With the current (un)availability of Windows 7 computers and the expense of having to downgrade on a new Windows 8, we are considering the Mac Mini as our next computer.

Anyone have one?

Our SIL has one, but he's a programmer and his opinion wouldn't sway me either way since he views it differently. Daughter says she loves it and hates it, LOL. The great thing is we can use our current monitor, mouse and keyboard. It doesn't come with a CD/DVD drive, but you can add it as a peripheral. The tech guy for our company says that most computers will be getting away from the hard disk formats in the near future. With things like iCloud and such, they aren't really needed. Damn!

Next think you know, a computer will be a hamster in a cage and you'll have to add anything else you need.

Edited to add: The company tech says they refuse to use Windows 8

Apparently, Microsoft just underwent a big shakeup over Windows 8 and they are planning to relaunch it for PC's later this year. It was originally designed for touch-sensitive monitors and most people who own PC's don't have them. I'm hanging on to my two XP boxes for as long as I possibly can.

I hear ya Sid. XP was/is good! I still miss my Win98, rofl!

I have vista at home and it's ok, but not great. I do hope they launch a new one for PCs. I know the tablet/android market is huge, but there are millions of PCs out there.

Last I heard, Win 8.1 will be released this fall and will be a free upgrade for Win 8 users.

Well if that's what it is, I've already read some scathing reviews. I thought that was already out and failed to do as promised.

A preview/beta version was released already but the official 8.1 won't be released until the fall.

I guess I had read the reviews for the beta version. Here is one:

http://www.dedoimedo.com/computers/wind ... -beta.html

Doesn't sound like much of an improvement to me. lol Maybe I should go ahead and buy Windows 7 and stash it until I buy a new PC.

Funny review. I am meh about Win8. I hated the start screen from the start because I found the live tiles very distracting and the default tiles they had up there were for apps I had no interest or use for. So I ended up deleting or removing all of them. Not to mention, the start screen seems to be more suited to a laptop computer with a touch screen. I have a desktop with a regular monitor, no touch screen. I hate the charms bar - it's so sensitive that I hit it a lot when I move my mouse over to the right side of my screen when I'm scrolling in my browser.

One last downer about Win8 - I need to remember to run my anti-spyware and anti-malware at least a couple times a week. Never needed to worry about that when I was using a Linux based os.

I don't hate Win8 but for me, the only real upside to having it is that I can play my Big Fish games again. Otherwise, I'd still be using Linux.

LOL, I wouldn't even consider a Mac if Big Fish didn't offer d/l for it. Can't go without my Big Fish HOG or HOA games.