Big Dan's Corner

Toward the middle of February I got my mitts on my very own Mac Mini. I’d been wanting  a Mac for quite a while but couldn’t justify the Apple tax. Long story short, I had been lurking around a few mac forums at one of them I seen a guy had listed a Mac Mini. This guy Jim from Sting Me, Excellent seller by the way  highly recommended. I decided to pull the trigger, buying used saved me some dough, along with the Mini I purchased the Blue tooth keyboard and mighty mouse. I wound up with the Core 2 Duo 1.83 Ghz, 2 GB of RAM, and an 80 GB HD. I didn’t realize until afterward that a DVD burner was not included, which is okay as I don’t burn that many DVDs.

All in all it’s an amazing little machine, not too powerful, but a more than capable Email, IM, web browsing machine. I think the 2 GB of RAM really helps things run smoothly and the processor is a tad bit faster than my laptop’s 1.66 Core 2 Duo processor. The hard drive @ 80 GB is a joke but I knew that going in and I have an external to supplement storage, so no big deal. Aside from that I love the UI, it’s simply the best UI I’ve ever used. If anything having the Mini has made me want an iPod touch more.

The first few weeks I tried using the Mini as my primary computer because most of my work only requires a decent text editor, Internet browser, and maybe the GIMP so I was safe. Although, I was not pleased that I could find a decent free text editor for OS X. Over on the Window’s side I use Notepad +, on Linux I use Gedit which has context highlighting, a god sent for coding. Now OS X does have text editors with context highlighting however they’re commercial projects, ie paid software. Now, I have no problem paying for software if I’m going to use it all the time however for a second computer that I’m just playing with I’m not about to shell out money for apps. If a made the switch to pure mac, I’d gladly buy some software.

That’s the thing with OS X, there are plenty of free programs but it doesn’t seem many are up to standards of free software on the Windows and Linux side. GIMP works horribly on OSX, Filezilla my preferred FTP client crashes after every upgrade, and a few other examples. One might say you cannot judge a computer but it’s free software offerings, I say you should because it adds to the cost of use.

On to the keyboard and mouse:

The keyboard is just way to small, I feel like a midget using it not to mention the lack of end, home, and the no number pad makes it keyboard all but useless to me for coding work. Maybe I’d be happier with the corded keyboard, I don’t know and I’m not paying $50 to find out.

The mouse = just plain stupid. Well then again Apple always screws up mice, remember the iMac puck? From not being ergonomic to not registering right clicks and middle clicks properly I gave up on it and plugged in a Microsoft wireless mouse which works 100%

All in all I really like the OS X’s UI design other than that it’s nothing special, in my humble opinion. I see nothing that justifies the ‘apple tax’ on their hardware. If I had money to throw away maybe I’d buy a pimped out 24″ iMac and get down to business with a faster processor and more RAM but I’d rather buy a system off the shelf and use Ubuntu or Vista.

For now I’m using the Mini as my primary ‘communication’ machine. Adium (IM Client) is the best instant messaging client I’ve ever used. The mini always stays on my desk asleep, I wake it up to check my email and websites in the morning for any coding work I switch over to my HP Desktop running Vista and Ubuntu.