Could it be that Apple has come to a point that they can satisfy even the most conservative Linux user? I think it is possible from what I am reading at OSNews.com. John Yanosko gives us his impressions of the options and the hardware from the Linux user’s perspective.

The box arrived at my home in the Southern US two days after leaving Shenzhen. It was light, as if I had orderd a new hard drive. When I opened it, the package was neat and trendy, with a cute little setup book I didn’t need. For the first time since the power supply in my beloved Mac Plus had gone wonky back in Ô93, I had a Macintosh.

After the Plus died I was lured over to the Windows world by the promise of cheap multimedia, and was bitterly disappointed by the horroble gui of Windows for Workgroups 3.11. I upgraded to Windows 95 but was still unhappy with the instability of the OS, so I switched to Red Hat Linux, and have been using Linux ever since, although like many of us I still fix my relatives’ Windows machines every few months. Currently I have a box with Fedora Core 3 and a laptop with Simply Mepis.

So how does the Mini compare to desktop or laptop Linux?

First there’s the machine itself. My old box was noisy like an old hoover. The Mini is quieter than many so-called ’silent PCs.’ The fan came on briefly (and quietly) when I turned the heat up to test it, but other than that there is only the faint chirp of the hard drive - my monitor is louder. I have room for my feet, and I don’t have to reach under my desk to stick in a CD. There aren’t even any keyboard/mouse wires to get tangled up in, as mine are wireless. You can buy small crappy PCs, or small expensive PCs, but you can’t buy something this small and elegant and stylish except from Apple. Especially if your PC is in a public space like a living room or kitchen, this is not an irrational consideration.