Mac Mini only 2.9lbs!!!

[mwsriders]

well apple is the number one computer hardware and software supplier for comercial and industrial products. All your magazine prints and stuff like that are all run on mac. But. for the average consumer, who the hell would want a mac. They blow and so does their company.

[Hexis]

Clearly some "informed" opinions.

Mini ITX has a larger mother board width/depth wise than the Mac mini. That's without a power supply, hard drive or optical (DVD/CD) drive of any sort.

Macs aren't hype. Like any computing tool they do not fit all needs. Apple does have products that cover a lot of needs/wants though. They have some limitations (with software availability and flexibility mostly). I used to despise Macs, and then OSX came out and got stable. Now I'm a huge fan. My biggest gripe now is cost, and a $500 option really makes that hard to complain about.

[RamboPreacher]

Use OSX and you would understand.

I have and I don't.

[LudavicoSoldier]

Mmmmmmm finally a cost effective replacement for my G4 466! Must....have!

[purple]

now i dunno, somewhere my buddy told me that OSX is a freeBSD ripoff, is that true?

I run Linux and Solaris most of the time and do all my gaming on windows machines. I'd love a G5 if it ran ALL of my games, but as it is i'm not a graphics person so it'd be a really big really expensive paperweight, since i also cant program on it. Besides, i thought the really heavy hitting graphics for movies/cinema are still done mostly on silicon graphics machines. Oh well, whatever, yall mac people enjoy not being able to upgrade much.

laters

Purple
I do like mac style, but i hate one button mice

[cphilip]

Someone one the Scooter board posted these up today. Sort of sums up the normal reaction I see here. A bit harsh each of them but it sort of does expose the Hater/lover mentality about such things as this. Heck it sums up the Cocker vs Mag mentality as well!

For the PC users there is this one (I just going to link it because there is the F word in the image, so be aware:

http://www.gizmodo.com/gadgets/images/iProduct.gif

Enjoy this one you Mac lovers (I will post this one because the worst word in it is arses and the B word used to mean gripping so I feel I can let you see this one directly. But if its offensive I can remove the direct display for you).



Me? I use mostly Macs now a days. Most of our office does. Work really good for us. We love em. We have very little problems with Computers now that we got away from our Windows based machinery.

[personman]

I guess it's cool if you're constantly moving your computer or something.. but other than that..
You could get one that's twice as good for the same price, and you cant upgrade the apple so it's going to be worthless before too long

[Hexis]

OSX is based on FreeBSD, i wouldn't call it a ripoff. It's got a normal BSD unix structure (mostly) internally. Actually a lot of movie stuff is being done on Macs these days. Shake is the compositiing software used in the LotR movies, and that's a Mac bit of software. BTW purple, you can code on a Mac. xCode, the IDE from apple is not only super nice, but it's also super free. Java, C, C++ (with the Carbon API), Objective C (Ccoca API), others. xCode uses gcc internally, so depending on your code, it may be able to cleanly compile on any other unix.

Just don't expect a current offering of games. How sad is it that the only reason I dump tons of cast into my PC is for games?

BTW I hate one button mice as well. That's only really a problem on the laptops. Why oh why cab't I have two buttons on my powerbook? ( I normally just plug in an MX500).

[purple]

Thank you Hexis for your honest and logical response. I respect someone that can state their case for anything without getting emotional. Nobody ever told me you could code on macs, i thought only the developers could. I also realize LOTR was partially done in macs, but in the background on lots of the making of DVD's (i got all 3 extendeds for xmas how cool is that!!!) i saw quite a few silicon graphics monitors. Also, did you see that all the motion capture was done with IBM machines? Kinda like most apple products these days.

on a different note, how bad do you think it hurts Jobs's ego that his company's success these days is due in no small part to IBM? I saw pirates of the silicon valley a while back and they portrayed Jobs as some raving IBM hater.

Purple

[FragTek]

As much as I despise Macintosh that is a very impressive little PC. I could definately see having one of those for surfing the net and whatnot... Might have to invest in one to see how it is.

[Hexis]

I think Job's overinflated Ego is doing just fine. Apple was completly tanking when he came back, and with his direction they are doing much much better these days. If you do get into coding on a Mac with Cocoa (the API that Apple uses for most of the iApps) you will see the NeXT history in there. All of the base objects are prefixed with NS_, for NeXTSTEP. So even OSX is a Jobs thing. The big difference is that NS ran on Intel Hardware with a full GUI. Darwin will run on Intel, but without Aqua it's pretty much worthless. But the G4 and G5 are nice chips. And as much as the cost of such a tigtly intergrated platform suck, the benefit of performance and stability is very nice.

I'm sure SGIs are still used for a lot of 3d work, but with them going the Intel way they are not long for this world. They are giving up their big differentuating factor, a good hardware platform. Plus, IRIX does indeed suck. It's hard to believe that they ignored UNICOS for their own IRIX crap when they purchased Cray. I'm really really happy that I don't have to deal with IRIX anymore.

[Hexis]

Purple, here is the xcode page: http://www.apple.com/macosx/features/xcode/
Lots of good info there. You do have to register on the ADC (Apple Developer Connection) page, but it's all totally free.

[Rooster]

"Well there is no way to build a media PC that small, at all."

I've seen it done. Full functioning PC. It took one scarifical laptop.

You eat it up, and when you've used it for a very short time, you flush it, because it has become absolutely useless. An apple is just crap waiting to happen.

[Bluestrike_2]

The Developer tools came with my G5.

I forget how exactly I installed them(from where the archive was stored), but there are a lot of useful features in it. I've actually been trying to create an AppleScript to simplify my workflow, but with Automator in Tiger, I might just scrap it.

I've had my Mac running, without rebooting, for weeks at a time. To the point where I actually despise the updates that require a reboot.

Yes, the Mac has it's share of problems. However, for myself, it is a clear choice. For my needs, Windows is an inferior bottlecap.

Location of Xcode tools:

Applications > Installers > Xcode Tools > Packages > DeveloperTools.pkg

On another note: iLife '05 and iWork

Very neat. iMovie now supports the widescreen format, and high definition video, even if only a few cameras support it.

iDVD's been updated, the same with iPhoto which now supports a multitude of RAW formats(Damn you Canon! Where's my Fuji S2?!? - They've got Nikon, Canon, Olympus, etc. but no S2!)

Pages is pretty nifty. Keynote 2 is very cool. I already love Keynote, glad they're making it better.




Then theres the whole iPod shuffle thing. Geez. Retard-Proof...

The one button mouse: You can use your current USB mouse or keyboard. So whether it's one or twenty button's, it'll work...

On another note: They box(retail box) is slightly larger than that of any iPod practically. Wow....

Rooster: Out of curiousity, can you name a few valid reasons why you despise Apple so much. It seems that you have a vendetta against them, judging from this and previous posts. No offense meant.....

Purple: Not everyone uses ACD with their computers. However, who cares. Personally, I think you'd get a kick out of the whole coding portion. Also, are you a student by any chance. Because there are educational discounts and the Apple Developers Connection student membership.

Ask any other questions you have...

[Hexis]

Rooster, by that reasoning all computer gear is crap waiting to happen. There is nothing about Macs that sunsets their functionality any faster than an Intel based system.