The random views of Scott KissingerI installed the Mac Mini over the weekend (see post below). First impression is very positive. The installation process was very smooth, as I’ve come to expect from Apple. Back up the laptop to Time Machine, boot the new machine, load everything from Time Machine, and it’s about 95% done. (I remember the bad old Windows days when you had to reinstall every program from scratch when you got a new computer. That was a royal pain.) About 3.5 hours total, 3 of which are unattended while it loads the old files.
There were a few hiccups. First, remarkably, the machine would not boot with the Apple Trackpad. It required the trackpad to be connected as the pointing device before it would continue with the installation. But, the trackpad must first be paired with the computer before it can be used. So there was a deadlock, and I had to plug in a USB mouse as the pointing device to finish the installation. Not a huge deal, but stupid.
Also, when I opened Aperture (Apple’s pro photo app), the links to referenced photos needed to be reset. That takes some time. And for some reason a large percentage of mail in folders was marked as unread. A 2 minute fix, but annoying.
Overall though, can’t complain. Aperture in 32 bit mode is many times faster than the old machine. Everything is snappier. The Mini itself is absolutely silent.
The other supposedly big change is the Lion OS. Frankly, aside from one bizarre scrolling feature that is easily turned off, I can barely tell the difference from Snow Leopard. There are some new gestures to control the screen (great with the trackpad), Mail looks a little different, and a few things here and there are snazzier, but I don’t think I would feel compelled to upgrade, even for the low $29.95 cost.
I’ll be back in a few weeks after I’ve lived with the system for a while.
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