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Happy 7th anniversary to the Mac mini

by Megan Lavey-Heaton Jan 11th 2012 at 6:00PM

"I wish I had a nickel for every time somebody asked me that," Steve Jobs said as the question "Why doesn't Apple offer a stripped down Mac that is more affordable" flashed up behind him during Macworld 2005 keynote.

Today, that stripped-down computer celebrates its seventh anniversary. The Mac mini has had its demise predicted nearly as often as the iPod classic. But the durable little machine keeps chugging on and has inspired everything from a fan of RAID machines to media centers, car stereos and even apple pie.

While the Mac mini began its life as a low-end PowerPC G4 machine, current build-to-order models can meet or exceed stock-configuration iMacs. They've become smaller, more powerful, yet are still an excellent switcher machine for those who already own a monitor and keyboard. They also can function as a server or serve a variety of needs for homes and businesses.

Here's to you, Mac mini. I expect to still find you around for years to come. You can check out the original introduction from 2006 below.



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"I wish I had a nickel for every time somebody asked me that," Steve Jobs said as the question "Why doesn't Apple offer a stripped...
 

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Kelmon

After my suggestions my father has bought an entry-level Mini that I will be setting up for him this weekend and migrating him from his old Windows XP laptop. This should be fun. First thing, however, is to upgrade it to 8GB RAM...

January 12 2012 at 8:11 AM Report abuse +2 rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to Kelmon's comment
xxp84

As someone who just did the 8GB upgrade on my MacBook Pro, I can't recommend that RAM upgrade enough! Anyone whose Mac can support 8GB or more should upgrade to at least 8GB. Doubly so if you run Lion, but it does a world of good for any computer, of course!

January 12 2012 at 8:41 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
aamartin

I added a comment to Erica's post "Great things to do with your Mac mini", but I own every generation of Mac Mini (except for the lame Core Solo generation), and recently acquired a Cube, which is considered to be the "0th generation" mini.

The latest one, with SSD and a Thunderbolt monitor, is awesome!

January 12 2012 at 2:13 AM Report abuse +1 rate up rate down Reply
Peter Payne

Just bought two Mac Minis to replace aging Mac Pros, since Apple is apparently never going to give me the in-between machine I want, and we have monitors we want to continue using. They are very nice though, with SSDs installed. I like what the hacker community has done with this machine over the years too.

January 11 2012 at 9:29 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Daniel Premo

I own a Mac Mini, but it would be nice if Apple introduced something between the Mini and the Mac Pro.

January 11 2012 at 7:12 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to Daniel Premo's comment
imhutton

.... the iMac?

January 11 2012 at 9:27 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
3 replies to imhutton's comment
deemery

My mom has my original 1st gen PowerPC mini... I have 2 Core 2 Duo Minis, both running Server. I'll upgrade one to the new TBolt Mini as soon as someone comes out with a TBolt to eSATA adapter. (Real Soon Now, I hope!)

January 11 2012 at 7:02 PM Report abuse +1 rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to deemery's comment
xxp84

Thunderbolt is as slow to be adopted as it is fast to transfer data. Sad :( Is eSATA really that much faster than FireWire 800?

January 12 2012 at 8:46 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Jim

Just do it wirelessly using VNC.

January 11 2012 at 6:27 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to Jim's comment
dorjesyber

Okay, how do you setup VNC with a fresh new MacMini? You are not allowed a monitor, you are not allowed a wireless router.

January 12 2012 at 1:12 AM Report abuse -1 rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to dorjesyber's comment
aamartin

I don't know if you can do the initial setup without display+kbd+mouse, but once it is set up you can boot with nothing hooked up to it but the power cord.

January 12 2012 at 2:06 AM Report abuse rate up rate down
dorjesyber

I love my MacMini server. It's so cute, quietly stalwart, and portable. I wish my iPad could plug into the display port and act as both screen and input though. Apple, why have you not done this already! You should have done this launch day of the iPad.

January 11 2012 at 6:09 PM Report abuse -2 rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to dorjesyber's comment
Chris L

There are apps available that lets you use an iPad as a display...

January 11 2012 at 6:30 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
2 replies to Chris L's comment
dorjesyber

But not out of the box over a cable. All require an inital setup an at minimum network acess. I'm talking about a fresh out of the box iPad and a fresh out of box MacMini. No wireless router. There is no way to get the iPad to act as the Mini's display, and it should have, from day 1.

I regularly use iTeleport and Splashtop. I used to use MochaVNC, PockeCloud, everyAir, the list marches on. I'm well aware of the of options and used them prior to the iPad. None of them are viable without an inital setup with an external monitor.

January 12 2012 at 1:07 AM Report abuse -1 rate up rate down
xxp84

dorjesyber, why do you want this? Since you are a sophisticated user who knows what VNC is, surely you have such things lying around as a bloody USB mouse, keyboard, and an HDMI TV or a monitor.

If you weren't a sophisticated user, you'd buy and plug in a monitor anyway!

There are probably a dozen people who want whatever you're describing. And it's not worth doing just for a tiny handful of people.

If you want to use a system designed by engineers who think every niche use-case is worth building in two pages of obscure, barely-documented preferences, Android is made for people like you.

January 12 2012 at 8:52 PM Report abuse rate up rate down
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