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Apple announces $499 Macintosh
AppleInsider ^ | January 11, 2005

Posted on 01/11/2005 10:49:21 AM PST by HAL9000

Preliminary info from MacWorld Expo -

Jobs introduces Mac mini. New member of Mac family including a slot-load Combo optical drive, FireWire, ethernet, USB 2.o, both DVI/VGA output. It plays DVDs, burn CDs, and is very quiet and tiny. Its height is half the size of an iPod mini. Jobs calls it "BYODKM" -- Bring Your Own Display, Keyboard, Mouse. Will come in two models: 1.25GHz 256MB/40GB for $499. A second model with a 1.4GHz, more memory and larger hard drive will sell for $599. Mac mini will ship on January 22. Ships in a box smaller than the regular iPod box.



TOPICS: Computers/Internet
KEYWORDS: apple; kneepads; littleprecious; mac; macintosh; macuser; paidshill; redmondpayroll; trollfromredmond
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To: zarf
With a little third party device, this little thing could be a kick butt music server

Third party? Just get an AirPort Express with AirTunes.

181 posted on 01/11/2005 7:55:16 PM PST by antiRepublicrat
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To: Nowhere Man
Windows 1.0 but that ran under DOS so it wasn't a true OS until Windows 95 came along.

All of Windows 3.x and 9x/ME ran on top of DOS, it was just a bit more hidden in the later versions.

182 posted on 01/11/2005 7:57:39 PM PST by antiRepublicrat
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To: JenB
Why should I have to like Macs?

You don't. But you should recognize that your information is, at best, dated, and at worst, deliberately misinformative. Your very limited experience with OSX does not qualify you to have an opinion that people can rely on when making judgement calls as to the merits or flaws of the OS.

If you don't know, don't stick your oar in.

I like Windows.

Good for you. Millions do... but they don't feel compelled to make false statements about a system they don't like based on outdated information or hearsay.

183 posted on 01/11/2005 8:05:00 PM PST by Swordmaker (Tagline now open, please ring bell.)
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To: HAL9000
Instead of comparing this machine to atx machines and laptops, look at the premium prices commanded for small form-factor boxes like the "Mini Book PC" http://www.cappuccinopc.com/
or the mini-itx http://www.mini-itx.com/

Compared to other small, fanless systems the MiniMac is, IMHO, a pretty good bargain.
184 posted on 01/11/2005 8:15:33 PM PST by ADemocratNoMore (Jeepers, Freepers, where'd 'ya get those sleepers?. Pj people, exposing old media's lies.)
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To: JenB
The only niceness issue that I know of on Mac's is Rendezvous. Shut this down and you shouldn't have any issues. As far as your Windoze file server, there are slight problems with passing encrypted passwords to Win2K and Win2003 Servers that require a simple registry change and you are good to go. But if you are using those products you already have enough pain to deal with.

Now in reality, there is no OS or combination of OS's that are painless, but just like the day of Internet Explorer being 100% of the world, you are going to face increasing pressure to support Macs. This is why the Stock market has rallied so hard behind Apple. Apple has partially solved the rosetta stone problem of how to put a useful GUI on Unix and provide this as an experience that most folks don't even have a clue that BSD is lurking around inside of the thing. We are now in the 6th year of general public release of this OS and Tiger will roar. Still, OS X has it weaknesses, every OS does. But each release cleans another issue. Tiger will improve interconnectivity with Windows boxes from the Server perspective because it will leave behind the old Unix ACL restrictions so a thinking person will want to look alot closer at these boxes as Primary Servers for business networks populated with PCs. In the University, you don't have to pay Microsoft's network seat tax, but everyone else does. But, its when you start looking at Apples Cluster Servers and other breath taking technologies.. this is when you notice something has changed. Expect more Barbarians at the Gate, and the day when you boss buys a Mac, expect the Microsoft only heads to be running scared.

In the old days, Apple spent about about a decade with their heads firmly stuck up their tail ends, that period ended when Jobs came back. Its been a hard slog, but Apple is finally re-emerging, they have paid the price of radical change that PC's have thus far avoided (If you discount Linux - which is a very meaningful and stunningly overreaching discount actually) Windows is still caught by having to cope with 486 architecture, god I hate IRQ's. They have done much, despite this, and on the face of it, XP is pretty cool.

