Forum Moderators: travelin cat
1. XP takes ages to boot (from DOS) and shut down. What is a Mac like booting up or shutting down?
2. Will I need to buy an Apple keyboard, or will I get by with my PC one? (What about the Apple symbol?)
3. What is Opera 7 like on the Mac? Does it have the same smooth fonts as Safari?
4. Does Safari get upgrades between new versions of OSX? Or only when you buy the next version? (This would be as bad as Microsoft's browser upgrades at the moment. You have to buy Longhorn to get IE7!)
5. Will Tiger run on the Mac Mini?
6. How much RAM does OSX need? Will 256Mb really be enough, or will it struggle?
1. XP takes ages to boot (from DOS) and shut down. What is a Mac like booting up or shutting down?
It takes a while, too. Fortunately you don't have to do it very much. Often logging out and back in is enough.
2. Will I need to buy an Apple keyboard, or will I get by with my PC one? (What about the Apple symbol?)
No, those days are long past. A normal USB keyboard will work fine; you'll just have to figure out where the "apple" key is mapped to (somwhere in the lower left corner).
BTW, there are KVM switches that will work cross-platform, so you may be able to have you Mac and PC share the monitor, keyboard, and mouse if desk space is a concern.
3. What is Opera 7 like on the Mac? Does it have the same smooth fonts as Safari?
Sorry, I don't use it.
4. Does Safari get upgrades between new versions of OSX? Or only when you buy the next version? (This would be as bad as Microsoft's browser upgrades at the moment. You have to buy Longhorn to get IE7!)
Unless I'm mistaken, their as bad as Microsoft at the moment. ;)
5. Will Tiger run on the Mac Mini?
I haven't seen anything definitive from Apple on this, but "it better." I wouldn't worry about it much: Mac OS X has supported some pretty old hardware in the past. I reckon they'd say that's an advantage of their closed architecture.
6. How much RAM does OSX need? Will 256Mb really be enough, or will it struggle?
256 is not enough for serious use IMHO. But 384 makes this old iBook pretty happy. As usual, buy what you can afford.
One more question: can the hard drive be partitioned? Will 20Gb (half of the default 40Gb) be enough for OSX? Or do I need to upgrade the drive to 80Gb?
My only disappointment is that it is running with the ultra-slim hard drive type, meaning a slow 4,200 RPM speed. My PC's drives run at 7,200 RPM so I might find it slower.
I rarely if ever reboot, so I'm probably not the best to ask on this one. It's not slow IMO.
2. Will I need to buy an Apple keyboard, or will I get by with my PC one? (What about the Apple symbol?)
Well I just plugged my Compaq's keyboard, and low and behold it does work. Ctrl=Ctrl, Alt=Option, and the Windows key = The Apple Key.
Note that it needs to be a USB keyboard. There are no serial ports on the Mac
3. What is Opera 7 like on the Mac? Does it have the same smooth fonts as Safari?
I don't know how Opera on the Mac compares to Opera on the PC, but compared to other Mac browsers Opera is very fast and runs nice.
Yes, looks like font smothing is on par with Safari.
4. Does Safari get upgrades between new versions of OSX? Or only when you buy the next version? (This would be as bad as Microsoft's browser upgrades at the moment. You have to buy Longhorn to get IE7!)
There are many free incremental upgrades across the entire system, especially with bug and security fixes. Apple has been really good about this. If a major change (in features) is in the works, though, it's not uncommon for Apple to hold out for the next major OS point release.
If you want to keep up on Safari, check out Dave Hyatt's blog [weblogs.mozillazine.org]. He's a key member of the Safari team at Apple.
5. Will Tiger run on the Mac Mini?
Yes.
6. How much RAM does OSX need? Will 256Mb really be enough, or will it struggle?
512MB minimum. The 256 it ships with is just not enough. Even the demo units they send to reviewers have 512MB installed.
