haven't played with one myself, but the GF has one at the office that she absolutely died over - thought it was the best machine she'd ever seen. apparently it was the only machine in the entire company to correctly autodetect and autoconfigure for the company LAN.
I soundly reject the "for $500 you don't get a monitor, mouse and keyboard" argument. The monitors that come with those $500 all in one dell and HP systems are utter, complete, crippling crap. Any one who knows any self respecting geek can get a basic keyboard and mouse (ie the same crappy kind that come with those all in one systems) for long term loan for the price of an afternoon visit. And really, a decent keyboard/mouse shouldn't run you more than $30 - $50 tops. (My optical, name-brand Kensington 3-button scroll wheel mouse cost less than $10. and it wasn't even on sale.) Besides which, even at this late stage most of those systems come with PS/2 mice and keyboards, which guaranteed will not work on whatever your *next* system is if you buy it new.
Lack of upgradability is certainly an issue - less'n of course if you're not a geek and don't care about upgradability. $500 is about as cheap as decent computers get so if you're just looking for a system to buy until you buy your next system, it's pretty good.
Things seem to be rock solid. Girlfriend had it on her desk for just under a year and never had a problem with it - unlike either the PC or the iMac (indigo i think - space egg oldstyle) which both had to have IT service them at least once (thrice in the case of the PC) during the same period. Granted they were older systems, so that may not prove anything.
I'd say it's a good system for anyone who has a monitor already and has a digital camcorder they want to play with. Otherwise, there just aren't that many consumer applications that demand firewire. The other target audience is anyone who doesn't want to think about the computer as technology - someone who just wants something they can put on their desk, plug in, and go. Doubly so if they don't want to have to worry about viruses or spyware.
no subject
I soundly reject the "for $500 you don't get a monitor, mouse and keyboard" argument. The monitors that come with those $500 all in one dell and HP systems are utter, complete, crippling crap. Any one who knows any self respecting geek can get a basic keyboard and mouse (ie the same crappy kind that come with those all in one systems) for long term loan for the price of an afternoon visit. And really, a decent keyboard/mouse shouldn't run you more than $30 - $50 tops. (My optical, name-brand Kensington 3-button scroll wheel mouse cost less than $10. and it wasn't even on sale.) Besides which, even at this late stage most of those systems come with PS/2 mice and keyboards, which guaranteed will not work on whatever your *next* system is if you buy it new.
Lack of upgradability is certainly an issue - less'n of course if you're not a geek and don't care about upgradability. $500 is about as cheap as decent computers get so if you're just looking for a system to buy until you buy your next system, it's pretty good.
Things seem to be rock solid. Girlfriend had it on her desk for just under a year and never had a problem with it - unlike either the PC or the iMac (indigo i think - space egg oldstyle) which both had to have IT service them at least once (thrice in the case of the PC) during the same period. Granted they were older systems, so that may not prove anything.
I'd say it's a good system for anyone who has a monitor already and has a digital camcorder they want to play with. Otherwise, there just aren't that many consumer applications that demand firewire. The other target audience is anyone who doesn't want to think about the computer as technology - someone who just wants something they can put on their desk, plug in, and go. Doubly so if they don't want to have to worry about viruses or spyware.