I apologise to the Windows users for this person "representing" you.

[mechana2015]

This could explain why some mac users are so off putting to windows users.

My boss found this blog/article while looking for information on the mac mini.
http://www.divisiontwo.com/articles/MacMini2.html

Refutation of... well....lets just be nice and say theres a few errors, either that or its a joke (I seriously hope so). Just for the fun of it though...

Hardware = to windows comp C. 1995.

umm

actually the one he reviewed was rougly equivilant to my 2003 era Compaq... or with a few upgrades in the RAM department... my laptop.

Secondly he apparently misread the press release somehow and attached the size claims for the iPod Shuffle to the Mac Mini... yeah. O.o

Next up... paralell ports and serial ports... I know of VERY few people who use these still. Floppy drives have been eliminated from macs for ages, so thats just not knowing the product you're reviewing.

PCI slots? Obviously missed the point... its not a gaming computer. Never was, never has been. Believe me my roomate tryed last year. He eventually gave up and got a iMac, dual booted windows and ran DOOM 3 at full settings.

Anyways...

Keyboard and mouse... well honestly the Mini is designed to replace an older computer so it is assumed you already have this stuff somewhere, and honestly I think you could pick one up at the store when you get it, seeing as its pretty obvious they arn't in the box...

Hmm... k next paragraph.
Normal operation being silent... I'd think this was good. Silenced PC cases are rather expensive actually... or so it seemed when I last checked, and honestly, does a computer really need to sound like a prop plane to let us know its turned on?

That "wierd" connecter on the back is a DVI output. The mini comes with an adaptor for DVI to VGA, though higher end monitors actually use this format natively... not just mac.

Stripped down OS... well thats an opinion so I can't argue too much, but I've found the OSX system to be rather deep actually, containing many features not availiable in Windows including flight trackers and other handy features.

Also now... the mini (a newer version) can boot windows so... a lot of the following complaints are somewhat moot.


Outlook vs. Mail... well a business I work for uses Mail for all its stuff so it seems to work pretty well for them. Opening attachments? Last time I checked it opened them in the e-mail automatically. I know nothing about vbScripts so i'll refrain from commentinng.

Next up... "dosn't come with virus removal software, defrag and registry cleaner".

Now we're getting rediculous. There are ~35 viruses for mac ever recorded, and the "non stop worms trojans and viruses" are primarily based off of vulnerabilities in windows and its related programs (such as internet explorer). Since macs OS isn't even closely related to windows, infrastructure wise this is a rather silly. Also registry keys arn't used in the mac operating system as far as I know so no kiddin' that there isn't a registry cleaning tool. Defrag is built into the system and runs behind the scenes and after every mac update, there fore its unnessisary to make you run it. And having never run any of these features I'm still virus free and my computer runs fast after two years and its more stable than plenty of windows computers... it still boots faster than the new Compaq we bought recently that has comparable specs... and it had less junk "pre installed" when I got it... actually... it had none. Anyways.

Next paragraph.

First Person Shooters... well yet again I'm gonna reiterate that this isn't a good gaming computer. It wasn't designed to be. FPS? well theres Halo, Rainbow six, and Doom 3 as well as a plethora of older games... yes half life isn't availiable, but with dual booting easily achieveable now all the games you can run on a similarly specced pc will run on the newer minimacs too.

Weatherbug. >.< why anyone would like to run a piece of adware like this is anyones guess... but anyways... theres a new feature in Tiger (which was available on the mini during this review i'm pretty sure, reguardless it is now) called dashboard. It comes with a widget that does all the weatherbug-esque stuff pretty well and there may be an even better widget for free out there, without all the ads.

I have no clue waht the next two programs are... and the keychain system in OSX keeps track of passwords, as well as safari.

Office 2003 didn't install because theres a MAC version of it. The windows version didn't run due to programming languages being different. It actually could be run on a dual booted mini now.