If you're willing to go through the trouble [smashsworld.com] of opening a mini, you can save money buying RAM after market. OS X is picky with RAM, so go with a quality supplier. I like crucial [crucial.com].
>> can the hard drive be partitioned?
Yes. You'll need about 2-3.5GB for the OS... possibly more if you install OS 9 (which I hasn't even been installed on any of my Macs for the last couple years or so). I don't see the benefit though... if you're worried about disk fragmentation, it's really not an issue. See these two articles:
apple doc [docs.info.apple.com]
arstechnica article [arstechnica.com] - scroll to #disk-performance
Another thing to note is that the boot time for OSX is dependent on how much the file structure has changed. (No facts to back that up, it's just something I noticed) When I would clear off about 2 gigs of data I noticed that it took longer to boot the next time, probably some disk maintanance stuff going on.
Also, no info here about Opera, but I just downloaded FireFox the other day and other than the very basic looking GUI the internet looks the same as it does through Safari and Mac IE 5.5
I rarely if ever reboot, so I'm probably not the best to ask on this one. It's not slow IMO.
Thanks for the help everyone!
Looks like I will need a new keyboard anyway, as mine is not USB. There is a switcher you can buy to control 2 computers from the same keyboard and mouse, but it's quite dear - cheaper to buy a second keyboard and mouse! The only issue is the monitor:
I don't need to run 2 computers at once (I think?) so I might just unplug the monitor and swap it over to the Mac when I need it. I'll probably still use the PC a lot, but who knows?
One further question that comes to mind: if I save some files from my PC onto a USB removable hard drive, then plug it in to the Mac Mini, will it recognise the files? Or does the Mac use a different file system? (I know bare drives have to be partitioned differently.)
This post on HTML Dog I found (after starting this thread here!) is along my lines of thought:
[htmldog.com...]
You're quite right - I don't need a Mac. But when did need come over want when dealing with new products? Apple gear has simply become irresistable.
I also see a sea change akin to Firefox Vs Microsoft. I see record numbers of Macs being bought, leading hopefully to greater competition between OSX and Windows. (Not forgetting Linux etc as well.)
One further question that comes to mind: if I save some files from my PC onto a USB removable hard drive, then plug it in to the Mac Mini, will it recognise the files? Or does the Mac use a different file system? (I know bare drives have to be partitioned differently.)
Sure, that should work right out of the box. The Mac does use a different file system, but that won't keep the USB hard drive from working.
But while we're talking file systems, you mentioned partitioning your drive. Were you planning on putting Linux or something on the other partition? If you are, you may want to look a little hard at file system stuff.
Regarding justifying your purchase, don't forget the Mac will double as your Unix workstation in case you ever wanted one of those.
Apple has just lowered prices on certain build-to-order options on the Mac mini. The combination Bluetooth and Airport Express option has gone down to $99 from $129, 1 GB RAM upgrades have been reduced to $325 from $475 and the price of an upgrade from a 40 GB hard drive to an 80 GB hard drive has been reduced to $50 from $90. Also, the original 4x Superdrive has been upgraded to an 8x drive for the same price."
The partition question relates to how I have my PC set up. The OS sits on the first partition, and data on the rest. That way I can reformat without losing any data. And if a virus hits, the data will be safer too. But I assume the Mac Mini comes with everything on one partition.
If you are doing this as a virus-preventative measure, I think you will be surprised at how this is not necessary on the new Mac.
I also would advise against using AntiVirus programs as they seem to do more harm than good on a Mac. I've never used one, but others have had bad experiences with them inadvertently wiping out In Boxes or mucking with the System.
Also- the Mac can read Windows-formatted volumes so it should not be a problem accessing an External HD that is formatted that way.
You might want to consider getting an external drive just for backing up your Mac though, OS 10.3 allows you to back up the entire drive as a Disk Image on another volume. You can then reformat if necessary and restore from this disk image.
or just drag files and folders off to backup.
(I use my iPod for this occassionally...)
