Wayne: If Hyperion or the MorphOS guys want to survive, they'd better get on board..
*Quietly seethes*
Wayne: If you need more than a 9200 video card will offer, you really wouldn't be looking at a $499 mac in the first place.
Yeah, it's designed for day-to-day stuff. What part of "budget" don't people get?
I still think it's dumb that the machine doesn't come with a keyboard and mouse. PC keyboards are not identical to Mac keyboards, so most people will probably buy an Apple keyboard, anyway. I'm sure Apple plans on that.
Heh. I remember when the official Apple Desktop Mouse and keyboards were $80 each. :-)
DonnyEMU: As much as I like the fact that Apple is yet again tempting into the low-end market, my point is there is a certain level of graphics standard that most current even value pc's keep to functionality. My point is, you can get a much nicer "value" pc at that price..
Yeah, but still not as small. It's always tough to make a GPU choice, too, as it has to be soldered on the board and offering alternate, more powerful choices is difficult.
Still, Apple is infamous for underpowered graphics and charging WAY too much for GPU upgrades. I remember when the Geforce3 first came out. The PC version was just under $300, but Apple was chargine $350
*extra*, which means on top of the built-in graphics that came with the machine (much like how auto manufacturers sell automatic transmissions). Total cost? Way too freakin' much.
Wayne is right. Apple is counting on people buying this and buying more Macs later. That's the whole principle of proprietary hardware: don't upgrade... replace the whole damn machine. That's why I really dispise Macs. Even the high-end tower computers can't be upgraded much or have the motherboards replaced.
With a trap-door and a PC-Card slot, even the A1200 is more expandable than the iMac. That's progress.
Wayne: Why would anyone (other than a system integrator like Tivo) buy a $700 motherboard when they can just buy a mini-mac and put the guts in their own case for $500 (probably much less in qty, or later as the hype settles).
This is the very reason I was mad when the AmigaOne was announced. People think the only way to sell software is bundled with proprietary hardware, or retail. Selling pre-built systems using off-the-shelf components is how all low-volume equipment resellers function. Why can't Amiga do that, too? The AmigaOne Micro is a real dog compared to this Mac Mini, and not even as small.
DonnyEMU: The smartest thing they could ever do is just SELL OS/4 to Mac users.. Even mini-mac users..
Why do people keep suggesting this? Apple wouldn't cooperate in the slightest. Linux gets a chance because Apple would reap hell for stifling open-source developers (on which even Apple depends), but commercial companies like Amiga would be in for trouble. Forget it.
HopperJF: If that is the price of hope for a more diverse computer industry then it is ok with me for I am sick of it being nearly 100% x86/Windows.
Do you believe the reason why that is so is because of Microsoft's anti-monopolization tactics, or the fact practically the whole industry is too stupid to make something better than Windows and MacOS? Given that Linux runs more than half the Internet but has less than 1% desktop share, I vote for that latter.
minator: You can probably get a faster PC if you build it yourself but other big brands just offer Celerons sometimes at *higher* prices. Some of the PCs I looked at were actually lower specced.
Thank you. What people fail to remember about cheap PCs is that you build them yourself. You don't get the convenience of a prebuilt machine, a warantee, an OS, a software bundle, tech support, etc.
I build machines myself and think that's the best way to go, so Macs are not for me. But for a pre-built system that someone isn't going to upgrade every year, Apple is getting much better and more competitive than they used to be.
I still wish they were more upgradable, though. iMacs should come with at LEAST one expansion slot.
minator: The PCs had graphics so exciting they completely failed to list them (i.e. probably built-in Intel stuff which make even low end ATI or Nvidia kit look like stellar performers).
That annoys you too, huh? They never tell you what chipset the machine uses, or what graphics card. "ATI 32 Megabyte" is not exactly a good indicator, other than it probably sucks.
minator: What I find quite amazing is that this machine is priced *below* what the A500 was at at the height of it's popularity.
True, but the Amiga came with a keyboard and mouse, and didn't need a seperate box to plug into a TV. I tried to get a price for the TV box, but Apple didn't have it listed in the store. :-)
DonnyEMU: PS And you don't think people will use it for games?
To be perfectly honest, I expect people will spend a lot of time playing on the web with Flash and Java games. I repair other peoples' computers on a regular basis, and very, very few people actually have any serious 3D games on their machines -- they have lots of IE plugins, weather tickers, and other little bits of junk, instead. Weird.
dslcc: What are the advantages of AOS/4 over OSX? Why would a mac user want that?
Good point. People buy Macs to run MacOS. So much for the "BeOS died because Microsoft controls the bootloader" theory.
Ilwrath: It's still a small non-expandable motherboard wedged into a case that looks like it may be a ventilation nightmare
Yeah, just like all the PlayStations with choppy video problems. The PPC is cool but not THAT cool. I recall Apple had huge problems with Cubes overheating because the hard drive was too close to the CPU/GPU or something. Even a 1000 RPM fan would be completely silent.
Floid: Don't forget, that's before the student discount.
Well, lots of companies offer K12 discounts, too.
