Open Vs Closed System

Last week, I ordered my first Apple PC. For those who feel confused with "Apple PC" it simply means Apple Personal Computer. An Apple is a Mac you say.... no PC stands for Personal Computer. An Apple computer is a PC. Forget about the silly Mac Vs PC commercials you see on TV. That's just clever sales promotion to attract the gullible and brand conscious user. More on that other day perhaps but tonight, I want to talk about Open Vs Close computer systems.

As mentioned I ordered my first Apple PC last week. And lo and behold, the delivery will take a few days to assemble as my Apple is considered a "custom order" simply because I opted for a slightly faster CPU. Gosh, this is ridiculous you can install a CPU on the system-board in less than 3 minutes.

That just goes to show Apple's mentality. Change a single item in their closed box, upgrade-less, dead end boxes they sell you and its considered a custom order. And it takes an extra few days. I ran Apple yesterday and the girl said that I should check again today and it should have been shipped out.

I checked when I got home today and lo and behold, the date just got extended from 16th April to 21st April. Ridiculous. I ordered Gateway 2000 PC years ago and it got delivered in less than a week. Ordered a DELL monitor and it got delivered in 3 days.

I could understand if my config had custom or hard to source components.... but Apple just offers a few options. And it charges heaps for extra memory or storage. More on that next time when I hack my Apple Mac Mini to give it 4GB of RAM for one third the cost that Apple wants to charge you and as for the 500GB HD... well Apple just wouldn't sell you one.

And whats the SATA header on the Mini's system-boad doing there but its not offered? Silly. If I get time I'm going to hack it so that it becomes an eSATA port too. Well more on that next time.... I'll definitely post when I upgrade to 4GB RAM (using memory superior to what Apple offers) and up the ridiculous and slow 120GB HD to a faster 500GB one.

The Mini is nothing but a laptop without the screen, keyboard, or mouse. One can get a laptop with similar specs and about the same cost. I'm buying a Mini simply because of the OS. Lets hope I don't regret this buying decision. That Leopard OS had better be worth the cost of that Apple.