>I'm trying to get a neighbor to buy a Mac Mini. In the process of looking >up info for him, I noticed on the Mini's spec page under software, it >definitely lists "Classic Environment" as included software, and that the >OS with a new machine is Tiger (10.4).
Look at the pricing on the Mini VERY carefully. The Mini does not include a screen or keyboard or mouse. Once you add the above (assuming you are buying new and going with something in the range of a 17" LCD), the price of the Mini becomes the same, if not more, then the price of an eMac. And the eMac is a faster CPU. The Mini is really a targetted computer. It is designed for people who already have easy access to a screen and keyboard/mouse. Basically, it was designed as a conversion unit. Sell it to PC users who want to take OS X for a test drive, or PC users that are looking to leave Windows for Linux (and would rather have a better supported, easier to use OS then Linux can provide right now). But if you are buying from the ground up, and can't recycle the missing parts, the Mini isn't as good of a buy as it seems at first glance. I just went thru this at my office, I was going to replace an aged SuperMac Clone with a Mini, once I crunched the numbers, the eMac turned out to be the better buy for the money. >I asked if the so-called "Classic environment" program was going to be >available for future versions of OS X; he hedged and made a reply "Well, >if there's enough need for it; hardly anybody is using OS 9 any more." I >then asked him if he reads his own company's Discussions, where there are >obviously quite a few people using OS 9 still; and although in the last >six months there has been a drop off, there are a lot still using OS 8.6, >too. He said that "no" he didn't read the Discussions! I suggested maybe >he ought to! He said he gets maybe one OS 9 support call a week, as if >that is indicative, to which I pointed out that of course he didn't get >OS 9 calls, because he was tech support for new machines which came out >with OS X, which he also allowed was true. So, it seems that not only >may there be economic motives at play, but also just some plain old >cluelessness in the ability to be informed and to think department at >Apple!! Be careful you don't mix up what Apple is looking at. They don't care how many people use Classic or OS 9 today. What they care about is, how many people buying new Macs today continue to use Classic, or will not buy the Mac at all if Classic doesn't exist. Those are very different numbers. There is an installed base of something like 60 Million Macs in the world, Apple didn't sell anywhere near that many in the last few years. So there is a huge installed base of old Macs. All those people use OS 9 or earlier. But that doesn't mean they will continue to use it if they buy a new Mac. My office is a perfect example. I am in the process of replacing a SuperMac C500 with an eMac. The old machine was running OS 9.1, the new one is running 10.4.1. I installed Classic and OS 9 on the eMac only in case it is needed. I don't anticipate such a need. Eudora is being replaced by Mail (although I could stay with Eudora in OS X if I want). MS Office is being upgraded from Office 2001 to Office 2004. Symantec Act is the only wild card right now. My plan is to try to convert it to iCal, but if that fails, I'll likely pick up a copy of Now Contact (that is what my boss uses on his OS X laptop and he seems happy... he moved off Act back when he moved to OS X). My office now has exactly 2 users on OS X, and neither of them need to have Classic at all. So we would show up as current OS 9 users, but not as Classic users on buying new machines. Apple doesn't care about the former, they care about the latter. And they *claim* there is an insignificant number of users buying new machines and using Classic. -chris <http://www.mythtech.net> ___________________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe send a mail message with a SUBJECT line of "unsubscribe" to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> or <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
