Apple should make setting up a Mac more difficult; more of an experience. Getting a new Mac and making it work the way you want it to should be an achievement. It shouldn’t be as underwhelming as going to Tesco. But it is.

Earlier this week I received the Dell 2405FPW display for my new studio. It comes with the obligatory installation CD, on which is a manual. Naturally I ignored all the instructions and left the display alone, awaiting the Mac.

Yesterday the Mac arrived: the lowest spec Dual G5 Power Mac. I already had some extra memory to install, which I got from Crucial. So I was all ready to go. Here’s my thoughts on how things went..

“Blimey, it’s heavy. Let’s open the box. Oh, a keyboard and mouse. Well, I don’t need the mouse, but I need the keyboard. Ah. Here’s the Mac. Blimey, it’s huge. Take it out of the box. Hmm.. now to install the memory. There’s the documentation. Let’s put that to one side. I’ll not need that. How do I open the Mac? Look – a latch on the back.. what’s this.. funny little T-shaped thing with an Airport symbol. Must be the antenna. Anyhow, open the latch.. and that comes away.., then there’s this clear panel that lifts off. Where do I stick the memory? It must be there.. but there are two fans in the .. oh, they just slide out.

“Put the memory in… done. Now the fans go back like this, and the clear panel.. and the casing. Snap the latch back. Done. Connect all the cables up. I can put the keyboard and mouse through the display’s USB connector. Pop in the Airport antenna. Turn everything on.

“Bonggg!

“Blah, Blah.. Airport password.. Do I want to move stuff from.. another Mac; this Mac.. etc. Nope. Registration – nice that it knows me already.. Some software updates.. go on then.. Restart..”

And that was it. Need I say more?