I don't know if most people still buy software and video on optical media, I think that is up for debate.
Daft, having one cable plugged into a USB drive is messy? Really I wonder why they have those ports on these things then?
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Why no optical drive in the new Mac Mini?
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I don't know if most people still buy software and video on optical media, I think that is up for debate.
Daft, having one cable plugged into a USB drive is messy? Really I wonder why they have those ports on these things then?
Most of the people who browse MacRumors and read this thread? Probably not.
Joe Public on the street? Probably. Think of your mum, your brothers or sisters, less technically able people, the average housewife. DVD and CD all the way.
Apple are very fanatical about cables. That's the only reason they ship a wireless keyboard and mouse with the iMac. The only cable you need to plug in when setting up an iMac out of the box is the power cable. This is actually one of Apple Retail's points that staff should always emphasise to customers when discussing the benefits of an iMac.
It just seems so... unnecessary when it's a desktop machine and the mini's chassis has space to accommodate an optical drive anyway.
Joe Public on the street? Probably. Think of your mum, your brothers or sisters, less technically able people, the average housewife. DVD and CD all the way.
Apple are very fanatical about cables. That's the only reason they ship a wireless keyboard and mouse with the iMac. The only cable you need to plug in when setting up an iMac out of the box is the power cable. This is actually one of Apple Retail's points that staff should always emphasise to customers when discussing the benefits of an iMac.
It just seems so... unnecessary when it's a desktop machine and the mini's chassis has space to accommodate an optical drive anyway.
Okay, considering everyone else outside us geeks, I'll give you that one.
But I think those in my family would be just as happy having an external drive as they would having it build it. I just don't think it really matters to folks that much. Well, considering I am using that space for a 2nd hard drive, which is much more important for me than a optical drive, I am glad they made the change. I can see though that not everyone is or would be. But again it is done, so there is likely no going back at this point. Very rarely does Job's and company reverse course, but occasionally they do. I don't see that happening in this case.
I haven't purchased an audio CD in probably six years. Even before The Mac app store I was purchasing nearly all my software applications on line. One of the nice things about the Mac is out of the box, you don't need a whole lot of additional software. The only things I Install by disk are Windows. (Windows 7, Vista, XP) and even those are one shot deals.
Sure I have a few Legacy apps and that I install from disk... but you are talking something I need to do once every few months.... I think a lot of people are used to having a ODD and are resistant to change. Most people think they need it but probably couldn't tell you the last time they used it. And if they did use it, I bet it was for something a USB key would have worked just as fine for
You are telling my story and one thing I started doing is buying stuff that I could via the Mac Store, because from now on I won't have to worry about keeping up with disc or downloads. It will always be available for me. Just recently when Apple updated the Apple TV, I found movies I had lost in the shuffle over the years. I was able to download and/or stream a few of those. I was happy about it.
Clearly Apple is going to do what they think is best for there ecosystem. I don't disagree with those that say this is Apple way of just building on that ecosystem.
I just replaced a computer for my sister here about 2 weeks ago. I said well I see your CD drive isn't working. She said on we don't use that thing anyway, so I never mentioned it. She said most everything we get we download. So, you know again I think to a certainly degree much of this is up for debate.
I do agree with you that for many changes is hard and that most of the complaining is just that about the change. The reality is that you can get an external, which will likely be faster than the optical drive that Apple would have included. But OH NO it should have an optical drive. Well not anymore.
Speaking of Windows 7, I bought it online from MS online store, put it on a USB Flash Drive and installed it from that; did the same thing with Office 2010, so for me absolutely no optical drive necessary.
I would agree. It was quite a sudden shock to see them missing on the mini with no warning. Then again, the lack of optical drives on netbooks etc. doesn't bother me at all. Strange that. Maybe it's because there's more choice with PCs. On a Mac if you don't like what Apple offer, tough (remember that old xMac argument?)
Because of the large number of Netbooks, Microsoft have done well with Office on machines without an optical drive. 99% ship with a trial of Office pre-installed, so you can just enter the product key to turn it into the full thing.
