For years we've been listening to folks who bemoan the cost the the Mac, and have been looking for a way to buy in and give the technology a chance. Well, now Apple has removed this barrier with the new $499 Mac mini.

It's a fully powered Macintosh, running the full version of MacOS X, the latest iLife '05 just released, Quicken 2005, a couple of games, and the old but functional AppleWorks 6. This Mac is packaged in a 6.5" square aluminum case just 2" high, with a white plastic top, and a rubbery footplate. On the front is the slot-load CD combo drive (plays DVDs, burns CDs), and on the back along with the power button, are the ports (two USB2, one FireWire 400, Ethernet 10/100, 56K Modem, DVI digital video out (with VGA adapter if needed), and audio out). For those with Kensington case locks, the Mac mini includes a slot for it as well.

While the base model houses the 1.25GHz G4 and a 40GB hard drive, for $100 more you can get the 1.42GHz G4 with an 80GB hard drive instead. Apple also offers built-in Bluetooth (short distance wireless connectivity for keyboards, mice, cell phones, etc.) for an extra $50 and AirPort Extreme (full wireless networking) for $79.

The primary hardware complaint so far with this Mac is the base 256MB of memory that Apple includes in the price. To be fair, except for some G5s, that's all Apple includes in any of its Macs. To upgrade to 512MB (the accepted norm for using the iLife apps) will add another $75 to the price.

The downside in this process is that the memory upgrade is not considered user installable. There is no pop-out door to swap out the RAM. This means you'll either need to include the extra RAM at the time of your purchase, pay a certified Apple tech to install it for you later, or risk losing your warranty if you attempt to do it yourself and damage something. Damaging the case during this upgrade is not unlikely for a novice since the top slides down over some 15 plastic forked clips that could be easily broken without the appropriate custom tool.

So, where does this leave us? Is the Mac a deal, or not? That depends on who you are.

Are you a long-time Mac user with a display, USB keyboard, and USB mouse still running an older Mac looking for an upgrade? Are you a Windows user with a display, USB keyboard, and USB mouse who has been intrigued with the Mac experience, but who has always balked at the entry price?

If you fall into either of these groups, it may just well be.

The Mac mini is a full-fledged Macintosh, with all the usual software bells and whistles. It's running the full version of MacOS X, not a dumbed-down version that some other low end computer companies use on their entry-level systems to keep costs down. It also includes the newest, most robust version of the iLife package. The gotchas? No display, keyboard, or mouse included in the price. This Mac was designed as an entry level machine to give potential switchers a low cost way to try out the Mac, and current Mac users who just can't afford the $1300 for an iMac G5 or don't want a CRT-based eMac, or those who perhaps just don't want an all-in-one system.

What about performance? Well, that's easy. This Mac is faster than my one year old iMac 1GHz G4 with the articulating 17" display. It also has a 167MHz data bus, versus the 133MHz data bus in my iMac, so data moves faster between the CPU and memory. And here's the point...it costs ONE FOURTH what I paid for my iMac!

So where does that leave us? The Wintel crowd will say that the Mac mini is just last year's old technology and can't compare to this year's stuff. There's some truth in that, but it misses the reason for owning a Mac. We use Macs for the operating system experience. Sure, I'd like to have great games in MacOS X, but gaming companies simply won't take the time to give us that option (just quick and dirty ports that run like a dog on Mac hardware) until there are more customers to sell to. MacOS 9 was fine in its time, but became rickety as it aged. MacOS X is a world-class operating system, and arguably the best available on any platform today.

Apple has removed the primary barrier for Mac-user-wannabes to try out the platform. Perhaps not coincidentally, Apple has also offered up a way for current Mac users to move up to MacOS X and get new hardware that it runs well on for little more than the cost of the bundled software would be if purchased separately.

For myself, I expect to add a Mac mini to my collection sometime in the spring, after the initial rush has died down, and I've had a chance to read up on whether there are any technical problems with the new logic board. That would also be my advice for anyone who is seriously considering this new machine. In any case, it's hard to go wrong. At $500 to start, it's almost a gimmee!