My first Mac was an iBook G4. I saved up all summer long doing my summer job to buy that thing. I waffled between the Mac mini at $500 and the iBook which sat around $1,000. I had an HP display, keyboard, and mouse so I seriously considered living the BYODKM dream and going with the mini to save some dough.

While hemming and hawing my dad said something like, yeah but this one you can take with you, which solidified my choice to get the 12” iBook. Paying roughly double stung but was absolutely the right call. I loved that thing’s pre-MagSafe plug, plastic shell, and the included silver iPod mini. I ended up using that HP setup with my iBook so I got a taste for the laptop-desktop lifestyle the Mac mini would have offered.

Now, 20 years later, you can get a $600 Mac mini or a $600 MacBook Neo. It brings its own DKM! While the M4 in the mini outperforms the Neo, there’s only one you can take with you.

I hope this new lower priced laptop helps a whole new generation fall in love with the Mac. My fascination with computers took hold with that iBook and never let go.