Quote:
Originally posted by gringo@Jan 12 2005, 08:47 AM
I think this is the death of the eMac.
Don't you? If you strip the CRT out of the eMac, you get a 1.25gig G4, with a 40/80gig Hard Drive, ATI 9200 with 32Mb RAM.... et-cetera.
Mac mini is the new eMac. This will also keep to the 'three type of user' mindset.
Entry Level - Mac mini
Consumer User - iMac
Power User - PowerMac
everybody wave to the eMac.
In 5 years, people will worship them like the Cube... "... I remember my first eMac, with those big dumb speakers looking out at me... such a pretty thing...."
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Yep, it's the new headless eMac. I'll paraphrase something I said in the "headless Mac thread"
I don't know much about networks admittedly, but consider this...
Think about it from say a school's point of view - already have a computer lab full of say 20 Wintel PCs with reasonable monitors/keyboards/mice and networking but want to upgrade and thinkking about a Mac based system but worrried about convincing "the managment" about the cost or only have a budget projected on past Wintel pricing models?
With a Mac mini you could do this and still use all the peripherals, but at perhaps $300-400 dollars less per workstation at standard price, perhaps less for educational price. Saves having to fork out the cost for the superfluous 17" monitor you don't need (ie G4 eMac) and saves on deskspace if you can slip the "box of tricks" under the existing monitor stand.
Throw in OSX 10.3 as standard on all machines and a buy a couple of Student Office: Mac 2004 (to allow the whole Word/Excel/PowerPoint/Exchange server client compatibility) at $300 each ie 7 to cover 20 machines - about $2000 dollars. Throw out the old server and use a Mac alternative plus an optional master workstation from some of the savings (go on, buy yourself a tasty 20" G5 iMac for "network administration" and justify it to the boss somehow...)
You now have the possibility of a reasonably priced Mac based alternative to a Wintel upgrade.
Advantages:
1) No viruses (a major issue in the educational setting)
2) Only limited network games (yeah I know, but most Uni's etc hate people playing games)
3) The stability etc. of OS X from a network management point of view (Unix based)
4) Probably runs as fast as comparable Wintel system given OS X's efficiency
5) The opportunity to convince hundreds of students to "Switch"
6) Still runs Word/Excel/Powerpoint and IE etc. (covers most educational/student needs)
7) Only need to get a few copies of Virtual PC to load onto the few machines that might need to run a specialised program in a Windows environment eg. statistics packages etc. or could save a few of the older machines for this.
8) The students think you're cool... :P
While a $1300 (perhaps less now) 17" CRT eMac G4 becomes the entry level student/educational computer, the "headless eMac" becomes the upgrader/switcher's first choice.
Apple are pushing hard for a market share, this could be just the key...
I'd think this would be pretty tempting - I'd been thinking of getting a desktop/sever but now I'd buy it over an eMac or an old G3 600 Mhz iMac (the latter works out to about the same price as the new Mac Mini by the time you factor in the price OSX 10.3).
Sure, I have to buy a keyboard, dig out an old mouse to get started and find a cheap monitor (upgrade to a nice display later) but it's worth it - I can't fit an eMac on my desk it's just too big and heavy!
In fact, I think G3 iMac prices are suddenly going to drop through the floor...
Jarkman
