[JerseyHighlander]

Total failure. Apple wants to take on Wal-Mart? Well, that's ok, I shorted Apple today.

[Thebaddog]

Welcome to the twentieth century.

[TomGuy]

the $499 model doesn't come with a keyboard or mouse

Keyboards and mouse-s (mice) are so over-rated anyway. Mindmeld. That is the solution. Mindmeld.

[Willie Green]

While the $499 model doesn't come with a keyboard or mouse,

Howabout fries and a coke?

[DameAutour]

What took them so long? And this is a half-hearted effort at best.

[TomGuy]

Apparently no monitor either.

[hoosierboy]

You said mac?

[billorites]

Hmmm, a mini Mac!

[CLRGuy]

I saw this.. and for the fist time I'm seriously tempted to buy a MAC... Development on my remote machine is just too much of a pain from Cygwin and Putty. I don't need a powerful machine... but something more linux-like would be nice. All through my undergraduate program I looked at my professor's OS X machines with envy.

[avg_freeper]

On going thread here: Apple announces $499 Macintosh

[mnehring]

The specs are pretty OK for the price:
Mac mini houses a 1.25 or 1.42GHz G4 processor, 40 or 80GB hard drive, a slot-loading CD-R/DVD-ROM optical drive, 256MB DDR SDRAM and ATI Radeon 9200 graphics chip with 32MB dedicated DDR SDRAM — all whisper-quiet.

This would be a good deal for someone upgrading as they possibly could keep their keyboard, mouse, and monitor. The best part is this is not dependent on rebates like other cheap computers.

[jordan8]

Well, you can't fault Apple for style, anyway.

[Myrddin]

I work with a big KVM switch connected to 6 different X86 computers running Windows 2000, Fedora Core 3, QNX 6.2.1, QNX 6.3 and other stuff as necessary. This little box would fit my style of work just fine. OS X is a basic BSD Unix underneath. That's fine too. The hardware offered for $499 looks competitive with a PC clone. The kicker will be acquiring Mac versions of software that matters.

[Swordmaker]

MIni-iMac Ping... another thread.

On / off Ping. Freepmail.

That's a mini-invitation for the Ping list.

[UseYourHead]

Entry Level Dimension 3000 P4-2.8Ghz Desktop $399 shipped free

Dimension 3000 P4-2.8Ghz/533Mhz Bus Desktop Free 512MB DDR400/80GB, 48x CD, Ethernet, 6 months ISP, Word Perfect, XP Home SP2, 2yr warranty $399 after $100 rebate, shipped free. Exp 1/12

Start here, Customize it on leftmost config.

[k2blader]

Okay. But I'm still waiting for a $200 iPod. And not that measly 4G one either.

[bahblahbah]

Sweet, I'll probably get my mom one of these. I prefer to use OSX than Linux. I could always use a BSD variant as a dedicated server if needed.

Anyone know if you connect a 2 button mouse to a Mac if you can bind the 2nd button to something?

Slightly offtopic but staying on operating systems, check out these pretty cool open source operating systems.
http://syllable.sourceforge.net/ OS inspired by BeOS
http://www.reactos.com/ OS working to be 100% compatible with windows.

[Nick Danger]

A Microsoft shill would buy one, except that he's gay.

[scab4faa]

WOW!!!

A $499 doorstop.. I'm impressed.

[mass55th]

It doesn't come with a monitor either. As a life long Mac user, I'll stick with the desktop iMac. I've got the one with the adjustable arm (20 inch monitor), but am going to give that one to my son and get myself the newest iMac.