I like the MacMini a lot but it is kinda underpowered for you I would think. I'm glad you're giving OS X a shakedown...

p3

I'm coming from a P3 800 Mhz, so what does "underpowered for you" mean? :-)

LOL...I equated your technical competence with being a power user and forgot that you love silent computing and do a lot of work across networks...

No offense intended. :-) I just figured you for a big fast box (in the closet) kind of guy...

p3

I made the switch to OS X about five-six months ago, and for the most part I've enjoyed working with that OS.

When the mac mini came out, I read that its graphics processor was too slow or it didn't have enough video RAM to work smoothly at 1600x1200. Did they fix it?

A couple of days on OSX86 made me scream for a real window manager again, but my dad was thinking about getting a mac mini to stream HD video to his big TV. That sounded good to me except for the graphics speed thing.

DVI video output for digital resolutions up to 1920 x 1200 pixels; supports 20-inch Apple Cinema display and 23-inch Apple Cinema HD display; supports coherent digital displays up to 154MHz; supports non-coherent digital displays up to 135MHz

The 24" dell is 1920x1200. So maybe?

hah, just noticed your subject. :-)

Aw, Brad. You're so funny.

I made sure Linux runs on it fine first so I can "switch" back should I need to.

Best. Line. Evar.

You can dual-boot into Linux in case you want to keep OS X around, but I'm sure you knew that already.

I want a Mac mini to act as a sorta central file repository/TV and radio recorder, but I was badly hoping they'd refresh the line at MWSF. Might have to wait another six months for that to happen, though. :/

start here: http://darwinports.org/ :)

Yeah, DarwinPorts seems like a better/more stable system than Fink, though Fink has more software in it.

But really the best choice is to avoid them all and only use software that has been packaged in .dmg archives, because that means that someone who actually knows what they're doing made it work right.

Yeah, my first PowerBook years back... I totally fucked it using fink or ports or whatever. As long as I'm going to be using a non-Free OS I now have no reservations about using binary codecs/drivers/programs/etc.

i dig my mini... was a great impulse buy ; )

Okay, best icon ever.

I love my mac mini, but mine is the 32-meg VRAM model. With that the screen gets flickery at 1280x1024 and waymoreso at higher resolutions. Otherwise it's great. Nice and quiet, tiny, has all the right connectors, etc.

Is yours the newer model with 64 megs of VRAM? That should handle the resolutions + OS X crap fine.

Yup, looks like it:

ATI Radeon 9200:

Chipset Model: ATY,RV280
Type: Display
Bus: AGP
VRAM (Total): 64 MB
Vendor: ATI (0x1002)
Device ID: 0x5962
Revision ID: 0x0001
ROM Revision: 113-xxxxx-133
Displays:
PL171M:
Resolution: 1280 x 1024 @ 60 Hz
Depth: 32-bit Color
Core Image: Not Supported
Main Display: Yes
Mirror: Off
Online: Yes
Quartz Extreme: Supported
Rotation: Supported