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Intel Flaunts Mac mini Knock-off
Rollie Hawk writes "Remember how the Mac mini was designed by Apple to steal PC customers? Now Intel wants to steal them back. Adopting a shockingly similar lunch box shape and light-weight design, Intel's upcoming Mini PC features all the sleekness and portability (physical, that is) of the Mac mini with none of the Mac benefits. Well, at least it will probably have a faster processor. Now if only someone would make a Cobalt Qube knock-off for me."
Wow, flamebait already? How dare you make a point about an extremely biased opinion in the /. news! Burn, demon, burn!
:) ]
I've yet to see anything good about a Mac. What Mac fans consider good, I consider "limiting". Mac users want a tool; I want a toy. If I wanted a tool, I'd buy a shovel.
[ P.S. It's "benefit"
Mac minis cost something like $500, what's your fucking problem?
The fucking problem is that you can get an equivalent PC for less. Of course thats without the design. But then again thats what the grandparent said...
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I am, right now, flaunting a green-tinted DVD-ROM jewel case which in the future just might house an entire Opteron-based system. As such, am providing some strong competition to Intel and the already dead Apple's Mac Mini.
Oh, it'll be Linux-based.
Are there any benefits to using a Mac? I can't think of ANY.
Yup, I get modded down as troll for criticising Macs and their users and parent get modded up as funny for making a snide remark. Proof that mac users are zealots. Or just plain assholes.
Wait, how is costing half as much not a "benefit"? Apple is never going to dominate until they can either a) eliminate the "Apple tax" or b) convince people who can already work a computer reasonably well that it's worth paying twice the price for prettier fonts & icons. And I'm betting on a).
I think there is a world market for maybe five personal web logs.
It's true that OS X isn't free (even though it is based on free software), but it really doesn't beat all other OS's in productivity, flow, tools, etc.
This is serious flamebait material, but I'll forge ahead, because I'm being honest. I discovered Ion (the window manager) for X a few weeks back, and it truly changed me. They are all about productivity and design done *right*. It is true that GUIs are a good thing, but almost every GUI out there isn't about presenting you with the information you need in the most usable way. In fact, Ion's manifesto pretty much nailed it: we spend a boatload of time at our computers playing with the mouse (or, heaven forbid, the touchpad), when the keyboard is really about an order of magnitude faster. And another problem that springs out of that is that people spend a LOT of time managing their windows - how big they are, where the sit on the screen, whether they are minimized, maximized, in the system tray, etc. and 95% of the time, this is all done with the mouse. Really, deep down, you have to realize this system is not particularly productive/efficient.
I'm not actually trying to sell Ion here, because Ion is only for a certain type of person. But we should realize is that Apple has done a fabulous job of making the current system just about a efficient as they can - which is to say, if you're going to spend a lot of time using the mouse, Apple is the way to go (you could probably hack something up in Linux that i similar, but whatever, it was Apple's design - I'm tired of free software ripping off commercial stuff, even though it may be a good thing in some cases. Whoa, tangent.)
But if what you're looking for is *real* productivity, speed and accurate presentation of material, well, I think there are better things out there. Sure, they have a learning curve, but I honestly picked up most of Ion's features in a few hours.
The main thing it lacks is the shine and polish people like, and that Apple delivers *with* fairly good productivity. Windows is back in the dark ages in this regard. Have you thought about what ALL mainstream OS's do? I mean, they cover your "desktop" with your applications, and then put all the icons you need to get to to launch applications *underneath* the appilications that are already running! How would you feel if you have to pick up your papers and keyboard every time you needed to access a file drawer, turn off the lights, or get out a book (or see what time it was?) That design needs to go away.
Anyway, some food for thought.
Oh, and if you've used Linux enough to encounter dependency hell, you should probably check out Debian or Gentoo (use the reference platform if you hate the initial compile times) - they have package management systems that put every other OS on the planet to shame. Oh, crap, more flamebait fodder...
i'd consider a mini, but dislike OSX (would rather run Debian). given that 'FoxConn Electronics' actually make the mini apparently:
http://www.spymac.com/forums/showthread.php?threa
if not guess i'd rather go with this Intel box, or the comparitively priced Shuttle.. what's a few inches anyway.. http://us.shuttle.com/
Right, but there are a couple of caveats. That PC will come in the usual cheap plastic case roughly 15 times bigger than the Mac mini, with fans than remind you of a vacuum cleaner, and to get it under $500 you probably have to pirate most of the software.
Absurd. Many of our computers are Mini-ATX towers, have a couple 80mm fans that are FAR more quiet than any vacuum cleaner I've ever heard (including those industrial models that Hotels use for the low sound output) and, for the $500 (at least in a P4/Celeron version) come with Windows XP Home, Works (which includes MS Word), and who knows what else. Your statement is just as stupid as people claiming that Apple's units are many times more expensive than comparably equipped PC.
I will argue with you about the case too. The cases we use are 95% metal (with only the front panel being plastic).
If it breaks you have to drag it down to the PC shop, wait a couple of weeks, and then pick it up again. When a Mac breaks you call Apple, they send out a prepaid FedEx box, and I'll have it back working within a week.
This depends on who you are. I maintain my, and family, machines. If it takes you a couple weeks to get an x86 machine repaired, then the local shops around you suck. We are running a day or two turn around times right now, and only when we have more than 10 machines in here do we have more than one week turn around times. We even do house calls (that is my job). Try again.
Even as a unix professional I've come to appreciate these things since they let me concentrate on my work and not fixing computers. I'll give you a splendid example: I recently installed a new Linksys wireless router, and had to upgrade firmware both on that box and on their wireless adapter as well as disabling the Linksys wireless monitor that interefered with windows XP, just to get them talking to each other!
Are you an info-mercial script writer? The case you cite above is *extreamly* rare in all my years of setting up equipment, and in the several years of dealing with wireless. As a matter of fact, I can't recall one single event that I've had to go through what you list.
The point is simply that a lot of people (including unix performance users) simply think it is worth paying a couple of $$$ extra for nice design, good support, not to mention legal software.
That's great. My point is that just because you are a 'unix professional' doesn't mean you are that great with hardware. A good majority of people that can get around and use the software in their computers are also poor hardware people. The "PC" (I refuse to use the 'wintel' phrase) side of things is no where near as bad as you'd have people believe from your post.
bork bork bork!
"Intel's upcoming Mini PC features all the sleekness and portability (physical, that is) of the Mac mini with none of the Mac benefits. Well, at least it will probably have a faster processor."
If by none of the mac mini benefits, you mean hardware that isn't 3 years old and obsolete, then I say that's a good thing. Feel free to mod me down Apple zealots, because you can't handle the truth and don't want anyone else to know it either.
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