-button mice because it leaves one hand free when they're surfing pr0n sites.
I use a PowerBook and I thank God for the trackpad, because it means that I never even have to remove my hands from the keyboard to reach for a mouse, which I absolutely hate doing. I also have tap-and-hold enabled so I don't even use the button at all, much to the amazement of my PC-using friends. So in effect I use a no-button mouse. I will grant however that the scroll wheel is a much more useful innovation. Not necessary for mouse-haters like me, but more useful.
If I understand you correctly, you are upset that the mouse that is bundled with most Macs only has one button. And yet, you seem to be aware that the operating system performs all the functions of multibutton mice, either by using the keyboard, or by allowing you to plug in a third party multibutton mouse.
Are you just upset that Apple won't sell you a multibutton mouse? I'm trying to understand whether you are a total moron, or just a slow learner.
The size of computer systems has been shrinking for years.
Sure, but not at such a rate. In the space my PC tower uses, you can put about fourteen (14) Mac minis. 2 stacks of 7 units. You can put at least 4 Minis in a Shuttle (3 stacked, one vertically).
blah
Someone needs to just say it: Apple got it really really really right this time.
And I'm sure the first one to do it, too!
ReadThe ReflectionEngine, a cyberpunk style n
A lot of the excitement for the mini is because it's not a Windows PC. People really want to try something different. And the mini fits that bill nicely. I'm sure tons of Windows copycats will be out in six months or less but I don't think they'll capture people interest the way the mini has.
The Mac Mini is FAR smaller than ANY mini-ITX I have seen and also WAY more powerful. Most small form factor PCs use low power processors that are weak at best - the G4 in the Mac Mini is throwing out some impressive results.
Yell & scream & rant & rave... it's no use... you need a shaaaave ~ Bugs Bunny
Now I agree with the argument that maybe Apple should offer a better mouse out of the box, but, well, mice are pretty cheap.
That still doesn't fix the problem of the trackpads on ibooks and powerbooks.
Oh how I wish I could get a powerbook with a larger trackpad that has a scroll-area on it, like the PCs do.
They weren't wrong about the cube!
...
Actually, of the three things on the list, I would be most willing to agree with the cube being listed.
For the others:
Newtons - Newtons failed because they were so far ahead of their time. A PDA, before there were such things as "PDAs", that actually allowed you to write the way you know how as opposed to learning a new character set?? Over 10 years later and I STILL don't think you can find this on ANY handheld. Apple had the right idea - let the human dictate to the PDA and not vice-versa, but, just technology hadn't advanced far enough, yet (Eat up Martha).
one-button mouse - Will people just get over this? Please? The general public just doesn't care about one vs. multi button. Personally, I've have a 2 - 4 button trackball (Now with a scroll ring!) on my machine machine for the last 10 years. However, the one button mouse is a godsend when dealing with people that don't work on computers day in and out.
I can't count the number of telephone support calls I've had that sounded like a bad "Who's on first?" routine:
Me: OK, I need you to click the icon with the right mouse button.
Them: I did. The icon got dark.
Me: It sounds like you didn't click with the right mouse button.
Them: How do I know which one is right?
Me: It's the mouse button that is on the right side of the mouse.
Them: There are no buttons on the right side of the mouse.
as opposed to dealing with Mac users:
Me: With your left hand, press and hold the "Control" key located at the lower left corner of the keyboard. Now, click the mouse on the icon.
Them: A little menu appeared.
- Tony
...because all the mini-itx stuff hangs on so tightly to legacy crap.
I have been looking for YEARS for a legacy-free mini-itx type (SFF) motherboard and have yet to see one.
By legacy-free I mean: no PS/2, no parallel, no VGA, no serial (9-pin or 25-pin). I want USB 2.0, DVI, and gigE. Give it a mini-PCI and/or mini-AGP and I'd be happy.
I've seen Via *announce* a line with just VGA/USB/Ethernet and the rest as headers, but nothing else that fits the bill.
My only "issue" with the mini Mac is the 10/100 Ethernet instead of 10/100/1000. That, however, is what I consider a very minor flaw in what otherwise is my dream machine.
The only other Apple product I owned was the Newton, so it isn't a Mac fan-boy thing.
The mini-itx industry was just too damn hung up on legacy crap for me to ever really be more than just mildly interested in their products.
-Charles
Learning HOW to think is more important than learning WHAT to think.
