New Mac Fever

New Mac Fever

Apple bloggers are all very excited about the announcement of a new Mac Pro. The best roundup I have seen is on Daring Fireball: The Mac Pro Lives.

I’m not a Mac Pro user, nor frankly am I ever likely to be. My tastes lie more at the other end of the spectrum, with the ultra-portable MacBook (aka MacBook Adorable). However, there was one interesting tidbit for me in the Daring Fireball report:

Near the end, John Paczkowski had the presence of mind to ask about the Mac Mini, which hadn’t been mentioned at all until that point. Schiller: “On that I’ll say the Mac Mini is an important product in our lineup and we weren’t bringing it up because it’s more of a mix of consumer with some pro use. … The Mac Mini remains a product in our lineup, but nothing more to say about it today.”

While there are certainly Mac Mini users who choose it as the cheapest Mac, and perhaps as a way to keep using a monitor and other peripherals that used to be plugged into a PC, there is a substantial contingent of Mac Mini “pro” users. Without getting into Macminicolo levels of pro-ness, I run mine headless in a cupboard, where it serves iTunes and runs a few other services. It’s cheap, quiet, and reliable, which makes it ideal for that role. I don’t necessarily need ultimate power - average utilisation is extremely low, although there is the odd peak - but I do want to be reassured that this is a product line that will stick around, just in case my current Mac Mini breaks.

The most important Macs are obviously the MacBook and MacBook Pros, but it’s good to know that Apple recognises a role for the Mac Pro - and for the Mac Mini.