(This and the post just one below were originally one post. It was just too long to be posted as one. So, I divided it into two.)
Well, I got to the 12th page, and gave up on reading every single post before making my own. It was just taking too long.
I'm going to go into this (my first post at MacRumors) by saying that I understand my situation is not the most typical, and I'll try addressing that.
I'm a PC user. I've been a PC user as long as I can remember. I still use Windows XP on my desktop primarily, and I'm currently making this post from my father's new Dell laptop. I'm also a power user. I built my machine with more than simple knowledge of how to put the parts together. I checked that every part I got was the best I could get as long as I didn't have any personal preference. I, like most power users, have certain prejudices for and against certain companies (I prefer AMD and ATI), but I am COMPLETELY willing to go with another company's solution if it proves to be a better choice (My dad's Dell laptop is a Pentium M system, and I recommended it because Pentium Ms are solid processors).
Because of my status as a PC hardware enthusiast, I will not be switching from the PC to the Mac any time soon. The newest hardware simply isn't available on the Mac, and that's undeniable (I have had a Radeon X800 XT PE on my desktop since July. Mac users still don't have them). HOWEVER, this "hardware enthusiasm" only goes so far. It only really applies to my primary, bleeding-edge system. I enjoy any time I spend with Mac OS X. I don't need to be able to tweak every little thing in a secondary system. I wanted to get an iMac G4 for a long time (I loved the design), but didn't have the funds. In addition, this hardware enthusiasim doesn't apply at all to the notebook market. It's just not feasible to build your own notebook. As such, I'm currently in the market for a notebook, and will not get a PC notebook for myself before I get a Mac. In order to kill two birds with one stone, I've wanted to get a Powerbook G4 for a long time, but they're just not where I want them to be as far as the price/performance ratio is concerned. As such, I'm simply biding my time until the upcoming MW. If Apple makes a huge upgrade to the Powerbooks, then they'll have a new Apple notebook owner. It doesn't seem like that's going to happen though. Considering the absence of what I consider to be a good deal on Powerbooks, this "headless" Mac is great news. I, personally, prefer high-quality CRTs to LCDs because I do lots of gaming. My $400 CRT absolutely annihilates any LCD I would consider affordable as far as gaming is concerned. To add to this, I do all my console gaming on my monitor. I live in a small college dorm and saving space by avoiding a TV was very important to me. I have a TV-Tuner box through which I play my PS2, and I play my Gamecube via a spliced VGA cable on my monitor in progressive scan (which would work absolutely horribly on a low-end LCD or not-at-all on a high-end because of the Gamecube's 640x480 resolution). I already have everything set up on the same high-quality monitor using a system that works well for me via a KVM, a router, etc. Any all-in-one Mac won't do because I just don't have the room for another display (and won't replace my CRT with an LCD to make room for the aforesaid reasons). A headless Mac, however, would be able to just be another box around my desk and would be absolutely painless to set up, requiring minimal room (which is all I really have). If this headless Mac turns out to be true, I'll be ordering on the day of announcement so it can tide me over until the next big change in Powerbooks comes around. I can later give it to my family in hopes of converting them (all average-joe-users) to the Mac (I've always argued that anybody who's not a big-time hardware enthusiast would be better off with a Mac).
I'm sure some of you have noticed a small discrepancy in what I've written. I just said that I believe average users are better suited to the Mac, but I also previously said I recommended my father get this Dell laptop. This is only because my father is far too stubborn a man for me to easily switch with words only. My mother, on the other hand, is a far different story. I came back from a trip with my parents two days ago. On that trip we met up with some of my parents' friends, among which was a Mac user with his new 15" Powerbook. My mom saw how effortlessly her friend plugged his digital camera into the laptop, opened iPhoto, showed the pictures off in a slideshow, and then immediately sent the photos to her e-mail account in mail. My mom didn't think it was all that amazing. Yesterday my mom came to me with her digital camera (which she'd had on the trip) and asked me to show her how to get the pictures from it, make a slideshow, and send the pictures in an e-mail on the family's aging P4 1.6GHz WinXP machine. I had her sit down and started walking her through. After about 30 seconds, my mom desperately asked "Why was it so much easier for [her friend's name here]?" I simply replied, "He has a Mac." After reading this, I asked my mom if she would be interested in getting a Mac if a cheap one came out. She was like "Well, if it is the same for the internet and I can do Microsoft Word, but it's so much better for doing the only other thing I want to do, then sure![/]" Now my dad will have pressure from both my mother and myself to get the family a Mac for the next computer, and he'll be much more willing to bend on the issue if it's so cheap (he is a firm believer in purchasing the cheapo systems). I am confident that showing my father by his own experience (instead of making him take my word for it) that this cheap Mac gives him an easier time with his everyday tasks will convert my family, once-and-for-all, to a family of Mac users. My mom wants one after merely seeing her friend use one, but my dad might need to have his own experiences over time convert him completely. The next time my dad is ready to make the plunge for an expensive system, it will almost assuredly be a Mac. This all, of course, hinges on the validity of the rumor.
Above I think I've addressed how this system will help Apple get Macs into the hands of two distinctly different types of computer consumers. I showed how having a cheap Mac available will give incentive to power users like myself to buy a Mac immediately (instead of later), although this applies to the admittedly very small market of open-minded power PC users. I also explained how it will help Apple get average computer users to purchase a cheap Mac now. Getting a cheap Mac now, as an additional computer, will definitely convert many PC users over to Mac-Only computer purchases later by providing a superior computing experience.
), and needless to say, it's slow as hell (not Dell, Hell!). It has to be put into "hibernation mode" because it takes too much time to turn on, and it can't even run Firefox decently, so my parents are going nuts with it. They just refuse to use the thing, and I can't blame them......**rant cut off*** 
