[JavaBrewer]

Well after much thought...I pulled the trigger on a dual 1.8 Ghz Power Mac. Ebay no less. Not blazing speed for sure but hopefully robust. I just can't get into an integrated system like iMac or mini. First iMac seem to have loads of issues, G5 machines mostly, but some of the Intel ones as well. The mini is attractive but is not upgradeable and has laptop speed components. Once you start adding the cost of a firewire 7200 RPM drive, memory, it's not *cheap* anymore. EVERYONE I have spoken to said it's imperetive to invest in Applecare for a new Mac. There's another $200. Suddenly this machine get's very expensive.

So I dropped $615 on the G5 PM. I sold the free G5 iMac for $300 and will sell my freeG4 PM for ~ $100. The story unfolds... I like the Mac OS X but honestly it's very very similar to the various Linux distributions I've been playing with on my older P4 system.

I have to hand it to Apple though. I've been following Craigs list and Ebay and Apple machines get crazy resale value. Like a 2 yr old Intel iMac goes for $850 when you can buy a new one for $1200 (minus the REQUIRED Applecare of course). PC machines...not so good...