Internet Explorer? What kind of sadist is this guy?! (aside from the obvious problems, MS stopped supporting it back in OS9 so its stalled at like... 4.6 or somthin', Firefox is availiable for macs anyhow)

Last comment on my part. (my comments in parenthesis)

"When I consider that a good deal of my time is spent running applications like Disk Defragmenter (unessesary as it is automated), Scandisk (Unessisary), Norton AV (ther is one... but why?), Windows Update (O.o what the crack?) and Ad-Aware (unessesary as ad-ware exploits windows problems) --none of which are available for the Mac platform (no kidding)"

So if your mac using buddys seem a bit touchy... maybe they met this guy, or someone like him (or someone that believes this article XD).

(I think this is the longest post I've ever made... wow)

[Kaligraphic]

Um, you realize that this is something of a joke site, right? Check out the Windows versus Linux article, touting the benefits of Windows Media Player on a server OS. "Now we can rip, mix and burn right on the server!" And the games. " I especially like the four games it comes with - Hearts, FreeCell (so addictive!), Minesweeper, and Solitaire. It's easy to see why XP is considered the ultimate platform for gamers."

It's deliberately written to be silly like that.

[mechana2015]

Um, you realize that this is something of a joke site, right? Check out the Windows versus Linux article, touting the benefits of Windows Media Player on a server OS. "Now we can rip, mix and burn right on the server!" And the games. " I especially like the four games it comes with - Hearts, FreeCell (so addictive!), Minesweeper, and Solitaire. It's easy to see why XP is considered the ultimate platform for gamers."

It's deliberately written to be silly like that.

Unfortunately, this article is directly linked on google with no site content to give it context as a joke site. And i've met people that are actually like this. Yeah, kinda sad actually. I do realize (and hope) it's meant to be silly, but some of these are issues that people actually bring up.

Also some of the people on the site seem to possibly be attempting a serious take on some articles (though this is rare and then some), but I honestly hope this isn't... otherwise that DeVry educations was seriously wasted. XP

[Shao Feng-Li]

I don't think I get it...

[mechana2015]

I don't think I get it...

Every claim in the linked article is rediculous.

[Icarus]

Sorry, but I just have to post this:

I save a lot of time thanks to Windows XP, which brings me to another area where Linux is lacking. As I am sitting here writing this column, my computer is busily defragging my hard drive, running my virus scanner, and I'm being shown a list of all the latest MS security patches that are being remotely installed on my machine today. Why doesn't Linux come with any defragmenting tools or virus scanners or Active Backdoor Update like you get with Windows? These are all must-have features for me. Linux is seriously lacking in Internet utilities as well. No way would I run a Linux operating system if it means I can't connect to America Online. Also, where is Microsoft Office for Linux, Windows Media Player for Linux and Outlook Express for Linux? Nowhere to be found. If I can't type a letter, make a spreadsheet, or email anyone with Linux, why on earth would I ever put it on my desktop?

Oh my Gosh!

[Bobtheduck]

That's pretty funny (the Windows vs Linux thing), but I hate mac more than windows... I'm itching for my PS3 linux machine. With open office...

BTW, the firewall at my school blocked that site for "Pornographic / Adult content"??

[Warrior4Christ]

"For example, there is no Outlook Express for email, but Apple includes a program called Mail, which is like a stripped-down email client that can’t execute scripts or open attachments without user intervention."



But seriously... I'm not at all a fan of Mail. The "stripped down" part is accurate in my eyes.

That was a good read though. XD

[Mr. SmartyPants]

"For example, there is no Outlook Express for email, but Apple includes a program called Mail, which is like a stripped-down email client that can’t execute scripts or open attachments without user intervention."



But seriously... I'm not at all a fan of Mail. The "stripped down" part is accurate in my eyes.

That was a good read though. XD

Like Outlook Express is any better? =p

[EireWolf]

I have nothing to say except... Huzzah for Macs.