I guess it’s not really a fair comparison since I’m running 32-bit Windows XP, but it strikes me as mildly retarded how much better my stupid $350 Mac Mini performs than my ~$1000 desktop. The Mac has a Core 2 Duo 1.83 GHz CPU with 1 gig ram and an 80 gig HD, running 10.5.6 (or something). My desktop is a 3.0 GHz Wolfdale with 4 gigs ram and a 1 TB 7200 RPM sata drive. The Mac isn’t super speedy but it seems more responsive in everything except iTunes, and that’s probably due to all the MP3s being served off my ancient Linux box (over G wireless). Actually, I still completely detest iTunes, and think Winamp is about the perfect MP3 player. But anyway, the stuff you can do “for free” on a Mac is pretty amazing. I haven’t played with iMovie or a bunch of the other programs yet, but even just Expose is pretty remarkable.
There’s a price tag for them, of course, but if my gaming days are over then I could probably get by with a ~$1200 Macbook or Macbook Pro, or probably even a higher end Mini with some more memory in it. I’m tempted at this point to try CentOS on the desktop just so I can have a 64-bit OS. Or maybe Windows 7. Maybe after the move.
Blehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
Evan Hoffman's Blog 