shanenin Posted January 3, 2008 Report Share Posted January 3, 2008 The $599 Mac Mini is so tempting. I can't rationalize spending the money, but I really want it bad. I am so sick of using Windows everyday at work. Coming home from work then using OSX would be a nice change(so would linux). I like the fact I can use bash with the command line, that is cool. I kind of think the 5200 rpm harddrive may slow it down a bit. Other then heat, I don't know why Apple would go with the slow drive. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
hitest Posted January 3, 2008 Report Share Posted January 3, 2008 The $599 Mac Mini is so tempting. I can't rationalize spending the money, but I really want it bad. I am so sick of using Windows everyday at work. Coming home from work then using OSX would be a nice change(so would linux). I like the fact I can use bash with the command line, that is cool. I kind of think the 5200 rpm harddrive may slow it down a bit. Other then heat, I don't know why Apple would go with the slow drive.Yeah, the mac mini looks attractive, very good specs. Yeah, having a command line interface is sweet:-) I'm going to be getting a macbook in the next little while. OS X is excellent. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
isteve Posted January 3, 2008 Report Share Posted January 3, 2008 I've played with minis at the Apple store they seem pretty snappy. I've heard that a lot of people like to boot their mini from a firewire drive and use the internal drive for storage. They say it makes it faster, I kind of doubt it make that big a difference for most everyday tasks. The mini hasn't had any big updates in a long time, it did get a processor update I think this past fall but I can see a hard drive update coming soon. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
iccaros Posted January 4, 2008 Report Share Posted January 4, 2008 if you have monitor and stuff, they are not bad, but if you don't an Imac is my better choice. but its all up to how you will use it. also I really want a Pico itx board.. but I can't see spending 250 on something I will just play with.. well except the the wii .. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
shanenin Posted February 1, 2008 Author Report Share Posted February 1, 2008 I just sold my old Athlon XP computer(my first build) for $250. I then rationalized ordering a $599 mini. I spent the extra $20 for overnight delivery. It is coming soon. Hopefully it will be packaged and sent out in 1-4 days. This is going to be used as our main family computer. The funny part is I am hooking it up to a 100 pound 21" crt. I have a a fast windows machine with lots of storage I can network it with using gigabit ethernet, so the 80gb drive will be fine. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
isteve Posted February 1, 2008 Report Share Posted February 1, 2008 Kind of a irony getting the a tiny desktop and matching it to a large CRT. Apple find out how page. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
shanenin Posted February 2, 2008 Author Report Share Posted February 2, 2008 I definitely want to be able to run some windows apps, mainly power point. My kids use it for some school projects. I am not sure If I want to use vmware, boot camp, or just vnc into my windows box.1. boot camp seem like a solid choice. I like the idea of running windows natively. It would give great performance. The big negative is having to reboot to use it. From the little bit I read, it seems I don't have to repartition to make it work.2. Vmware is also a good choice. It is nice not having to reboot just to use a windows app. Virtualization can kind of be laggy. If I went that route, I may want to install more memory. I am not sure if that would void my warranty. I assumed I can run vmware on mac for free like I can on Linux or Windows, right?3. just vnc into my other windows box would be easy. The only negative to doing that is it is also my tv machine. That means the kids doing homework would interfere with me watching tv. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
isteve Posted February 2, 2008 Report Share Posted February 2, 2008 Check codeweavers site many windows apps can be run without installing windows.You can also just get office 08 for Mac. Before you go to far try Keynote, Pages and Numbers that come as a trial with your mini. Many people that use iwork especially Keynote never touch powerpoint again. I just use text edit myself.You should give os x a try without installing windows first. I haven't owned a Windows machine in eight years I have never had any problems getting anything done. The Mini comes with a lot of great software but it's going to take you a few weeks to get the hang of it. I'm sure your kids will have it figured out in a day or two RAM install Quote Link to post Share on other sites
shanenin Posted February 2, 2008 Author Report Share Posted February 2, 2008 Will the ram install void my warranty?I know my kids can use PowerPoint to do home work. that is a significant issue. I refuse to spend extra money on office for Mac. As to word processing, any program can work that is able to save the documents as a RTF file. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
isteve Posted February 2, 2008 Report Share Posted February 2, 2008 This from apple, Everything I have read say that this does not void the warranty unless the part that needs to be fixed was broken while you were replacing the RAM. That seems pretty obvious.RAM from OWC They will also buy your old RAM. There is a link to a istall video at the bottom right of that page. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
shanenin Posted February 2, 2008 Author Report Share Posted February 2, 2008 That ram seems pretty reasonable, $50 for 2 gbs. That is comparable to neweggs prices(or even cheaper). I will run it for awhile with one gb, then I may upgrade in the future. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
