[geeks] Oh for the love of Steve (Jobs, that is)...

[Nate]

On Sat, 7 May 2005, Charles Shannon Hendrix wrote:

> This, from a company who used to brag about easy maintenance.

Apple has always been a bit at odds with itself in that way, though.  Look 
at the Apple II: eminently expandable, much of the architecture exposed in 
hardware and software, and it created a thriving ecosystem of third-party 
companies and a loyal fanbase.  Look at the Mac (especially the early 
Mac): closed, not expandable, not user servicable inside, developers 
pushed out of the system internals and encouraged to follow strict 
guidelines.  The Mac II was a big departure with it's 6 NuBus slots, 
socketed CPU, FPU, MMU, and ROM.  The SE/30 was an odd mix - socketed CPU 
(though not in all motherboards), socketed ROM, PDS expansion slot, 8 SIMM 
slots (up to 128MB RAM!)  It's been back and forth ever since.  The Mac 
Mini is more along the design ideals of the first Mac - it's an appliance. 
Considering the way that a small bit of knowledge can be a very dangerous 
thing with some people (I saw a thread recently about someone who had used 
velcro to hold on a fan/heatsink with a broken retension clip in a desktop 
Pentium 4 system, complete with pictures of the melted velcro), I can't 
say it's a bad idea per se.  That need to use a putty knife to get into 
the Mini should be enough to keep some of those dangerous folks out of the 
system at least.

- Nate