Bloody disappointed with my Mac

Spirit · Post by **Spirit** » Fri Apr 15, 2005 11:44 am

I bought a Mac Mini so as to create "standalone" Flash media for Macs and I think now my pursuit of 5% of the market was a big mistake.

My Mini (1.2GHZ 256MB RAM) has *MUCH* less power to process Flash than my badly abused 600Mhz 128Mb RAM laptop (my low-end test machine).

The Mac stutters and crashes on a pretty simple 24Mb swf file. I've spent days getting the thing to perform with all sorts of different Flash file exports and have just about given up.

This thread is not to bash Macs as such which of course are wonderful for lots of things. But merely to vent my frustration that for me Macs and Flash just don't mix. The best help I've been given so far on a Mac forum is that "OSX and Flash aren't a good combination".

Grrrrrrrrrrr

I'd give this damn rotten bloody bathroom-tile plastic lump thing to my five-year-old (to replace his Pentium-133 laptop) but I don't think I want to turn him into a Mac user !

So I think it'll sit on my desk to remind me I was an idiot.

darkrezin · Post by **darkrezin** » Fri Apr 15, 2005 2:31 pm

It's not Macs per se.. it's the Mac Mini - it wasn't really designed for much else than internet surfing and running iTunes. You're asking a bit much of a machine of this standard to run graphic design programs - a proper high-end G4 or G5 is what you use for that.

BingoTheClowno · Post by **BingoTheClowno** » Fri Apr 15, 2005 2:54 pm

Talk about hyped marketing:
http://www.cnn.com/2005/SHOWBIZ/Music/04/12/bush.ipod/

braincell · Post by **braincell** » Fri Apr 15, 2005 3:16 pm

the ipod can get you killed. There was a stabbing last night in dc. The man's ipod was taken and not his wallet! I'm glad I got a muvo.

King of Snake · Post by **King of Snake** » Fri Apr 15, 2005 4:37 pm

Bush: "If you buy a PC, you're funding terrorism"!

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: King of Snake on 2005-04-15 17:38 ]</font>

Spirit · Post by **Spirit** » Fri Apr 15, 2005 5:13 pm

The thing is I'm not asking it to run the *application*, just the end product, a 17 or 24Mb Flash file !

alfonso · Post by **alfonso** » Fri Apr 15, 2005 5:24 pm

I think you could resell it pretty fast...it's still a new product and a lot of people could need it and even be satisfied...

Nestor · Post by **Nestor** » Fri Apr 15, 2005 5:32 pm

On 2005-04-15 18:24, alfonso wrote:
I think you could resell it pretty fast...it's still a new product and a lot of people could need it and even be satisfied...

Same advice here, do it fast, and forget about it! The more time you have it at home, the more you're going to have bad feelings. Sell it.

Nestor · Post by **Nestor** » Fri Apr 15, 2005 5:33 pm

BTW: Please Hubird, you must read this thread, ok?

darkrezin · Post by **darkrezin** » Fri Apr 15, 2005 6:17 pm

Post by **hubird** » Fri Apr 15, 2005 6:28 pm

hehe, yeah, I'm deep back in my hole and keep quiet

May be Astro could run the same test, you had a test model at home, wasn't it?

However, it's still not proved to be Mini's fault

I would try a similar application first, before saying goodbye (you did not?).

Anyway, I would never buy a Mini for such tasks, as others said.

But I agree of course it should work.
Me and mac friends have the same experience but then with the Stylus software, it seems always to destabilize the system anyhow, and I have an authorized version:-)

Hope you find the right thing to do, Spirit

With the right spirit you will...

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: hubird on 2005-04-15 19:30 ]</font>

CroNiX · Post by **CroNiX** » Fri Apr 15, 2005 7:05 pm

On 2005-04-15 15:31, dArKr3zIn wrote:
It's not Macs per se.. it's the Mac Mini - it wasn't really designed for much else than internet surfing and running iTunes.

But arent Flash files meant (mostly) to be read via the internet?

astroman · Post by **astroman** » Fri Apr 15, 2005 7:29 pm

right Huub, me too with a guinea pig....

it's in fact a horrible performer (we do all the office and even some layout stuff on 400MHZ machines under OS9), but what do you expect from 256 MB under an UX-ish OS that uses a 2.5" HD spinning at 4200 rpm for paging ?

Then there is all that 'cocoa' programming, certainly convenient for Apple, but the result performs slower than VisualBasic. I vaguely remember the first versions of that 'language' under OS8

Aside from that, the little machine and it's OS don't seem to be best friends. It has serious hickups if presented to 'unconvenient' environments, like an old Acrobat reader in classic mode.

I haven't used the entainment section with all that garageband, movie and picture stuff yet, but they did a remarkable job in tarnishing the OS.
You don't know what's (really) under the hood and I assume Apple is so focussed on their latest cash cow(s) that they'll forget about their reputation for solid workhorses pretty fast

anyone who dissed them had a look at the latest balance ?

cheers, Tom - regrets to Spirit
ps: written on mini

Spirit · Post by **Spirit** » Fri Apr 15, 2005 9:51 pm

Arrrrgghhhhhhh

I honestly thought this was just some glitch or wrong setting on my Mini. As I said, I am not *creating* material on the Mini, only trying to play it back !

I never imagined that it would be so weak - but everything I'm hearing makes me think the worst.

Now I wonder whether I really should just ditch it, or perhaps create a really low-spec "simple" version for Mac users... But then all that mucking about for 5% of the market ? Hmmm.

astroman · Post by **astroman** » Sat Apr 16, 2005 4:06 am

well, it covers quite some of Apple's customer range, as it's more or less a Powerbook in a different box - and the consumer segment it's targeted at quickly grows.
As an all-in-one-solution (with the iLife software package) it will make a lot of people happy, as it does exactly what's expected and you're signed to one of Apple's xtra services faster than you can think

It doesn't matter how good it performs technically, those folks don't bother.
It's the same as my dad's Celeron 400 under Win 98 versus his collegue's P4/2gig under XP home from the supermarket. That collegue once asked: what's inside ? mine is much slower...

The MacMini's performance can certainly be tweaked - if you know where and how.
But in Apple's eyes you're definetely not supposed to.
You may like it or leave it, but the basic idea behind the concept yields a lot of positive feedback - as sales figures show.

cheers, Tom
... should I try to boot it with OS8 ?

Spirit · Post by **Spirit** » Sat Apr 16, 2005 4:20 am

Tom, sent you a pm...

Ditty · Post by **Ditty** » Mon Apr 18, 2005 2:31 am

The big problem with the mini is graphics support.
Only 32MB and no Core Graphics support for 10.4. Im still using a sawtooth and will probably go a 9800 when Tiger matures. Here's a link to some interesting info on the mini:

http://developer.apple.com/documentatio ... index.html

Spirit · Post by **Spirit** » Mon Apr 18, 2005 7:51 am

Interesting Ditty, thanks.

With the kind help of Astroman and Hubird I think I'm coming to a "gentleman's agreement" with my Mini.

At the moment it does seem like the graphics card and RAM are the weak points for me.

w_ellis · Post by **w_ellis** » Mon Apr 18, 2005 8:17 am

This article's fairly useful, but also makes a fairly strong case for upgrading the memory (this is the conclusion):
http://www.anandtech.com/mac/showdoc.aspx?i=2328&p=18

darkrezin · Post by **darkrezin** » Mon Apr 18, 2005 8:52 am

Memory would definitely be a major factor - actually running a WindowsXP machine with 256MB is a whole world of pain too.