Mac mini and OSX a few questions.

flibbage0 · 12 Nov 2011 at 21:13

Parents are thinking of buying a new PC, (so I can have their old one and get rid of my rubbish one

)

I thought that maybe instead of them buying a PC, why don't they buy a Mac?

They will only use it for basic things like internet, watching videos, skype and viewing photos (maybe a bit of simple photo editing)

The mac in question is the mac mini.

Questions:

1.) Is it really easy to use compared to Windows? The whole point of suggesting a mac to them was for ease of use is this true?

2.) Can any external DVD drive work with the mac mini or does it have to be the superdrive?

3.) Is it worth it? I don't want them to spend it and end up being disappointed a year or two down the line. Will it become noticeably slow?

Thanks.

Si105 · 12 Nov 2011 at 21:15

1. Yeah I found it extremely easy without reading any guides
3. Yeah, had my snow leopard installation for 1 year and barely any slowdown at all.

rogan · 13 Nov 2011 at 03:03

2. Any external will work, provided its dvd not bluray

memyselfandi · 13 Nov 2011 at 07:16

1). Depends on how computer savvy they are really. If they are used to Windows then there are a few differences they'll need to relearn (e.g. Finder vs. Windows Explorer) but overall they should find it easier.
3). Put it this way, my main Mac Mini, which gets used daily, is an early 2009 model ... It was upgraded to Snow Leopard and then to Lion and still runs well even now.

Just remember that if you are buying a Mini that the 2010 models are easy to upgrade the memory on (I assume 2011 ones are the same although I don't have any first hand knowledge of those) and third party memory is significantly cheaper than what Apple charges.