Frankly, back to that discount, the big change you are going to just love.. is the wholesale introduction of Linux boxen into your environment as desktop machines.. when this happens, you will pine for Macs. SCO is in the last days of losing their suit against IBM. This was a proxy battle for Microsoft to slow or stop IBM's push to make Linux into a desktop OS. Ungodly sums of money are going into this effort, still this is years away, but not many. Partially, because Apple is showing the way, just as they did with GUI's the first time. You wouldn't get flames from Mac people if you didn't start with inflammatory statements about Mac's. Most folks who use them professionally at the Geek level have faced mindless discrimination by IT Nazi's for almost their whole computer career and they just don't suffer folks opening their jaws and spewing Micro-Chauvanistic drivel.

185 posted on 01/11/2005 8:19:18 PM PST by dalight
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To: N3WBI3
I have had experience, albiet brief, with the OSX operating system. But not with OSX Macs in networks. Not that this conversation is going anywhere. It's worse than talking to my Muslim coworker.

This is too frustrating; I'm the only target and people are taking my comments out of context.

Wow good for you a quasi informed statement about why you wont use Macs other than 'I dont like them', or 'their software stinks' (without any experience or reference... Many Mac users are furious about 1.5 not being on Panther (Including a few developers where I work)..

I could construe this as a "personal attack", but I won't. Mac software doesn't stink, it just doesn't do what I want. And Java 1.5 is a pretty big deal. I'm not going to invest money in a system that demonstrably won't keep up with technology I need. Though I wish I didn't need Java but that's not up to me.

I think I'm going to do something productive with my time instead of trying to keep up an entire side of an argument.

186 posted on 01/11/2005 8:26:35 PM PST by JenB
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To: dalight
Unix ACL restrictions so a thinking person will want to look alot closer at these boxes as Primary Servers for business networks populated with PCs.

Im not sure about Darwin but Linux (Ill grant you its not Unix) and I think Solaris (as of 8) has full support for windows like ACL's and tie right into a domain when using winbindd.. Nice to see mac will be implimenting..

187 posted on 01/11/2005 8:28:32 PM PST by N3WBI3
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To: edchambers
On XP you can almost get this done.. but not on Win2K or before.. its just the way Windows installs.. but I have done it to in a time of need.. but it is not a painless process, not just powering it up and going on.

I guess the landfill PC thing depends alot on what you consider a decent PC.

188 posted on 01/11/2005 8:32:09 PM PST by dalight
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To: dalight; Swordmaker
Windows is still caught by having to cope with 486 architecture, god I hate IRQ's.

Ummm, well, they have this thing called a PCI bus that sort of relieves you from having to worry about IRQ lines - came along in 1994 or so, maybe you've heard of it? You know, the bus that enabled IRQ steering in Windows 95?

Hey Sword, what was that about people who "don't feel compelled to make false statements about a system they don't like based on outdated information or hearsay"? ;)

189 posted on 01/11/2005 8:34:39 PM PST by general_re (How come so many of the VKs have been here six months or less?)
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To: general_re
Hey Sword, what was that about people who "don't feel compelled to make false statements about a system they don't like based on outdated information or hearsay"? ;)

Good point!

190 posted on 01/11/2005 8:35:47 PM PST by Swordmaker (Tagline now open, please ring bell.)
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To: Swordmaker

So when do these things hit the shelves, do we know yet?


191 posted on 01/11/2005 8:36:43 PM PST by general_re (How come so many of the VKs have been here six months or less?)
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To: JenB
So answer me this, if you have had no experience with OSX on a network what was your basis for saying And at least it'll have real software instead of that gooey Mac crap. and We refuse to service Macs because it just adds to our headaches, espcially with networking.. Ill never slam Windows 2003, because I have yet to use it but I would bet that because it is an NT Kernel (NT6 to be exact) I would have more basis for slamming W2k3 than you did mac.

Mac software doesn't stink, it just doesn't do what I want.

Does not quite Jive with

And at least it'll have real software instead of that gooey Mac crap.

I think I'm going to do something productive with my time instead of trying to keep up an entire side of an argument.

