MacRumors' forums move way too fast, as the largest (over 100,000 registered members) Mac forums in the world but we have quite a few knowledgeable members along with too many fanatics. As a moderator there, I end up cleaning up too much useless stuff but it's part of the job.
I think we end up solving more functional problems than Apple do. We let them concentrate on their software development. :bsmilie:
It's amazing to me how many people have switched from Windows in the last 1.5 years since Apple started offering Intel-based machines and how many people joined just for the iPhone in the last 2+ months.
I think Apple's two greatest strategic decisions were to switch to industry-standard architectures and ports, and OSX.
Industry standard means I can share all my peripherals. I am NOT interested in proprietary stuff, in fact compatibility and interworking is absolutely crucial because I run a mixed environment (Windows, BSD UNIX and OSX).
OSX is descended from my favorite version of UNIX as well, except that Apple's GUI makes everybody look like wannabes. The various UNIX/*nix/Linux offerings are NOWHERE near what Apple can deliver. Heck I'd grade them as nowhere near Windows either. Windows is minimal and functional, and it's good enough. Some of the desktops and GUIs for *nix aren't even stable.
Anyway back to the point, OSX is now a tremendously powerful OS. The beauty and the magic is that users who don't care, don't need to. Those who do care or who need to use the underlying power (like myself) find that it is only a mouseclick away with that mysterious "Terminal" application. ssh, SSH server, sftp, php, VNC, apache, FTP server, ipfw, all at my fingertips. It makes a very powerful system administrator's desktop. The tools are all there, preinstalled, and I don't need to lift a finger.
And when I'm not working, it makes a great Lightroom box for plowing through the weekend's shots
The only thing is that I cannot quite find a Mac with the price/performance/specifications of my main Windows desktop. I'd really like something like a scaled down Mac Pro, perhaps a "Mac Desktop". I need two user-accessible SATA drive bays for 3.5" drives. Price is a concern. Unfortunately while $1.2K bought me a C2D 2.3Ghz/4GB/2x500GB box, it only buys me a Mac Mini (although it is the higher spec Mini). I really hate external hard disks (lets not go there) so that is not an option. It is SATA or nothing.
In the interim, that new Macbook looks REALLY nice.
And if Apple is listening, this is my preferred formfactor for the "Mac Desktop" hypothetical box:
http://www.obsolyte.com/dec/multia/ (yes, that is a DEC Multia)