With Firewire and USB many hardware upgrades are now much easier. Unlike the old days where most external devices were connected with SCSI, Parallel, and Serial. Parallel and Serial Devices the computer needed a Port for each Device. So if you had 3 External Modems you needed 3 Serial Ports, or if you had 2 Printers you needed 2 Parallel Ports. SCSI stuff as always been expensive and the never really standardized it much so you had to check to see what type of external scsi drive you have and see if it matches your system and they were hooked up in a chain so if you removed one device you would need to rewire the one above it and the one below it. So with all these devices in order to upgrade you will still need expansion ports for the extra scsi cards, Serial, and Parallel cards. So you were better off saving money for internal equipment because you will fill up the space anyways, and will need to get into your system.
Now with USB and FireWire (The topic of this post) you can add a USB or FireWire hubs to your system and expand the ability without opening your system and adding new cards. Plus if you unplug one device you don't need to rewire the others. Plus the cost of these external devices are getting close to the same price as internal devices. Not 2 to 3 times the cost like in the old days. So we don't need 10 open PCI Slots anymore because external is much easier.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
You mention the Cube as a mistake. Hmm, wasn't that a small computer? And was it successful? Personally, I would love a small computer, but given that the cost is typically the same an a larger machine, isn't nearly as expandable, and I can't get dual CPU's, it's not going to happen soon.
Of course, the standard PC answer is to any Mac innovation is "Who cares? If it's of any real importance PCs will have it in a year anyway. And it will be cheaper." To which the Mac answer is, "Yeah, and it won't work as well."
As a lifelong Apple customer, I say this without a hint of troll:
Apple often miscalculates the value delta between "cheaper" and "won't work as well". People will find a way to deal with the latter, if the former is significantly true.
The "as well" chasm must be wide and painful before most people will throw money at it.
For my money Macs are a great value. But I don't suspect that's true for everyone.
I mean, even Dell offers the 4700C desktop, which is 60% smaller than their normal desktop, very slim and slightly more stylish. We've had them at work for nearly a year now. They even came with some sort of docking station that let you bolt the computer to the underside of a desk. Personally, I hated um and stuck with my old computer that I could rest my feet on and upgrade easily at will.
Mini-PCs are nothing new, Apple wasn't first. Get off the high horse. It's a market that has existed before now and never caught on because it's not what people have wanted (especially since it normally meant paying more for the smaller design)
I don't see this Mini-PC really taking off. I mean, it has substandard parts in it in the first place....GeForce 9200 integrated?!? Man, that's like beyond obsolete these days. Why not just sell the box?
I hate one-button mice - their terriable and disgusting. But my Mom bought her iMac three years ago and guess what she loves the one-button mouse compared to my Dad's three button mouse on her PC. In fact so does my Dad because he was conned into buying the PC (I told him to buy an iMac but he was told that Mac's were harder to learn and run?!?!?) with the three button and he hasn't used his Dell in 3 years - a waste of $599. Of course he likes my Mom's iMac with it's one button mouse even thought she paid $1199. And he liked that everything he needs is in the dock - now they fight over using the iMac - and he wonders why I never told him to buy an iMac.
My point is that the Mac mini - which he has already ordered since his Dell monitor will work with it - is not for the poweruser but for the everyday consumer who knows nothing about computers, and doesn't want to, but just wants it to work and use it and not feel like the first computer was a total waste of their time. He's already auctioned it off on eBay (the CPU and mouse) and I got him a one-button mouse like Mom's!
Save Pangaea!! Stop Continental Drift!!
are a system where the users files, applications and settings are stored in in a hdd thats independent of the base system. like say i can remove it from the desktop at home, plug it into the laptop and bring it to work, remove it from the laptop and plug it into the desktop at work and so on. the os however would follow the terminal, not the users storage device. this to handle drivers and so on.
it can in theory be done allready but the desktop guis needs to support it so that one can locate the apps and present them in the menu for the user and so on. it would in many ways change the idea of licences as then the licence can follow the user, not the system its installed on.
comment first, facts later. http://chem.tufts.edu/AnswersInScience/RelativityofWrong.htm
It is interesting to me that the Mac Mini uses a Laptop hard drive. The Mac Mini and iMac G5 also share the same laptop slot-loading drive as the PowerBooks. Airport cards in desktops and laptops are identical too. The Mac Mini does NOT use laptop ram but the iMac line does. Obviously the iPod is using some small hard drive, perhaps one also used in laptops, but I am only guessing.
The point is that Apple is enjoying some economies of scale. By buying larger quantities of laptop parts, they not only get better per unit pricing, but also reduce inventories, support costs, engineering overhead, etc.
If they are smart, the big PC makers will follow suite inroder to reduce costs for their laptops as well as provide cooler desktops.
Apple recognized with the iMac that the computer needed to move from boxy to foxy. Dell, Gateway, and others tried but couldn't think outside the box. They just used black cases or rounded some edges. The Mac mini is really an evolution from the original iMac and is no smaller than the iMac G4's housing and no more an engineering wonder than the iMac G5 behind the monitor.
