Hacker News Reader

Comment by wvenable | Hacker News Reader

PC's have "pretty" screens as well but if you ever have a problem the wall-of-text will come up instead. Much more useful.

View on HN

Agreed.

We tried using mac minis as little servers, but they wouldn't boot if a monitor is not connected. We got around it by making a dummy DVI connector with a resistor in it. But still, it is jumping through hoops. That and the silly BIOS, it is as if Apple went out of its way to make it less user friendly...

OS X client boots fine without a monitor attached, it just don't initialise a display device. You can connect via SSH and use other services. I think if you enable VNC in Sharing, it will simulate a 1024x768 display for you to use.

I don't know why I am being modded down. Apple fanboys?

It is probably because your claim is easily disproven. I have a headless mini in my server room right now that has no problems booting. Turn on screen sharing and you can login and use it just as if you were sitting in front of a similar box with a display and keyboard.

Well, the generation we have doesn't. We just built some DVI connectors with a resistor on the back, to make it behave similar enough to a connected monitor.

Mac minis are fairly different depending on the generation.

Wait -- they do not boot without a monitor attached? Apple can't be serious about this. I just lost a little faith...

wrong; i have a mac mini in a data center that boots just fine w/o a monitor attached.

Apparently not, at least not without OS X Server edition.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com