Wow, I thought Apple was supposed to be known for having simple to use products and top-notch technical support. I guess that’s all an act.

Back in January, I sprung for a new Mac Mini. I got the $800 model with the faster processor, bigger hard drive, and a few other goodies. I had been hoping to use it, among other things, as a print server because the Windows machine that would otherwise do the job if often booted into Linux (the machine is dual boot).

I’ve had a few headaches over the months getting this thing to work properly as a print server. Somehow, I get it working, and it does the job. Then I’ll shut the machine down to play with it in the living room, since they make great media center computers. When I bring it back in the office and hook everything back up, the print server deal goes down and I can’t print from any other computer.

So today I thought I’d call Apple’s “wonderful” tech support gurus and see what it is that is causing this thing to be so finicky. It turns out they are unwilling to help me unless I buy a three year extended support plan for $149. I told the guy I’d give them $10 to answer this one question, but I am not giving them $149, especially since chances are very likely I’ll never call again needing anything.

So this may be my first – and last – Macintosh computer.