Why are minis so popular?

[ScottG]

Cheap, and not an all-in-one. I have two young children, the computer is in the living room. The computer is used for entertainment and work, and sometimes the fingers pointing at the screen are over enthusiastic and not totally clean. I could have an iMac, worry about the screen and buy a screen protector, or use a Mac mini with an old CRT. The mini is fast enough for what we use it for (which includes Photoshop, Illustrator, video and RAW photo editing, but mostly for fun rather than work), quiet (it replaced a dual 1.25GHz G4 MDD, now we can hear the TV even if the computer is on!) and I could afford it.

cheers
scott