Yeah, good point. I don't think it was a particularly good design. I read somewhere that the philosophy was 'not to do the obvious thing and put the guts of the computer behind a large screen' - which is what they eventually did with the next iMac.

This desire 'not to do the obvious thing' is also behind the Trashintosh. And it's also why I'm worried about the future Mac Pro. The obvious thing would be to revive the cheesegrater case, but Ive and co feel they have to do something 'radical' to justify their salary.