Got the full thrust of Mac woe this afternoon as I wrestled with the inability of our four Mac Minis to perform the way a 21st century computer should.

1. Dog slow. Safari, especially, takes too long to open, and when it does there is an embarrassing stall while it does...something...before releasing control to the user and letting them type. Logging in...start-up items just bounce and bounce and bounce...beachball just spins and spins and spins. Interface elements just take their sweet time to open and close. Maybe it's supposed to symbolize "gracefulness" but after using Windows all day you realize it's just "slowness." Always has been.

2. Won't read a simple CD-R consistently. Some Minis read it, other don't. No scary message about being unable to recognize the CD. Just nothing. No mounting, nothing.

3. Dog slow. Now that Macs use Intel processors, we can compare apples to Apples. Why should I buy a 2.1 gHz iMac for $300 more than a 2.8 gHz Dell, including 20" monitor? And 12 USB ports between the machine and monitor? Apple used to be able to (partially) justify its higher cost by saying it really was faster, you just had to use "new math" to see it. No longer. Now, it's just more expensive to get a slower machine.

4. Constantly forgets the printers are installed. Embarrassing when you have students innocently trying to print their papers and they have to come get me to reinstall printers. Again. Stupid students. Should just use Windows -- no problems.

5. Not really designed for a lab, managed environment, without a lot of holes and a lot of extra work, especially if you can't work with AD because your IT division won't loosen their policy.

Yay!