Linux mac mini

I've always wanted a Mac. There, I said it. I'm out of my Mac closet. I've secretly longed for one but could never really justify buying one. OS 9 and its predecessors held no real interest for me. But when OS X—really a version of Unix under the hood—came out, suddenly the idea of buying a Mac became all the more tempting.

During an ExtremeTech meeting a couple of weeks ago, we were talking about doing more operating system coverage. That was when I finally decided then to take the plunge and buy a Mac. This was before the Mac mini was announced, so that didn't figure into my decision on which one to buy (more on that later).

Bear in mind that I've never really used a Mac. Oh I've played with one for a few minutes at an Apple store but that's about it. Other than that, I'm pretty much a blank slate as far as Macs go. So what you will read in this column are the impressions of a guy very much used to Linux and Windows.

Some of my thoughts will no doubt strike veteran Mac users as silly, stupid, or downright heretical! For that all I can say is: Hey, I'm a newbie...what do you expect? Continued... When I made my decision to buy a Mac, I had to figure out which one I wanted. Remember that this was before the Mac mini was announced, so that wasn't an option. I hopped over to Apple's online store and took a look around.

I ruled out the iMac, because I already have a killer 23-inch Sony LCD monitor. Ditto for the eMac and the laptops. I already have a laptop and didn't want a G4 processor in any case. I wanted a G5. That left me with the Power Macs.

My first impulse was to buy a single processor G5, but I later changed my mind and upped my order to a dual 1.85GHz system. I bulked the RAM up to 1GB and the hard disk to 260GB. I also ordered a GeForce 6800 Ultra for the video card, since I do a bit of gaming and the games I like to run require some real horsepower. The grand total for this little incursion into the world of Apple totaled about $3000 when all was said and done. Whew! Talk about jumping in with both feet into the deep end of the pool! Or perhaps it's off the deep end...

Loyd: Just goes to show that Jim is a true ExtremeTech guy. Go for the biggest, baddest system… But ya should've spent a little extra for faster shipping!

A Cheap Spendthrift Waits Impatiently You'd think that since I was splurging on my new Power Mac that I would also have paid for the fast shipping, right? Nope. As usual I cheaped out on the shipping and opted for a lower-cost shipping option. I hate myself when I do this. I really, really do. I did it with my Sony LCD and I did it again with the Power Mac. I ordered the computer around the 9th or so and got it about the 17th. Few people can claim that they are simultaneously extravagant and cheap...I'm one of them.

Needless to say, the wait drove me crazy! I kept checking the FedEx site to see where my Power Mac was and when it was going to get here. For some reason there was a delay in scanning it or something, which added a day to the wait. Around the 17th I finally got to the point of calling FedEx to find out just where the hell it was, and as I was on the phone, starting to bark at the poor FedEx woman...my doorbell rang.

Loyd: OK, Jim, put down the handset. Step AWAY from the phone… Continued... It just had to be the FedEx guy...I told the FedEx woman on the line "Thanks, but I'm all set." I ran down the stairs and out the front door. Yup. It was the FedEx guy with a big black box with a Power Mac on the front of it! Woohoo! My Power Mac had finally shown up! The FedEx guy got a laugh when I told him I had just been on the phone with his company. I signed for the package and then started to carry it upstairs.

It was then that I realized that this was no Mac mini! This was a big, honking mondo computer weighing about 60 pounds! And the box was so big that it was a bit awkward to get up the stairs! But by that point I was so stoked on caffeine and adrenaline, I hefted it up and bounced right up the stairs with it.

Loyd: Chiropractors love this sort of thing…

Casting all other considerations and work aside, I ripped open the box and lunged for my Power Mac. I instantly cast aside the directions, manual, and other docs. It's a frigging Mac, right? Who needs instructions? I found space to the left of my LCD and hefted the mondo Power Mac out onto the deskop! At last it was on my desk! Continued... Looking into the box my G5 arrived in, I immediately dismissed the idea of using Apple's crappy keyboard and bizarre, crippled, one-button mouse. I don't even use mice anymore, never mind one with just a single button. Come on Apple, get over it! The one-button mouse is a relic from your past. At least have the decency to put a frigging two-button mouse in the box next time! And there's no way in hell I'd use a non-ergonomic keyboard these days. No carpal tunnel for me, thank you very much!

Loyd: For all of Apple's design chops, its adherence to the one-button mouse and crappy keyboards are a mystery. All the Apple employees I know also replace their mouse and keyboard, which should tell you something. Of course, Logitech loves this…

Not having been bright enough to buy a KVM ahead of time, I had to disconnect my keyboard and trackball from my main computer as well as the DVI cable. It was here that I ran into a couple of bumps. My beloved Logitech Trackball and Microsoft Natural keyboard were PS2-based, and the Power Mac only had USB slots on it! The horror!

Loyd: I can understand the PS/2 keyboard, but a PS/2 trackball? You really play UT2004 with a trackball? The mind boggles…

Fortunately, I had another Microsoft keyboard laying around that had a USB connector on it and also a Microsoft Trackball that was USB based. Both of those would work for the short term (I can hear the groans of disgust from veteran Mac users: A Microsoft keyboard and trackball...with a Mac???). A couple of days later I got a PS2 to USB adaptor and started using my beloved Logitech Trackball and MS Natural Keyboard. Continued... After all the peripherals were connected, I hooked the G5 into my Sony LCD via DVI, plugged in the power cord, and was finally ready to boot up. With no trepidation whatsoever, I hit the power button and my G5 came to life! I saw this greyish screen with an apple on it. Hmmm...cool, not mind blowing but relatively cool. At least there wasn't a bunch of boot text mumbo jumbo on the screen like I've seen with some Linux distributions.

Loyd: Yay! DVI! Apple does a standard monitor interface! (Much rejoicing).

OS X detected and properly configured my Sony LCD at the proper resolution of 1920x1200. Again, this is unlike certain Linux distributions, which invariably don't properly configure this monitor at the correct resolution. I didn't have to do anything to get it working with the G5.

Despite being larger than my home-built box, the G5 was pretty quiet—not quite as quiet as my DIY system though. But the sound of the fans was certainly tolerable and nothing to complain about really, particularly given the large size of my Power Mac.

I had no problem with my keyboard or mouse, either. Both worked just fine despite not being official Apple products (not that that really matters, but for those of you wondering if you can use your regular Windows/Linux keyboard and mouse with OS X...you certainly can). And yes, you can right-click to pull up menus rather than having to click and hold the way you would with the crippled Apple mouse (though you can also do the click and hold thing with a two button mouse if you really want to). <!--

Title: A Power Mac on the Desktop! File: Power Macdesktop.jpg Caption: My Power Mac fit nicely into the spot on the left side of my monitor. As soon as I put it there, I immediately piled crap on top of it. -->

Loyd: Whoa. Now that's a lot of horsepower on that desk. Probably more than NASA used during the entire Apollo program! Continued... Before I get into my comments about OS X and my first time using it, you should realize that I hadn't read anything before diving in. Nothing, nada, zip. I didn't even open the manual. I just hopped right into it. So my thoughts are those of a total OS X newbie.

The first thing I noticed was the Dock at the bottom of the screen. It's sort of like the Windows taskbar and similar menus in Linux UIs. But it's also oddly different. You can't do the same things with it that you can in Windows or Linux. I'm still adjusting to it. Part of me thinks it should be more like the taskbars in Linux and Windows and the other part of me wants to withhold judgment until I've had more time to use it.