Here is a silly article from PC World about the new Mac Mini and the absence of a DVD drive.
Silly because its a tech site and should have a better idea of what people want in a computer. It basically gives reasons why its time to kill off the optical drive like Apple is doing to its product line.
I can tell you from personal experience that a DVD drive in my Mini is absolutely, 100%, neccessary!
Not only is it the only way for me to watch movies from my large DVD collection, it is also the only way to rip them to a hard drive so I can watch them on my iPad or whatever. Me, like most people, use the Mini as a HTPC. It sits next to and is connected to my HDTV and stereo system. The only way I would ever buy another one (and I wont until this one dies) is if it had Blue Ray drive instead.
Seriously, no DVD drive? How are people supposed to use iDVD or iMovie or burn a mixed music disc for the car? What about that awesome Garageband compilation that I want to use as a demo and hand out discs?
The article talks about the noise of an optical drive. What about the noise of an external hard drive neccessary to replace the DVD as a backup source?
I can understand it not being needed in a laptop but a small form factor desktop is almost useless without it.
I see what Apple is doing and I dont like it. They are trying to funnel everyone into their iTunes store as the only source of media. I dont like it one bit.