Well, It’s Done. After swaying back and forth for weeks and finally making up my mind but then having the agonizing realization that it was best to wait for OSX:Tiger to ship, I’ve put $701.43 down on my newest computer and first-ever Apple product: The Mac Mini.

I went with the slower processor (slower by only .17ghz), upped the memory to 512mb (any OS that graphics-heavy needs at least that much) and added an internal WiFi/Bluetooth card.

Mike thinks I should have gotten the superdrive, but what I use a computer for I hardly ever have the need to burn something to dvd. I barely even burn CDs since my MP3-CD player broke 6 months ago and I replaced it with an XM Radio.

Now, if it was still the free-wheelin days of Kazaa and full-rez movie downloads and I had lots of 2Gig+ files laying around it’d be different. (Not that I’ve ever downloaded anything I shouldn’t have. Never. Not Me. It was that other guy.)

But now I’m entering into a brand new universe of terminology and hardware and software. And now the questions begin: How hard is it to network my SuSE box and my Mini together? I know there’s OpenOffice for OSX, anyone have anything have good or bad to say about it? What’s my FTP client? What’s ‘rebuilding my desktop’? I read that phrase in a couple places and each one said: ‘If you’re a Mac user then you are more than familiar with rebuilding your desktop. Well, in OSX:Tiger it’s never been easier…’. Well, that’s great that it’s easier, but I’m still a little in the dark.

And what about my keyboard and mouse? Can I get by with my MS-centric keyboard, or is it best to get an Apple one? I keep hearing things about a ‘command’ key and something called the ‘option’ key and along with the ‘any’ key all of these are missing from my Dell keyboard. I’ve got two keys with silly-looking flags on them – will they work with anything on a Mac, or are they mapped to launch the Apple Accessories Store every time it’s hit?

I know I’ll need to get a PS/2 -> USB converter but I’ve a KVM going now between my different machines and if I don’t *neeed* another keyboard I’ll keep what I’ve got now.

I’ll be heading to the Apple Store in the St. Louis Galleria this weekend, probably to spend another $700 in accessories. Wish me luck.