All I know is, I'm glad it's no longer my job to sell Macs
When it was my job to sell them (2009), it was always easy to explain the benefits of a $600-1000 Mac over a $400-700 PC (solid build quality, high-quality screens, great battery life, an OS that's relatively free from virus and malware trouble).
The fact that the baseline Mini and Air come with 2GB of RAM (and in the case of the Air, it's non-upgradable) and maybe the lack of optical drive would make them a lot harder to sell. I should also probably say, I'm from Scotland where value is king. From experience, I can imagine this happening a lot: "Why doesn't this £500 computer have a DVD drive when these £300 Dells do? Doesn't seem like a better computer."
Do Apple care what Average Joe wants? Hell no. Will they miss those sales from people on the fence? Hell no. They care about iOS devices now.
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I did the same with many of the apps i use day to day like Pixelmator and text wrangler. I like that i can view and update all my apps from a single location. As more things become available from the App store I will likely purchase for download hem again.
That's a great tip for windows 7! I never thought about that. That would be a great time saver for me.
yes lesser capabilities
We now have an option to install a second hard drive which is useful for anyone to back up there data. Having a second hard drive is useful to everyone. Having an ODD is useless to me and for many. There has been a price drop from the last version. With that saved money I can buy a cable and HD for backup.
If someone wants to spend $700 on a mac mini to be able to play a DVD movie they have some problems. Have you heard of Bluray? IF apple removed a Bluray ODD then you may have a case that it has hurt the Mini as an entertainment system. The Make mini is NOT a $700 DVD player LOL. If you want better quality then a 2010 mac mini, you can buy a 50$ bluray player.
If Apple built houses we would walk inside and find something missing. When we asked about it Apple would show us the outhouse in the back yard and ask, "You mean you want one inside?" And there wouldn't be a place for your washer and dryer, just use a scrub board and tub outside and there sure wouldn't be a place in the kitchen for a dishwasher. I mean you don't need a dishwasher to wash dishes, just use the sink. Why build all these things in a house when they don't really have to be there. Heck, throw out the stove and cook on a fire outside.
does anyone know if you can dvd share from a mac to a windows PC?
i want to install a few things on my bootcamp partition.
all ive seen is sharing your cd/dvd from your mac or pc to your mac nothing to windows.
i want to install a few things on my bootcamp partition.
all ive seen is sharing your cd/dvd from your mac or pc to your mac nothing to windows.
I've lost data twice in my life; the experience is disgusting bad. Now I carry a 1TB drive with me at all times, leave one backup in the office, one at home, and one in the safe - all with the same info, just to guarantee I will never lose data again. For that reason alone I will never buy a major TV series of off iTunes to store in my laptop. In my pessimistic view it's just a question of time until all is gone. I prefer physical media.
I've been wanting a Mac with blu-ray for two years now, so that I could burn all my data into as few blu ray disks as possible every few months. Not only does apple not adopt blu-ray, they go all the way by removing the optical disk.
I've "only" lost once all the data in my life and it was very painfull - about 4 years of work disappeared. I just invested in two small raid-1 setup (Newertech Guardian Maximus) since I do not trust an ordinary disk on its own. One goes in an offsite location in a safe and get weekly rotated (and they are never to meet each other again). With the new 1Tb 9.5 mm 2.5" hdd this is a very compact setup.
I nominate this for the worst analogy in the history of internet forums...
Seconded.
I've just bought a base model Mini to use as a media centre at home. Just got the keyboard to get with my magic mouse and, when I can afford it, I'll get an external DVD drive too. I'm going to use my Equinux tv tuner to record tv programme's and use the BBC iplayer and other catch-up channels. The fact that the mini doesn't have a built-in optical drive doesn't bother me, if you have a Mac or PC at home, you can use that as your DVD optical drive! Remember when the Air came out, that was one of the things mentioned that you can use to add software etc by using you other Mac or PC. The only other thing to do is either get Plex or any other Media software, Perion, divx etc to make it play other content. So, the lack of an optical drive isn't really a problem. Oh, and roll on the thunderbolt external drives to give me fast backups and extra storage too.
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I don't know if the new Lion share feature (Airdrop) would work but you could give that a try, but it might be a Mac only thing.
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