Yes, I know a great deal of Mac users are grandmoms and newly converted Amish people who've never seen a computer before. BUT GET OVER IT! Believe it or not, some of us Mac users are pretty sophisticated, young, and knowledgable. For example, I am a 28 year old college student. I regularly write my own software in RealBasic. I am taking computer science courses in school. I'm the guy who always set up the rest of my family with their computers. I know how to set up a local area network on Windows NT, and I regularly use Windows computers.

OK? get it? I'm not a techno-bumpkin. AND I *STILL* WANT A MAC MINI. There, so now it has been said. I want the Mac Mini because a.) I'm a POOR college student and I can actually afford it. b.) it's a heck of a big step up from the 500 MHz G3 iMac I am currently using. c.) as a college student, i move around, travel home, etc... and the Mac mini can easily come with me. I can even take it over a friend's house so we can record music. They have windows computers, but I have Mac mini with GarageBand so I can simply plug their monitors into Mac mini and we are in business. So all these reviewers, I know they are well intentioned, but they really need to stop positioning the Mac in general, and especially the Mac mini, as a product for drooling, stupid, neanderthals who have never used a computer before. It's a COOL product for real people, especially people like college students and, I imagine, a great deal many people who use the iPod.

...that Anandtech devoted 18 pages to this write up... its frank discussion of the pro's and con's would certainly make some PC users listen, those that usually turn a deaf ear to articles that 'gush' with our 'zealotry'. For once, an article hints at comparing the loss of a 'free' monitor against the cost of setup headaches and malware.

I was also impressed by the discussion of the packaging and the 'computer as appliance' aura the Mini apparently exudes. I have yet to hold a Mini box, much less the contents, but would perhaps have overlooked the 'new consumer' perspective, tearing through the uncrating process, 'zealot' that I am.

Vaughn ('cant ever remember his login') Cordero

I always thought people's misperception of Mac users was that they were all educated, yuppy snobs. Hmm. But anyways to further guest's point, I'm a mac user and I write Windows device drivers for a living. Go figure.

A fabulous article. His first two are must reads as well.

Price is not the biggest barrier to switching. The biggest barrier is that most people do not consider the Mac, don't even know what a Mac is, because it's not what all their friends use, and not what is being sold at their local discount store.

That is the biggest concern I hear when I talk about a mac. And they are not talking about Office.

Some people actually think that M$ created the GUI and the mac uses the command prompt.

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Anonymous wrote:
That is the biggest concern I hear when I talk about a mac. And they are not talking about Office.

Some people actually think that M$ created the GUI and the mac uses the command prompt.

Nah, the biggest complaint I hear is that they'd have to re-buy software.

And that's a valid reason to not want to switch. If you're already bought MS Office, why would you want to buy it AGAIN? And let's say the Sims is your favorite game...sure, you CAN get it for the Mac, but you're paying for it AGAIN.

THAT's the biggest problem for switchers, and there's really nothing Apple can do about it. Sure, they could run a promotion where you trade in a Windows Office CD for a Mac Office CD or something...that could help, but it wouldn't really solve the problem.

That's why I think children will be the Mac's biggest market soon. If you're buying a computer for your 10 year old, they probably don't have a huge software library built up that costs a lot of money. Dad's still keeping his Dell so why does he care what computer the kids get? I see a "Mac for the kids" trend becoming a big part of Apple's business in the future.

If you are buying for someone who doesn't OWN software already THEN you've removed the biggest barrier to buying a Mac. Buying a Mac's not expensive...it's SWITCHING that's a pain. Get the kids now and they'll grow up with Macs and hold onto them. That's never worked so well in the past. Lots of kids grew up with Macs in school but then they got out of school and found that everyone uses PCs and Macs weren't so compatible. Oh well, sorry Mac! Now that OS X really DOES work well with Windows I think you'll see a lot more kids grow up with Macs but NOW they won't have to give them up when they grow up.

The fact that even a die-hard PC hardware and news website now have a section on Macintosh is very telling. Mac is back. Such websites ease the migration to Mac.

Currently, Mac mini is positioned as a second computer i.e. in addition to your PC. This position is very apt. It allows the Windows user to continue to do what he is doing now with the PC and tries out the iLife and the Mac experience. It solves the twin issues of "don't know what is a Mac" and "don't want to buy software again". $499 is a go figure.

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Guest wrote:
That is the biggest concern I hear when I talk about a mac. And they are not talking about Office.

Some people actually think that M$ created the GUI and the mac uses the command prompt.

When Windows 95 came out--remember, this was a huge step up from Windows 3.1 and was accompanied by a multimillion dollar advertising campaign--I was working at a software store in the mall. I was the resident Mac Boy, for which I got no end of grief. We had a tiny Mac section, and very few Mac customers. But if one did come in, they were also always referred to me.

In any case, my heart nearly broke when an elderly man, exposed as we all were to this Microsoft hype, asked me if they had Windows 95 for Macintosh.

I told him, yeah. I came out in 1987.

I have just read two articles, http://www.anandtech.com/mac/showdoc.aspx?i=2232 and http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1558,1755304,00.asp, by Windows/Linux users experiences trying out the mac and osx. While i chuckle at their feelings of being lost in a foriegn land without being able to speak the language or having a local map to guide them i have discovered many ways osx can be used and customized which i didn't know or had forgotten in my 10+ years of mac use. If a Windows/Linux user asked for help navigating and using osx i would point him to these articles to get an insider's perspective of the joys and ease-of-use they will experience by finally coming over to the other side.

It's really good that these articles look critically at the whole mac experience: for example the strong messages that more RAM makes a huge difference and that Safari is sluggish compared to IE on Windows - these points are going to be important for the first impressions given to potential switchers. This is a wake up call for Apple to sort these points, and useful insight for mac-only users as to why many may prefer Windows, put in the context that OS X has a lot going for it and is worth a try as a second system even for die-hard Windows users. Altogether excellent.

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macjim wrote:
It's really good that these articles look critically at the whole mac experience: for example the strong messages that more RAM makes a huge difference and that Safari is sluggish compared to IE on Windows - these points are going to be important for the first impressions given to potential switchers. This is a wake up call for Apple to sort these points, and useful insight for mac-only users as to why many may prefer Windows, put in the context that OS X has a lot going for it and is worth a try as a second system even for die-hard Windows users. Altogether excellent.

Agree. I hope Apple would lift ideas from these articles and provide a better Mac experience for switchers.