Mac Mini Concerns

MacMini

Andrew Orlowski of The Register goes back to Macworld and gauges the reaction.

"For your reporter's money, it's a reasonable machine, but Apple needs to deal with the memory issue, as even this budget model is another excuse to gouge customers for expensive memory. With just 256MB, and a slow laptop hard drive, a lot of new Mac users first introduction to this superior system isn't going to be a happy one. Again, we'll know in a year or so."

This is a real concern. For me, OS X is a truly great consumer operating system, and set up properly can take all the angst out of home computing. But there is nothing worse than trying to run a machine with inadequate RAM. In machines with only 1 or two RAM slots, 256MB is, frankly, throwaway, a write-off. All of which adds to the expense, because to config a machine, you either have to pay Apple memory prices, or pay twice.

I'm gratified to note that the included RAM is a standard chip, and not a more expensive SODIMM (laptop memory), but you've still got to throw one away and put a bigger one in. The truth is, anything under a gigabyte of RAM isn't going to get the best out of X. I noticed a massive improvement in performance on my work machine when I took it over 1GB.

Back to the point, that first-time experience of OS X is crucial. With adequate RAM, it's plain sailing. But with 256MB, you're going to be washed up on the sand with the spinning beachball of death. I am now experiencing extreme guilt because I know a family in France who bought an iMac a couple of years ago. Not only do they probably just have 256MB, but I think they're probably on OS X version 10.1, which means they probably just don't use their computer at all.