I only came here to do two things; kick some ass, and drink some beer...looks like we're almost out of beer.
An iopener is the best solution for this, really. You can get a distribution with a browser on it, or you can tweak it to use XDMCP and voila, it's an X terminal. Butm best of all, you can get them for a hundred bucks or so, add a $20 usb nic, a $10 optical mouse, and a $10 folding keyboard, and have a system with durable input devices that won't make you cry if you spill something all over it.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
No, it is not a flaw. It is built into the design of the OS and to the interface guidelines from day one. What you may not realize is that everything that is accessible from a right click contextual menu on OS X apps is (or should be in the case of 3rd parties) completely accessible by some other method that does not require a multi-button mouse. The menu is optional for those that get used to using control-click often (and it's just control--nothing else!) or who choose to have a multi-button mouse.
This is not the case for Windows or X11. For those of us that do use those systems regularly (myself included), a multi-button mouse make more sense because we've been forced to use it to access complete functionality of applications. The mind-share of the one-button mouse users are even smaller than those of us devoted to OS X, but the design of that mouse and it's use in OS X is most definitely not "flawed". Just different. Maybe too different these days, but there you go...
I get along fine with my PB when I don't have the space to attach an extra mouse. The thing that bugs me more than having to use control is the fact that the function key is where my finger wants control to be, but that's a problem with many more laptops than just Apple's.
I just read another article (reg. required) that describes how Apple with their Genius Bars give person to person tech support for free. With this computer being so light weight, it is convenient just to carry it over to an Apple store when there is a problem. That is much better than Dell's approach which relies on wasting time having an automated system diagnose your problem before a technician will talk to you.
Also, I don't think the cube was such a failure in light of the Mac Mini. I am sure whatever Apple learned from designing the Cube was apply to designing the Mini. The first thing I thought when the Mini was introduced was that it is the Cube was reborn. Also, one button mouse is debateable. Apple still ships computers with them. Moreover, I have never really needed a second button.
You don't have to be smart to use a Mac, you just have to be smart enough to buy one
My business does a fair bit of on-site support for small businesses running consumer-grade PC's.
One of the major issues with the smaller systems (and why I steer my customers away from them) is heat dissipation. This was especially bad with the HP Pavillions. Basically, all those cables get in the way of airflow and it becomes easier for the processor to overheat. The fact that the case is smaller also makes for smaller air intake areas which get clogged by dust more easily, etc.
Now, Mac has had small form-factor systems in the past that were very reliable hardware-wise. So they might be able to do it again. But as chips get hotter, it becomes harder.
LedgerSMB: Open source Accounting/ERP
Move along, nothing to see here! It's not upgradable! Apple is dying! The iPod costs too much! BTW, could we get OS X for the X86?
Crushing my karma one post at a time.
Funny you should mention that. I've shifted Macs lately, and the d@mn new one doesn't handle it correctly. I plug in the 3-button scroll-wheel mouse, the latest MouseWare driver loads (I know it's the latest, I've checked their update site - v5.2.1) and it refuses to let me set the middle button as Middle Button. The option doesn't allow itself to be changed in Preferences. And this is a major navigation tool in Maya. Some identical (as identical as our Sys Admin can make them) Macs next to mine work fine, but some others don't in this regard. SA still doesn't know what the problem is.
So don't tell me how hassle free this is compared to a PC. Chances are good if I was running Windows Maya with a stardard scroll-wheel mouse permanently installed and used for all Windows work including Maya, I wouldn't be having this problem.
The real truth in Windows vs Mac is: Once you're inside the application, be it Maya, Photoshop, Microsoft Office, or anything else that runs similar versions on both platforms, it's all the same because the application's interface is the one you're using.
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
(Idea courtesy Drew Sullivan)
--dave
davecb@spamcop.net
I don't understand why there have been so many comments about the one-button mouse.
The Mac mini doesn't even come with one of them.
What, really, is the gripe? There is nothing stopping you from using a multi-button mouse. There isn't even the disincentive of having the machine come with a mouse that you'd won't use. Is it really that offensive that Apple doesn't want to sell you something that you can get elsewhere, or that you might already own?
Don't become a regular here -- you will become retarded.
Smaller desktops will happen and here's why:
1. It costs less in raw matterials to busild something smaller.
2. It costs less to ship smaller, lighter devices.
3. The devices can be built to accomidate a larger market by adding features that offer extra value without costing a lot to build in.
3A. By offering a feature laden product that can't be internally accessorized easily, they build a market that will want to replace their computers more frequently. Building future market for the manufacturer (planned obsolecence). Note: this will also create a market for USB style accessories.