What side all you have done is given 'apple bad, its networking causes problems and its software is crap' and I should know having never used it on a network and *now* having only limited experience with OSX..

Face it, you did not know what you were talking about, made some pretty stupid statements and got called on it. Sorry if it hurt your feelings, I was once an OS zealot myself (was just a Linux guy.. Now I start to try and see the role that every OS fills..

192 posted on 01/11/2005 8:37:37 PM PST by N3WBI3
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To: N3WBI3
Well (whisper whisper) the secret here is called Samba.. which is common to all of the OS's you mention. Apple is moving to full support of th 3.0 architecture which is actually quite a challenge under Linux or Solaris.. even though it is available. This is because implementing Winbind can be interesting to say the least.

This is part of the genius of Apple's current approach. Every advancement in the Open Source world is getting wrapped into OSX as soon as Apple can engineer a GUI to implement it and integrated it with the larger package of tools.

193 posted on 01/11/2005 8:40:48 PM PST by dalight
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To: general_re
So when do these things hit the shelves, do we know yet?

Apple claims that all the new items will be available in the US on January 22... and available world-wide on the 29th. We shall see.

194 posted on 01/11/2005 8:42:56 PM PST by Swordmaker (Tagline now open, please ring bell.)
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To: dalight
Well (whisper whisper) the secret here is called Samba..

Wisper Wisper, It also has a little thing to do with ACL support on mounted filesystems.. Set up a samba share on a monuted file system in Linux without the ACL option seel how well it performs...

195 posted on 01/11/2005 8:44:29 PM PST by N3WBI3
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To: general_re
You would think, wouldn't you. But, in reality they are still very much there.. you just cannot control what IRQ your device is going to use. This is pretty much just a lottery.

Now.. if the devices you are installing don't have a preference where they land or don't use alot of resources things aren't bad, but if you are installing multiple video or disk controller devices (raid or scsi cards) you find that IRQ's still matter quite a bit. Its just you have to keep pulling cards and starting and seeing if they will line up in a workable configuration. This is a worry of the build your own crowd, I suppose.. but if you build servers you can get a rude awakening every once in a while.

196 posted on 01/11/2005 8:46:09 PM PST by dalight
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To: Swordmaker

Well, I'm sure I can scrounge up a mouse and keyboard somewhere. Prolly have to spring for the G5 to see what I can do on the video editing front - does Adobe still make Premiere for the Mac, or have they abandoned it? What else is out there, if you're familiar with that sort of thing...


197 posted on 01/11/2005 8:46:29 PM PST by general_re (How come so many of the VKs have been here six months or less?)
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To: dalight
But, in reality they are still very much there.. you just cannot control what IRQ your device is going to use.

Nor do you need to, since the PCI bus enables IRQ sharing, and has done from the beginning. Really, things have come a long way since Windows 3.1 - I haven't thought about IRQ lines in years now, and it's not for lack of trying new cards. I just pulled up the resource list in the Device Manager, and on this box there are three devices sharing 17, and two each on 18 and 19. And I hardly had to set that up manually - just plug it in, and it works.

...if you build servers you can get a rude awakening every once in a while.

Sorry, never had a problem with it. Maybe it's you.

198 posted on 01/11/2005 8:57:39 PM PST by general_re (How come so many of the VKs have been here six months or less?)
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To: general_re
You know the critical year in the world of PCI was 2001, the dividing line between non-ACPI and ACPI which is the standard that controls how PCI devices are assigned resources. On machines pre-2001 you have to be alot more careful about PCI conflicts because the OS can do very little to deal with these issues. After 2001, BIOSes opened doors for Microsoft and Linux to reassign these if the device will permit it. Nevertheless, if you play with PC's on a day to day basis, you will end up doing the PC board shuffle, despite all of this wonderful stuff, because at the heart of it.. we are having to observe the basic limits of the 486 processor, because the are built into the core of every Intel processor shipped since - until the Itanium.
199 posted on 01/11/2005 8:59:49 PM PST by dalight
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To: N3WBI3
You have a point. Actually, Apple has to stretch here more than most because HFS+ didn't have much richer permissions structures than plain Unix does. I am sure this is what has kept OSX from offering complex ACL's till now.
200 posted on 01/11/2005 9:05:44 PM PST by dalight
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