My Mac Mini Experience

Apple computer finally came out with a computer that I can afford. I bought it so I can play with the Mac OS and also for my wife to test drive. If she likes it, it will free up more time on the Windows PC for yours truly.

AnandTech has a good review, written from a PC perspective with lots of photos. You definitely need to increase the memory to 512 MB. I also got the wireless mouse and keyboard set so I could use it in the living room, where I can plug it into the stereo and a LCD TV that doubles as a monitor. I also upgraded to a 80 GB hard drive. The base configuration just doesn't cut it: one wonders why Apple doesn't offer the base model that doesn't scream upgrade me. I suppose they had their price point. I also would have preferred something a little more robust than the 32 MB ATI Radeon 9200. Why not a 128 MB ATI Radeon 9600 SE?

But there is much more to like than to dislike about the Mini Mac. Set up was a snap. It found the wireless Internet connection without hesitation. I set it up a 2-user, bilingual machine for myself and my wife: an English system for me and a Japanese one for her. The only problem I had was not putting things in the right place. In my zeal to set up iPhoto for my wife, I dragged a CD full of photos into the program to get started. Later I realized that I couldn't access the photos from my account. I had to delete the photos from her home directory and reinstall them into the Shared User directory. Now we can both access the photos from our separate English and Japanese versions of iPhoto.

At work I've been fooling around with Linux trying to find an optimum distribution for the average Japanese college student. Panther, the current Mac OS, is based on the FreeBSD 5.0 version of Unix. My first impression of the Mac OS was that it was an uber version of Linux with a slick GUI that didn't demand that the user learn how to work from a terminal. I haven't done much with the Mini besides surfing the net and writing email, but it's fun to use, and I like the fact that it's small enough so I can use it downstairs or carry it upstairs and plug it into the PC monitor.