4. Less space for retailer's stock.
Look for computers to evolve into machines that don't have sockets to add RAM (it will be soldered on the motherboard) and are fabricated more like the new PS/2 from Sony. All the ports will be USB and or Firewire. Much of the design will be borrowed from Notebooks and use "mobile technology" including power-bricks, 2.5" HDD's, and thin style accessories. Things like internal speakers and fans will go away. The CPU heat sink will be a large aluminum panel which will double as a part of the case.
Doesn't it make you feel good to know that our freedoms are protected by politicans, lawyers and journalists.
I play UT a lot, and have a 9200 in my G5 tower. It handles fairly high resolutions just fine.
The Mac mini would handle most gaming (ESPECIALLY at TV or HDTV resolutions) just fine.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
I waited in line for an hour Saturday morning to be one of the first to get the Mini.
;-) If you find it, the site you land on is served from the Mini.
... I upgraded the RAM in the Mini an hour after powering it up. Putty knife operation is not scary. Interestingly, I had a more difficult time _closing_ the case than opening it. But all in all an easy job and I didn't damage a thing.
Why was I so excited about it?
- unix kernel and shell
- all the apps I use come run natively in OSX (Ableton Live, Propellerheads Reason, PhaseOne CaptureOne, Adobe Photoshop, etc...)
- i could replace the WinXP machine hooked up to my 37" LCD TV _and_ the FreeBSD server (apache, mysql, php, slimserver) in my office with this slick little box for $600.
So far, I'm VERY impressed. Never before have I set up a machine that worked so well out of the box, and continued to work well after installing all the apps. The developer tools that come with OS 10.3 are FANTASTIC -- you get gcc3 and a bunch of example programs to get started building apps.
This _IS_ the best of both worlds -- a good desktop environment that runs all my apps, and a solid UNIX foundation that lets me geek out on the command line.
This $600 machine (1.42GHz/80GB) has given me a taste of what my uber-nerd friends have been talking about for years, and now I want more!
To all you folks who think you can pass judgement on OSX without owning a mac, you're blowing hot air. You have to own one to really know what it's all about.
If you do some searching on Yahoo! or Google for "nobot mini", you may find some photos and a writeup of my Mini experience. No way I'm putting the URL here
---
ps
Also, as far as upgrading the system, I pulled an 80GB drive from my FreeBSD machine to serve as a nightly backup. Need more storage, get another firewire enclosure and a big drive. Done and done. OSX will see the new drive immediately and "do the right thing".
SIGUSR1
You are on crack.
And i guess thats why you posted as an AC. Do you work for Dell? Have you bothered to seen what comes standard on the Mini vs anything dell offers?
There is a world of difference in engineering, features, applications and perforance between Apple and Dell or Apple and any X86 offering.
A perfect example of the "as well" chasm is Linux. It's significantly cheaper than Windows, yet for most folks, doesn't work as well.
I do run Linux, and I'm not trying to troll, but Linux has a long way to go when it comes to some things. Compare installing a new piece of hardware in Linux vs. Windows*:
And I haven't even covered the cases where the drivers won't compile, or the vendor changes chipsets and the device won't work with Linux at all.
Granted, you only have to setup Linux once. But I've found that installing Linux and getting the hardware to work typically takes between two and three times what it would take under Windows, if it is supported at all. I can talk someone through reinstalling Windows over the phone, but I wouldn't dare try that with Linux. (Of course, you might never have to do the latter, so it might be a moot point).
* - based on a true story...
The society for a thought-free internet welcomes you.
The appearance of the Cube was also diminished by the wire-connected peripherals - it would actually be much cooler looking now with Bluetooth and WiFi.
-G
www.pixelstatic.com
Steve Jobs obviously has good taste in sensing trends and managing to bring them to market just a little more quickly than others. You could make a list of things that were more or less in the air, that the Mac wasn't first to offer, but successfully offered on a large scale six to twelve months ahead of the PC world.
You could also make a list of stupid nonstandard things the Macintosh has introduced which increased the cost of the system and made it much more proprietary:
--NuBus expansion slots (which followed from 1988 onto early PowerPC models)
--Apple AAUI transceiver plug for Ethernet
--The ADC video connector
--MiniVGA ports
Most of these were ultimately retarded ideas with no basis other than milking Macintosh users with pricey addons. With your "innovation" you also get a lot of suspicious design choices.
SCSI interface
As a side note, if you read some of the backstory on the development of the Macintosh, Jobs was very much against the idea of a SCSI interface or for that matter, any expansion at all. That's why the introduction of a hard disk expandable Macintosh was delayed until the Mac Plus.