My $655 Macintosh

The big word on the Mac has always been that "It is way more expensive than a regular PC", as emphasized by the recent Microsoft/PC commercials. (You know the ones with regular people shopping for computers -- I'm waiting for the cue card guy from Redomond to end up on film.)

Truthfully, the Macintosh line is not the cheapest you can get. However, it is also true that in the background, you will find a little box called the mac mini. The mini is a disembodied box in a brain -- no monitor, keyboard, interfaces of any kind. However I have always felt that for the ordinary consumer or professional, computers have been more than enough speedy for 99% of your daily tasks, and decided to put that to the test.

So, despite the dour teenager at Apple who said you can't compoare the speed of the Mac Mini to the MacBookPro, I went and got the bottom of the line mini -- and frankly, can't really tell the difference. I'm using NetBeans to work on code projects, checking mail and browsing, and really have the same experience I got on my laptop.

Of course, what I am getting is the old "desktop experience" -- I need a monitor and keyboard wherever I go, and of course a mouse. But as an old guy I need that anyway and it adds up to around $250 in sprue. And guess what? I can eat off my coffee table now that I don't have to plot a big old laptop on it.   In fact the mini slides nicely into the foot of my cinema display.

So the upshot is, there really is no cost barrier to owning a Mac, especially if you alredy own a monitor and keyboard (and yes, PC hardware works with a Mac.) In fact you could probably scrub a Mini and put any OS on it you want -- linux, Windows, etc. At this rate, in fact, you could even get one Mini for each OS and network them, obviating any virtualization penalty.

The catch is, of course, no floor salesperson will steer you to the Mni -- in fact they will be quite Mini hostile, as there is near zero commission on a three figure box for them. Computer sales people are used to using speed as a metric for the best computer experience possible; the truth is most peoples experience of speed is lmited by their network, not their hardware, and since few people game on their computers at this stage, graphic acceleration on a computer is not really relevant.

So blow past the sales line, grab a Mini and try out the Mac experience. Its really worth it and even if you end up hating the Mac, throw Ubuntu on it and try out some Linux.