“The Mac mini is elegant, inexpensive without being cheap, and it’s not a magnet for the viruses, worms and other malicious software – so-called malware – floating around the Internet. It could fit in any room as a first, second or third computer. And it plays well with others on a home network,” Matthew Fordahl writes for The Associated Press.
“Most of all, it’s a low-cost alternative to Microsoft Corp.’s Windows that doesn’t carry the learning curve of Linux. It doesn’t presume you’re guilty of software theft, and, refreshingly unlike Windows, there’s no activation when you set it up – an no anti-piracy checks afterward,” Fordahl writes. “The mini seems designed more like a consumer electronics device such as Apple’s iPod than a general-purpose computer. But despite the name, it’s watered down only in size and cost. This is as much a Mac as any other that’s been sold over the years.”
“After completing a brief startup wizard, I was whisked to Mac OS X’s simple desktop, where I could launch Apple’s recently updated suite of programs for music, photos and video, and check e-mail and surf the Internet,” Fordahl writes.
MacDailyNews Take: Wizard? Oh well, he’s an XP user – it’s a frame of reference thing.
Fordahl continues, “All the software is included. You also can add a mini to your existing home network, and it will work well even with all your Windows PCs. You can share files, printers and even desktops. Because I use Microsoft’s Windows XP Professional on my primary computer at home, I was able to control that system – and view its desktop – from the Mac mini
in the dining room. That was thanks to a program called Remote Desktop Connection for Mac OS X that Microsoft offers as a free download.”
MacDailyNews Note: Here’s the link for Remote Desktop Connection Client for Mac.
Fordahl writes that with the Mac mini “you could abandon Windows altogether – at the risk of breaking out in a cold sweat, not knowing what to do with the money you would have spent on antivirus and anti-spyware software.”
Full article here.
Related MacDailyNews articles:
CBS News: Grab a new Apple Mac mini ‘and kiss the old Wintel machine goodbye’ – January 27, 2005
AnandTech reviews Apple’s Mac mini: ‘tempting Windows users everywhere’ – January 26, 2005
Windows users can give Apple’s elegant OS X operating system a try with new Mac mini – January 25, 2005
Is your Windows computer broken? You might want to look at a Mac – January 24, 2005
