WJM, 1) Regarding the "new Mini": MacOSRumors said there would be another edition of the Mini. Their track record for prediction has not been good. Their web site link to more info on this new computer has been broken for over a week. Apple Insider said that the Mini would be dropped. AIs track record has been pretty good for a rumor site.
2) Why keep the Mini: A. It can run OS X, UNIX, Vista and XP. Great test platform for Rev. B. You can save money by buying inexpensive peripherals. C. You can save even more money by buying better peripherals: get a good keyboard, mouse and monitor, then, over the years, add new Minis. D. Unlike the iMac, you can change monitors if your needs change. E. If you need a computer for home and office only, get a Mini and two monitors, keyboards and mice - just move the Mini from home to work. The whole setup will cost less than a Mac Book, have a larger monitor, probably a better keyboard, and a real mouse of your choice. F. Instead of just a backup HD, you can have a backup computer. A business could buy one or two spare Minis for every ten production Mini's. G. Instead of just a backup HD, you can have an entire backup server. H. The Mini takes up little space on a user's desk. I. Hundreds of Minis take up little space in a server farm. J. The Mini is quick and quiet. K. Because of its small size, and low noise, you can locate a Mini server closer to users. L. If Apple can see that they are losing keyboard and mouse sales on computers where these are not bundled, they may be persuaded to come up with a good keyboard and a good mouse for all of their computers. M. The Mini was originally intended to provide an inexpensive "switcher" computer. Windows users could buy a full OS X box for $499 while using their existing peripherals. This was, and is, a good idea. N. The Mini comes with iPhoto (and another iLife product called "iTunes"). I personally use iPhoto a lot; if it didn't exist, for me, it would be worth the price of the Mini just by itself. 3) The current Mini is far from perfect: I agree. It is priced too high (should be $499). There is not enough RAM. There should be a separate video card. It is time for a Core 2 Duo processor. It is too hard to upgrade RAM or HD (a putty knife to open a modern computer!!!). It should either have a 3 1/2 internal HD or Firewire 800 (or eSATA) external connections. These things are not difficult to correct and I'm sure Apple will address all of them - if they are still selling the Mini. And that is the purpose of the petition, a little encouragement to keep and improve this useful tool. You will note there is provision on the petition to suggest Mini improvements. I, for one, appreciate your vote: www.petitiononline.com/macminsa/petition.html Paul Looney ************************************** Get a sneak peak of the all-new AOL at http://discover.aol.com/memed/aolcom30tour _______________________________________________ use-revolution mailing list use-revolution@lists.runrev.com Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription preferences: http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-revolution