We're through the looking glass, here, people! It's been mere days since Apple introduced (among other things) the Mac mini at Uncle Steve's keynote address, and we're more than a little spooked by the types of people who are praising it to the skies. Faithful viewer Jeff Labuz notes that, over at CBS MarketWatch, perennially clueless Apple-basher John Dvorak actually has good things to say about the Mac mini, voicing only a vague concern about heating issues in such a tiny enclosure. Overall, though, his estimation is as follows: "Once this unit gets into the field and passes the tests of the real world, I'll have no trouble recommending it as a machine of choice, especially to new users. And I haven't done that with an Apple product for years." Eeeeeeek!

But wait, it gets worse: faithful viewer Vaughn notes that even Paul Thurrott likes the Mac mini. Yes, folks, this is the very same Paul Thurrott of Paul Thurrott's SuperSite for Windows, the guy who continuously claims to be a Mac user in a painfully transparent grab for the appearance of impartiality, but who poops on everything Apple ever does while also having his head so far up Bill Gates's digestive tract that he can inspect the man's molars for cavities. And over at one of his other sites, Paul Thurrott's Internet Nexus (yeesh, suppose he has a bumper sticker on his car that says "Paul Thurrott's Honda Civic" and wears t-shirts bearing the slogan "Paul Thurrott's Hanes Beefy-T"?), he actually refers to the Mac mini as "beautiful," "drool-worthy," and "a revolutionary product" before saying "I love Apple for making Mac mini... It's about time. The Mac is back, baby."

So, uh, whaddaya think? Brain trauma? Or alien pod?

We know we should be happy that longtime Mac-bashers are gushing all over the place because of the Mac mini, but we can't shake this cold, creeping dread that if these Microsoft apologists all like it, there must be something dreadfully wrong with it. Sure, the Mac mini is intended to appeal to seasoned Wintellians like Thurrott and Dvorak (that's its whole raison d'être, after all), but there's still something really creepy and unsettling about witnessing the phenomenon in action-- especially when, as faithful viewer Doug Cole points out, Bill Palmer is practically apoplectic about how bad an idea the Mac mini is. Bill's an Apple pundit whose opinions we actually value, and he really does raise lots of valid concerns about how not bundling a mouse and keyboard (and selling only displays whose prices start at twice the cost of a Mac mini itself) might leave lots of potential switchers feeling bait-and-switched, instead. So Dvorak and Thurrott like it, and Palmer hates it. What are we supposed to make of that?

Oh, but wait-- as faithful viewer Bill Brown points out, "analyst" Rob Enderle has officially gone on record likening the Mac mini to the IBM PC jr. and predicting that it'll fail just as miserably. Now, remember when he said Apple would switch to Intel processors by the end of 2003? Or that iTunes for Windows would fail because BuyMusic.com released its Windows-compatible music download store first? Or that the HP iPod would "outsell Apple's version relatively quickly" (when it currently accounts for only 7 percent of all iPods sold) and that the iMac G5 would flop because "consumers want the freedom to change desktop monitors" (when it was Apple's best-selling Mac last quarter)? In fact, we can't recall a single instance in which one of good ol' Rob's doom-and-gloom Apple-related predictions has ever come to pass, so his dire outlook for the Mac mini has calmed our concerns enormously. Thanks, Rob!