Aside from the aforementioned support hell issue, a Mac Mini that would run Windows 8 and Mountain Lion or Mavericks with decent speed would cost over $1k ++. I run them both on my fairly maxed-out two year old MacBook Pro, and while the results on the PC side are acceptable for what I need — mostly site testing in versions of IE — they are by no means spectacular.
Someone should try setting up something like this as a science project. Please report back. Thanks, Cary On Aug 12, 2013, at 10:13 AM, Ross Singer <[email protected]> wrote: > If you want to go with Mac Minis (which, having had to use one as my primary > work machine for the last two weeks while my Macbook was in the shop, seems > like a perfectly inexpensive and awesome choice), I would probably just max > out the RAM on them and opt for putting Windows in VirtualBox (or its ilk) > rather than worry about Bootcamp. > > It would give you more options (Windows 7/8, Linux, etc.) and wouldn't > require rebooting. > > I do like the idea of more versatile public computers, although I'm not sure > how much real use they would get beyond web browsing, in practice. I would > imagine that probably depends a lot on what you make available and how you > promote them (for example, offering iMovie and making firewire cables > available, etc.). > > Also, I can't comment on what the maintenance overhead would be. Obviously > in the library world, there's probably a lot more acquired knowledge on > imaging and locking down Windows than alternatives. > > -Ross. > > On Aug 12, 2013, at 11:57 AM, Nate Hill <[email protected]> wrote: > >> Is anyone on the list using mac computers and bootcamp or some other >> partition to offer public access to either a mac or windows environment for >> their users? This seems like ti could be a pretty cool option to present >> folks with. >> >> Any thoughts on the matter? I'm trying to figure out what to replace our >> public computers with here in Chattanooga. Obviously I want them to be >> both inexpensive and awesome. >> >> -- >> Nate Hill >> [email protected] >> http://4thfloor.chattlibrary.org/ >> http://www.natehill.net
