hardware

[cellio]

My current (desktop) computer is mostly working fine, though it's a bit sluggish for some tasks (like editing WAV files or scanning/processing large images). It's a few years old, and so long as it doesn't have any hardware failures it should continue to serve for a while. (Its two predecessors failed suddenly, though one was aided by lightning.) I run XP on this machine, which was looking like a problem last year when they announced its end of life, but now Microsoft is going to support it until 2014. Whew. But soon you won't be able to buy it any more, and I think even now you have to pay extra (buy Vista, then buy XP and install that instead). So when this machine does go (or I decide it's time), it'll mean a forced change of OS.

If I have to change anyway, Mac OS isn't looking too shabby. Its UI definitely takes some getting used to (particularly the menu-bar placement), but the Unix foundation is comfortable and, hey, I could re-learn X-Windows after all these years. Getting a used iBook a couple years ago has helped me explore the OS a bit, though I haven't made full use of it by far.

Dani has a more pressing need for a new machine and he's already decided he's getting a Mac, so I will get the benefit of his explorations. (He's been waiting for the new machines to come out, which they did a few weeks ago.) It turns out we're looking for different things, though; while he's been trying to decide between a high-end iMac and a Mac Pro, I've been thinking about the Mini and considering the iMac. Dani's been staring at specs; I suggested that he go to an Apple store and actually try the kinds of operations he's most interested in, which he agreed was a good idea. He made an appointment today (armed with a thumb drive with large music and image files) and I followed along.

What I learned: the iMac is absolutely not going to be an option for me until they do something about that built-in monitor. In many ways it's lovely -- crisp and clear, probably beautiful for watching movies and stuff like that. Color, brightness, and contrast settings appeared adequate. But that glossy finish seems to actively attract every bit of potential glare in the room. That's an automatic failure for me. Apple makes monitors with a matte finish, which seemed fine, but if you want an iMac you're getting a glossy monitor. (The salesperson helpfully pointed out that I could hook up my own -- but the built-in one would still be there in the way, and I'd still be paying for it. Um, no.)

The Mac Pro is way more machine than I need or am interested in paying for (about four times what I paid for my current Windows box). With the iMac out of the running, that leaves the Mini. People have made fun of me for considering that machine, but it actually seems fine to me. A high-end Mini was about the same speed as a mid-range iMac for the operations I tried. It's faster than my current machine (though there's some comparison of apples and oranges due to the different software involved). If I turn out to be wrong, I won't be mourning exhorbitant sunk costs, feeling like I have to keep it for a decade to be "worth it". So I don't know when yet, but that'll probably be my next machine.

(Mind, compared to a PC it's still expensive; while it "starts" at $599, by the time you give it decent memory and disk and buy support (and let me say how frustrating it is to have only 90 days of support if you don't), it's nearly double that. Oh, note to self: I'll have to buy a (third-party) keyboard, because my current one isn't USB. Third-party because I disliked the keyboards in the store today.)

The Shadyside store was underwhelming, by the way. They did not have a current Mac Pro in any configuration (only last year's model), the iMac we looked at had a bunch of other stuff running on it (so not a good test), and the "genius" wasn't very knowledgable. After we came home Dani called the store in the South Hills, which did have current machines, so he paid them a visit and got much better information.

Comments

Trying not to be a fangirl...

[laurabee.livejournal.com]

I have a Mac Pro (the tall cheese-grater one) that I bought several years ago because I don't like buying new machines. My rationale was if I bought a super-beefy machine, it would take longer to become obsolete. So far so good.

I think the Mac Minis are just fine, not having looked at the specs. Most people get down on them because of the video card: it's not fast enough for games. But, if you're not playing 3D games, it's probably just fine.

The keyboards they have now (aluminum base with laptop-style keys) are seriously annoying. I have a friend who claims that you get used to them pretty quickly. I have no first-hand knowledge in this area, and I have mixed opinions on bluetooth keyboard/mouse. I dislike the bluetooth keyboard because it often has some lag or repeats characters when I know I didn't hit the key twice. The mighty mouse (the "one button" mouse with a tiny scroll ball) was actually really cool. I got to use Willie's for a few days and I like the ball better than I thought I would: it lets you scroll horizontally without finding the scroll bars. It lets you remap pressing on the right-hand side to be a right click, which I really wanted. But, it doesn't always right click when I think I right clicked.

I find Mac OS way more enjoyable to use than Windows. But, if you have special software you like and want to keep, you'll need to find a way to run it on the Mac. Running X11 apps is easy, but I let the X11 windows mingle with my Mac windows; if you want that old-school X11 experience, I think there's a way to run it in a single window, even full screen, so you can have your own Window Manager. I run the Gimp and Inkscape under X11, but that's about it.

Full disclosure: I wanted Mac OS X when it came out. A Unix base with a pretty GUI was what I always wanted Linux to be, so I was extremely happy to see OS X come out. Apple certainly isn't the best company in the world and their software can suck, but, yeah, I'm a little bit of a fangirl. :)

Re: Trying not to be a fangirl...

[cellio]

You're right that I don't play graphics-intensive 3D games. (I don't care for real-time games, except maybe in arcades occasionally.)

I found the keyboard challenging in the store. I assume I could get used to it, but if I'm not getting an iMac I don't need to. (I also don't need to replace my USB mouse in that case. It fits my hand well; why mess with that?) There were actually two things about the keyboard that threw me: it's thinner than I expected and the key spacing seemed off. If it's derived from a laptop then those both make sense (I find my laptop kind of hard to type on too, though some of that is getting the screen close enough to see). Thanks for the heads-up about Bluetooth; I've never used it.

I don't expect to cast the whole desktop in X11 terms, but having it available is nice. If nothing else, apps run under X11 should have a common configuration scheme for things like fonts and colors. (That was X11 and not TWM providing that, wasn't it? Obviously I will have to re-acquaint myself with this -- a task I can start now if I choose, on the iBook.)

Re: Trying not to be a fangirl...

[cellio]

Oh, forgot to mention:

But, if you have special software you like and want to keep, you'll need to find a way to run it on the Mac.

I started down that path, but I'd still have to buy the Windows OS in addition to Parallels, I think, which gets expensive. Then I realized that all we need is one Windows machine and VNC. (I have a couple pieces of Windows-only software, which I use often enough to care but infrequently enough that this approach works.)