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Windows 7 only on Mac mini?

R

red42

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jan 9, 2009
103
0
Hi there,

I've got a mac mini with a fast 80gig SSD and 5 gig of RAM. Its super duper fast, silent and energy efficient.

I've tried Snow Leopard for the past few weeks and it just doesn't provide the kind of internet surfing experience that Windows 7 does. Since I'm only going to use this machine for surfing I'm just going to stick with Windows 7 without partition.

I'd like to know if thats okay to do? Will the mini operate like a PC only?
 
Thanks for the replies guys.

Okay I have 5 gigs of RAM because.....

1 X 1 gig
1 X 4 gig

And yes it wasn't cheap.

Well I find pages a better rendered in the windows based browsers. I can't get used to not having a back browser button on the mouse. I absolutely hate the mighty house. Fair enough windows lacks many of the features of Snow Leopard but Windows 7 is concise. There is no top bar on windows. With Google Chrome and extensions I get much more real estate without going into the full window mode which I don't want. If I put the Apple tool bar on auto hide, its laggy for some reason too. Slows me down. I mean I've had an apple since the SE/30 days but I just want a serious internet surfin' machine, the mini with Snow Leopard slows me down to be honest.

I've got a windows index score of 5.4 on the mini owing to the Intel 80 gig SSD I have in there. So its not a bad machine for running Windows on. So I thought what the heck wipe Mac OS X and just use W7. Windows 7 isn't bad at all.
 
red42 said:
Thanks for the replies guys.

Okay I have 5 gigs of RAM because.....

1 X 1 gig
1 X 4 gig

And yes it wasn't cheap.

Well I find pages a better rendered in the windows based browsers. I can't get used to not having a back browser button on the mouse. I absolutely hate the mighty house. Fair enough windows lacks many of the features of Snow Leopard but Windows 7 is concise. There is no top bar on windows. With Google Chrome and extensions I get much more real estate without going into the full window mode which I don't want. If I put the Apple tool bar on auto hide, its laggy for some reason too. Slows me down. I mean I've had an apple since the SE/30 days but I just want a serious internet surfin' machine, the mini with Snow Leopard slows me down to be honest.

I've got a windows index score of 5.4 on the mini owing to the Intel 80 gig SSD I have in there. So its not a bad machine for running Windows on. So I thought what the heck wipe Mac OS X and just use W7. Windows 7 isn't bad at all.
Click to expand...

I agree, I love Windows 7. I'm using it exclusively on my Macbook 1,1. However, Google Chrome beta is available for Mac now. It came out for Linux just before that as I think a developmental release. I used it and it was pretty much perfect, so I would expect the Mac version to be pretty great too. Also there's Firefox... I mean if Safari is the only reason you don't like it.
 
red42 said:
Thanks for the replies guys.

Okay I have 5 gigs of RAM because.....

1 X 1 gig
1 X 4 gig

And yes it wasn't cheap.

Well I find pages a better rendered in the windows based browsers. I can't get used to not having a back browser button on the mouse. I absolutely hate the mighty house. Fair enough windows lacks many of the features of Snow Leopard but Windows 7 is concise. There is no top bar on windows. With Google Chrome and extensions I get much more real estate without going into the full window mode which I don't want. If I put the Apple tool bar on auto hide, its laggy for some reason too. Slows me down. I mean I've had an apple since the SE/30 days but I just want a serious internet surfin' machine, the mini with Snow Leopard slows me down to be honest.

I've got a windows index score of 5.4 on the mini owing to the Intel 80 gig SSD I have in there. So its not a bad machine for running Windows on. So I thought what the heck wipe Mac OS X and just use W7. Windows 7 isn't bad at all.
Click to expand...

/Facepalm.
You have a Mighty Mouse and you are irritated by the lack of a back button?
You can swipe back to go back dude. LOL That is one of the main reasons
I am going to go buy a Magic Mouse today. Replace your Mighty Mouse
with a Magic Mouse, and you have an uber sexy, concise mouse, with
a better option to go back in a browser than a button. In my opinion.

You have 5 gigs of ram and an 80 gig SSD.. I am sure 60 bucks won't set
ya back far. Go get the mouse.

A serious "surfin'" machine? ... /Facepalm again. Go have fun with your
viruses in Windows. =) Seriously though, if you didn't want a Mac, why
did you spend the dough to upgrade one?
:confused:
 
It's not like you just get viruses when you startup Windows. You have to make yourself vulnerable by clicking unknown links, downloading executable programs/scripts from untrusted entities, downloading pirated movies and software... way to repeat an ad campaign. It happens on Mac too. I know people who have unintentionally installed keyloggers on their macs.
 
Jason Beck said:
/Facepalm.
You have a Mighty Mouse and you are irritated by the lack of a back button?
You can swipe back to go back dude. LOL That is one of the main reasons
I am going to go buy a Magic Mouse today. Replace your Mighty Mouse
with a Magic Mouse, and you have an uber sexy, concise mouse, with
a better option to go back in a browser than a button. In my opinion.

You have 5 gigs of ram and an 80 gig SSD.. I am sure 60 bucks won't set
ya back far. Go get the mouse.

A serious "surfin'" machine? ... /Facepalm again. Go have fun with your
viruses in Windows. =) Seriously though, if you didn't want a Mac, why
did you spend the dough to upgrade one?
:confused:
Click to expand...

Sorry I didn't understand the facepalm thing? I could have bought the Magic mouse, I didn't. We are a wifi and bluetooth free zone. I have a family friend battling a brain tumour, so we use cables only. Similarly the keyboard is wired. Makes no difference to ergonomics.

The mighty mouse is rubbish, the right clicks don't even register sometimes, and yes I raise my finger on the left before pressing right. I've reverted back to an Microsoft intellimouse. I've had this since 2003:

http://mybenni.files.wordpress.com/2009/01/intellimouse_optical.jpg

It fits so much better in the hand.

I have never had a virus on Windows 7, nor Vista. In fact the last time something went wrong was that lovebug virus thing back in 2004 or something was it?

The mini is an item of desire, it looks good, its built well and its jolly well silent. I love it, thats why I upgraded the RAM and the hard drive. I shall eventually dual monitor this baby.

This isn't a choice I've made on the spur of the moment. I've been running and using both W7 OSX side by side for weeks now. I'm seriously NO fan of Microsoft but credit where its due, W7 isn't bad at all.
 
ahm said:
I agree, I love Windows 7. I'm using it exclusively on my Macbook 1,1. However, Google Chrome beta is available for Mac now. It came out for Linux just before that as I think a developmental release. I used it and it was pretty much perfect, so I would expect the Mac version to be pretty great too. Also there's Firefox... I mean if Safari is the only reason you don't like it.
Click to expand...

Yeah I kept all applications the same during my personal trial with OSX and Windows 7. Have you tried Chromium? You can install extensions in OSX! Rendering is slower on my mini in OSX than W7 though. There was less window size in OSX than W7.
 
Are you talking about Chromium OS or the browser project? Whichever you're talking about, I haven't used either of them.
 
Thanks for the replies guys, I'll try the drivers out now for the intellimouse. This is great by the way!:D
 
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