Using an iMac as a monitor (solution!) — plus, special added “it’s not expandable!” bonus coverage…

Chuqui 3.0.1 Beta: analyzing the apple offerings..:

My primary computer is my laptop. My secondary is a mini, which today’s been relegated to handling backups and sharing my printers — and little else. I love having my life on a laptop, and don’t really plan on changing that. The iMac has a wonderful display, and would make a great 2nd computer — but I can’t plug my laptop into it and use the display as a display.

Imagine, if you will, a dvi or hdmi connection that I can plug the laptop into the iMac, and virtual KVM software to use the iMac as a cinema display. Without that — the iMac means adding a third screen and more desk real estate to the mix, so I’m “stuck” (sigh, I’m so sad) with having to buy a display and attaching it to the Macbook pro.

There are days when I feel really stupid, but fortunately, I have really smart readers to help me out.

One of them left a comment on the posting suggesting I simply plug the laptop in via firewire, and boot it on the iMac in target mode.

That is such a simple answer I don’t think I ever would have thought about it, even though I’ve used target mode in other ways a fair amount over the years. Have a Guinness (Brilliant!).

These new iMacs are a fascinating beast; early iMacs were clearly the “consumer” line of the Mac world, and lots of people still seem to think of them that way — including guys who have a pretty big clue about this stuff:

SmugBlog: Don MacAskill:

So I found it interesting that at Apple’s big Mac event yesterday, Apple blew it with the Mac again. Steve fielded some questions about Mac adoption in the workplace, and another about price. But he skirts completely around the issue at hand: Apple has a huge, gaping hole in their desktop lineup. They have an iMac, a Mac mini, and a Mac Pro. But where’s the Mac?

Jason Snell at Macworld caught on, althought I”m not sure even he thoguht through all of the ramifications (but if anyone did, he did…)

Macworld: Mac Word: Breaking down the Apple announcements:

But enough about looks. The product line has gotten a speed boost, most impressively to a top-of-the-line 2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor. And the graphics processor has been upgraded to the latest Radeon HD technology. What struck me most about this upgrade, though, was just how powerful an iMac you can now buy. Toss in the built-to-order 2.8GHz Core 2 Extreme processor, the top-of-the-line ATI Radeon HD 2600 Pro with 256 MB of GDDR 3 memory, and the onboard FireWire 800 (which is on the entire product line), and this is a system that’s got professional-level power.

yup. These new iMacs aren’t consumer grade machines any more. They ARE the new Macs for the workplace. The MacPro isn’t the mainstream professional model any more; it is now the high end niche model for specialized applications and desktop servers, and the mini sticks around as the “home server”, at least until Apple turns the Apple TV into the home server (bet on it) and the mini disappears into Apple TV land.

Or more correctly, if you’re buying Macs today, you either:

1) buy a laptop and a cinema display — or maybe a laptop and an iMac!

2) buy an iMac.

Very few people really need Macpros any more. This is why it’s silly I didn’t think of target mode before: I’ve tried to point out to the “it’s not expandable!” crowd for years that with firewire and USB 2.0 (and bluetooth, now), those machines are wonderfully expandable.

There are very, very few environments now that REQUIRE a MacPro’s expandability; it’s people who think they do, because they still think in terms of PCI cards or internal drives instead of FireWire (or FireWire 800) based solutions. The things we used to upgrade boxes for — more disk, better video, faster networking, specialty interfaces — either already exist in the box, or can be easily handled via these external, plug-and-play busses. Need disk? Need RAID? there are oodles of soluitions, from my favorite, the Other World Computing pro RAID; one enclosure, dual drives, mirrored RAID to removable bay high capacity solutions like Wiebetech has.

Don’s bitch is having to buy a new monitor every time he upgrades the CPU. He’s right to a degree — but carry that complaint the other direction, too; by embracing the firewire bus, you aren’t having to re-build the rest of the machine (disks, et al) when you upgrade the CPU, either.

Don’s comment was that no business would buy iMacs. Here, he’s wrong. Lots are — but what even more are doing are buying Macbook Pros and a monitor, because since laptops have become so powerful, it allows them to buy ONE CPU for an employee instead of two.

With three configurations:

1) iMac

2) Macbook/Macbook pro with Cinema display

3) Macbook/Macbook pro with iMac in target mode

you can cover 95-98% of the needs of most office environments, homeworkers, and SOHOs. Almost all of the needs can be covered except multiple monitors and the 30″ cinema, and I’d argue that few of us NEED more than a 23″ cinema or 24″ widescreen — those that do are truly niche users these days.

Heck, the pricing is almost scary. $899 (list) for a 23″ Cinema and $2499 for a bottom-end MacPro, or $1799 for a bottom-end iMac. Seems to me you can buy a lot of iMacs for the cost of a few sets of MacPros and Cinemas, and even if you “throw out the monitor” when you upgrade (probably false, it probably migrates down to a junior member for another round of use and an even older box retires, right?) seems to me you’re still ahead.

I remember these same arguments when Apple first retired the “six slot” Macs like the IIfx. I know, most of you were still in diapers then, but some arguments never change…. The reality THEN was that moving from six slots to two or three made a lot of sense — each slot added something like $150 to the manufacturing cost, and surveys kept showing that only 1-2% of the users used more than two slots (one for video… now, of course, video is built in).

So when the IIci came out with fewer slots, Apple got roasted by the geeks — and it sold zillions of units because of the smaller form factor and reduced cost. But geeks hate to “give up expandability”, even though in reality, few of them actually use it (but they still insist they might want to, some day), and today, in most cases, there are really good avenues to do the same thing via firewire and/or USB.

Hmm. Been thinking about doing the iMac/Laptop combo. the 24″ iMac is truly an intriguing option (although I’m still leaning towards the not-announced 24″ cinema; will it show between now and the holidays? I wonder — but if the iMac screen is 24″, won’t the next Cinema be, too?)

My current wonder: are these new iMacs VESA compatible? Because whatever comes next, I want it on an artciulated arm so I cans shove it out of the way and use the desk as a desk…

And the second question I had I just answered: I also use my current monitor for my XBOX 360, and I’d lose that moving to an iMac. But — of course — El Gato has that covered. cool.

Of course, I’m not spending any significant money like this until I’m hired by someone… but it’s nice to have the plans in place…

update: Dave Bnanian (of SuperDuper!) pointed out one factlet that I felt I should note… if the new iMacs require a special build of the OS to boot, the target boot might not work until this is resolved in a software update (say, 10.4.11); it’s a short term issue. It also makes me think I should point out taht this requires compatible architectures so the machines will boot (both Intel, for instance). Nothing major in my eye, but one of those little details taht if you miss it will make you really pissed off for a while…

update 2: another user thinking through the MacPro concept — do you really need the MacPro? Or will a laptop hooked to that monitor do it for you? (and the MacBook pro is cheaper and portable!)

Rick’s World – Apple and Geek Bias:

The MacPro that I want is expensive, but it strikes me as Apple’s concession to the power user like me. They provide it, but it’s big, powerful and expensive. This is clearly their computer aimed at developers, heavy video production people, etc. There isn’t going to be a low end power machine.

Looks like I’m stuck with the Mac Pro. I’ll be ordering one for myself tomorrow. I’ll be sure to blog about that whole adventure once it arrives. It’ll be my first Intel Mac.

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