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Another Ars Ultimate Budget Box
Some nice Friday afternoon reading for you; Ars Technica has another go at the Ultimate Budget Box, a cheap no-frills PC for minimum cash output. From the article: "Look around inside most corporate offices, where most computers need to handle a few Office documents and light Internet use. They don't need to be able to burn CDs or handle 3D-intensive games, but they do need to be reliable and affordable. Lots of consumers out there probably want a similar box--an appliance that lets them get onto the Internet, take care of e-mail, and create a few documents. For them, being able to burn a CD-RW would probably be nice, but anything beyond that is an extra. Low-cost, reliability, and quality are key. That is what the Ultimate Budget Box is about: not skimping on components, but not loading it up with features either." The final price? US$525.46
*ahem*
Apple's already got that covered. The basic Mac mini is $499, and will likely come with a Core Solo processor soon:
http://www.apple.com/macmini/
"Politicians find new names for institutions which under old names have become odious to the people."
XP home has such crippled networking functionality that it is absoultely unsuitable for even the most basic tasks involving a windows network.
For home use it's barely passable, but if you are going to use this machine in an office, or to work from home over a Windows VPN, save yourself the headache and don't even consider Home. Microsoft should be ashamed of themselves for even offering such crippleware.