shanenin Posted February 2, 2008 Author Report Share Posted February 2, 2008 Two of three of my kids did not seem to like the idea of taking the Vista computer and trading it in fo a Mac. My 8 year old boy did not like the fact he could not play some of the games he used to. I may have to splurge and get him a game that plays on the mac(I only have on board intel 945 graphics). My daughter just does not like change. I told here you can still spend the day watching youtube videos and going to myspace. In actuality it will not change much for her. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
isteve Posted February 2, 2008 Report Share Posted February 2, 2008 Well he won't be playing guitar hero on a mini but most new games will play fine. Some gamesIf your daughter ever wants to make youtube videos in stead of just watching them, imovie 08 is simple to use and is intergraded with Youtube so rendering and uploading is all done seamlessly. Also iphoto will import video off regular digital Still/movie cameras also intergraded with imovie. If you need more power imovie HD 6 is still available as a free download.Also wait to your kids get a hold of Garageband. If any of them like music, are musicians or just want to be rap stars or podcasters they may just forget about playing games. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
shanenin Posted February 2, 2008 Author Report Share Posted February 2, 2008 I am excited and think they will like some of the great new programs also :-) I may pick my son out one cool game that will play with the intel 950 chipset Quote Link to post Share on other sites
shanenin Posted February 5, 2008 Author Report Share Posted February 5, 2008 I got my new mini today. I have it set up. It is taking some time to do anything. It is so different then using Windows. I love the bash terminal. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
isteve Posted February 5, 2008 Report Share Posted February 5, 2008 Just remember System Preferences is always the first place to look for anything and upper left "application name" > preferences for app specific settings. Command / space bar for searching everything. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
iccaros Posted February 5, 2008 Report Share Posted February 5, 2008 open office is always a choice (neo office on the Mac)for school the kids save as a PDF, at first the teachers had a fit, but then I stood up at the PTA and suggested they buy me MS office, after that they agreed that PDF was fine.as for games, that's why the kids got a Wii, but seriously, a lot of games run on the mac and the Intel chip set is no where near as bad on the mac as it is in windows.. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
iccaros Posted February 5, 2008 Report Share Posted February 5, 2008 side note, I am looking at a ASUS Eee PC for my daughter, its not a Mac, but it will allow her to do homework. also most of the games she plays are online.. so no big issues..I have a Macbook with a gig of ram, and run Zoo Tycoon for my wife in parallels (got the PC version free from my Brother in Law when he worked at Microsoft) Quote Link to post Share on other sites
isteve Posted February 5, 2008 Report Share Posted February 5, 2008 If your just doing simple word processing Text Edit will save as several popular MS Word doc formats including MS open document. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
shanenin Posted February 5, 2008 Author Report Share Posted February 5, 2008 Text edit is nice :-) It even has built in spell check. Currently every family member has multiple installs of Firefox in their /Users directories. I know their must be a more efficient way by just making a link to the one that I left in the /Applications directory. Can a link to my program be stored on the Doc? I think my kids will catch on to some stuff quicker then me. I am so used to Windows(or even linux, its meant to copy the feel of Windows) way of doing things so it seems slow to get around. I am sure that will change. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
shanenin Posted February 5, 2008 Author Report Share Posted February 5, 2008 This is odd. I set my root password and am able to use that account for making administrative changes to the computer. When I open up a bash shell and try using the su command to change to root, my password fails.edit added//I already crashed my system. I tried to log into my root account using the graphical user interface. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
isteve Posted February 5, 2008 Report Share Posted February 5, 2008 When you install a program on a multi user mac during the install or after the first start up you should get a dialog box that ask if you want all users some users or just you to have access to the app. This will allow others to use the app but store all preferences in there user library. I haven't needed to use Root scenes 10.2 . You should be able to su with your admin password. I just tried to su with admin password and it said sorry. I know leopard made changes to be fully UNIX compliant but su... I'll do some looking when I get home and get back to you unless you figure it out first.I just tried sudo -s and was able to log in. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
isteve Posted February 5, 2008 Report Share Posted February 5, 2008 Oh, text edit doesn't have a spell check of it's own OS X has a universal spell check pretty much everything uses the spell check. You may have to enable it on some programs Edit > Spelling and Grammar."sudo su also gets you in." Quote Link to post Share on other sites
shanenin Posted February 8, 2008 Author Report Share Posted February 8, 2008 edited Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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