Swung by the Bellevue Apple store last night, around 8pm. Yes, there was still a bit of a line. Yes, they had no T-Shirts left. Yes, I bought a copy of Leopard for my 1.66GHz Core Duo Mac mini.
Ya know… if you have the cash to support it, OSX is surprisingly usable.
Cash? Yes, I said cash. That’s a bigger limitation to adopting OSX than technology is.
Not so much for the Dot-Version-Me-To-Death releases. And yes, Mr. Jobs, I did see the jab you took at the nine SKU’s of Vista. And yes, I think that’s bunk. When you consider that you’ve gone from 10.0 to 10.5 at $129 per version during the same time period you’ve gone from XP to Vista, people have bilked a hell of a lot more money than the cost of what Windows Vista Ultimate is at today.
Be that as it may, this 10.5 release is a pretty good one. If you don’t mind having to pony up some extra cash to get the full use of it.
Some highlights: Safari seems to be working a bit better. Or at least it doesn’t annoy me as much, so that’s good. They’ve built VNC support into the OS which is really awesome. While it’s not as good as RDC it is much faster than the server I was using before. Front Row is now AppleTV: this is huge. I have my iTunes-based media on my PC, since it has a lot more room than my Mac mini. Via network, I can see all of that media on my Mac mini’s iTunes. And because I can see it there, I can make it available to Front Row. Even the movie I bought from iTunes streams rather well (and I have to say, rather easily, once I got my PC’s IP into the hosts file (and even that is easy, if you remember to edit it, rather than looking for a GUI utility that was once in 10.2!))
Other highlights: Handbrake opened so I assume it still works. The Dock looks good on the left edge of my screen (I also keep my Windows task bar there for any PC I remote into – easier on notebook bound resolutions) so it makes using VNC easier. Besides, the ledge thingy looks neat and all, but it also masks the “Hey, I’m running Dot”. Parallels 2.1 works, but I haven’t done much with that yet, mostly because of VMWare.
The Microsoft Mouse driver now does something unique to OSX. I accidentally clicked the scroll wheel. The default setting for this on Vista brings up the Instant Viewer which is nice. On OSX, it now brings up the Application-Switcher-In-Finder, which is like the Alt-Tab window in Windows. While that’s open, if you rock the wheel from left to right, you can switch between apps. Was surprising to see that level of detail… rather nice.
Why the hangup on cash? Apple hardware is still expensive, especially the portables. I was very tempted to pick up a new notebook last night and give it a whirl. Third times a charm and all the crap, right? The problem is that I don’t feel like the product is worth the cost. The MacBook model that’s $1099 is a decent price but it’s a so-so hardware value. The black model has got better specs but at $1499 it’s overpriced. The MacBook Pro line has got much better specs than the MacBook (2GB RAM, DX10 video card) but it also jumps from $1499 to $1999 for the MBP base model. The 15″ 2.4GHz MBP is the best model with regards to size, specifications, and all that; the problem is that it’s $2499. For that kind of cash, you can get a new PC notebook and desktop… beyond that, the MBP, being an all metal notebook, is a portable heater, which also irks me. A lot.
Then there’s the question of applications. For every one Mac app there’s about 20 different Windows apps. That’s OK, because even with a 20:1 ratio, I’d say about 20% of the Windows apps are worth getting *g* So it’s more like 4 to 1. The catch there is that it feels like all of the Mac apps are standard commercial apps; a number of the good Windows apps are freeware or at least cheaper shareware. The could be a skewed view, but that’s what it feels like to me, so that’s what I’m going with.
Having said that, to make OSX really good, you’re going to want to add VMWare Fusion, Vista (or XP), and whatever applications you’re used to using on a PC. It’s not cheap, but it is slick. Right now, I’m on a Vista notebook, connected via VNC to my Mac mini which has a virtual machine running Vista. Now tell me that’s not some slick stuff! In fact, with how VMWare Fusion works, I can have a Word 2007 window floating between my OSX windows. True, the virtual Vista isn’t running with Aero turned on, but that’s not so bad considering what’s going on.
What does all this mean?
Well, nothing really.
My home PC needs to be there for gathering email. An occasional game. Remote access and home server stuff. Could I have done this with a Mac? Not with the current generation of hardware.
The new models of the Mac mini aren’t that much faster than my model yet my current mini is struggling when compared to my desktop PC. The Mac mini has very limited graphics and the 2.5″ keeps the HDD space smaller than not. The iMac has a good set of specs but because I can’t turn the damned monitor off while using VNC, I feel like I’d be abusing the LCD: it’d be running all the time without human eyes on it… besides I have 20″ monitor already: why should I buy a new one? The notebooks are all out because of price and hardware reliability; they may look pretty but I find they don’t hold up well. That leaves the Mac Pro which is way too much machine for what I need, not to mention carrying a $2499 price tag. At least I’d only have to add VMWare to the mix, since I have all the PC software in house already… if I didn’t it would be another $500 to get all of my Windows stuff over there.
In the end, it’s better than I expected it would be. Is much faster on my older hardware, all told. The addition of some unexpected things, like the VNC server, was very nice. I could use more than 1GB of RAM or more HDD room, but considering that I mostly use the Mac mini for a media editing appliance, I’m more than happy with the new state of the machine… in fact, I’m even considering moving the Mac mini from my den to my living room. If I had an extra DVI or HDMI port on my TV I would have moved it already: now I have to see if I can get DVI to go to Component… it’s a nice enough interface for watching what few movies I buy from iTunes. To that end, the Xbox 360 is still a better bet for me: not only does it supports 5.1 sound but it’s already in my living room without wonky adapters.
Oh, and I love the fact that the top level menu is no longer a rounded rectangle – that always bothered me for some reason.