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Blog post leaves out an important point: is it easy to get macOS running on that particular model? edit: The mini hasn't competed on a purely specs/price level

by orbitur 10y ago

Blog post leaves out an important point: is it easy to get macOS running on that particular model? edit: The mini hasn't competed on a purely specs/price level since, perhaps, its first year or two of existence. There have long been better, similarly sized options if you don't care about OS X.

taspeotis 10y ago
The blog doesn't even try to make that point. > It turns out there’s another OS that has all those: Windows. I’ve had Windows 10 on a gaming PC I built over 6 months ago and I’ve not had a single problem with it.
- orbitur 10y ago
  Which is strange, since the Mac mini's only value for the last 9 or 10 years has been it's ability to run OS X/macOS. From a purely technical/specs/price standpoint, the mini hasn't been a competitor since 2006, so I'm not sure what the blog post is saying that is new.
  - deleted 10y ago
    [deleted]
  - taylodl 10y ago
    It's small and quiet. Quite nice for a living room machine. It's also rackable so you can put them in your data center and use them as an iOS build server. It's odd the Mac Mini can fill both of these divergent niches but such is the Mac Mini - it's a niche machine.
- delinka 10y ago
  >Do I actually need this computer to run macOS? I quickly realised I don’t. This phrasing leads the reader to assume that that macOS can be run on some other computer. I think the author's intent was "Do I actually need [to run] macOS?"
manarth 10y ago
According to the Lifehacker article on building a Hackintosh, the process is a lot less fiddly than it used to be, and a lot more hardware is now supported. Other guides suggest that the NUC is mostly supported, bar a few issues (e.g. on-board mic doesn't work, not the infra-red sensor). However, even if you have a totally legit paid-up copy of OS-X, it's only licensed for installing on Apple hardware.
- yborg 10y ago
  For most of the hackintosh ports onto the NUC or NUC-style hardware, the onboard Bluetooth/WiFi is usually not supported because there are no OS X drivers for the integrated chipset used. This is kind of a deal-breaker for me. The process of applying new OS revisions is also painful. I guess the hackintosh process is pretty straightforward on certain models of full-size motherboards, but I haven't seen a fully functioning SFF impementation. If there was one, I would get such a box.
  - deeth_starr_v 10y ago
    My experience is not recent, but I ran hackintoshs for about 3 years in the early days (dates are fuzzy but 2008+). Recently, I looked into NUC's and mini-PC hacks and I don't think Broken BT/Wifi is correct as long as you pick a supported platform. There are mini pc's that work I'm sure. I had a Shuttle SFF working flawlessly back then. The main issue now is getting call forwarding working (call rings on your phone the hackintosh answers it). There is a place that sells an aircard/ide combo for $150. Yes expensive. The updates. OMG. Yes, this is what made me buy a Mac Pro. Back then, when there was an update it was return to Windows land. Crashes galore until you tracked down every little issue on the boards and mitigated them. For someone that doesn't need to update their system often, a hack could work out. I loved it, could boot into Windows and play games and then boot back to OSX for video editing etc. But eventually did a cost benefit analysis and I was spending too much time on the updates that were required by the s/w I was using.

by orbitur 10y ago

taspeotis 10y ago

The blog doesn't even try to make that point. > It turns out there’s another OS that has all those: Windows. I’ve had Windows 10 on a gaming PC I built over 6 months ago and I’ve not had a single problem with it.

orbitur 10y ago
Which is strange, since the Mac mini's only value for the last 9 or 10 years has been it's ability to run OS X/macOS. From a purely technical/specs/price standpoint, the mini hasn't been a competitor since 2006, so I'm not sure what the blog post is saying that is new.
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
- taylodl 10y ago
  It's small and quiet. Quite nice for a living room machine. It's also rackable so you can put them in your data center and use them as an iOS build server. It's odd the Mac Mini can fill both of these divergent niches but such is the Mac Mini - it's a niche machine.
delinka 10y ago
>Do I actually need this computer to run macOS? I quickly realised I don’t. This phrasing leads the reader to assume that that macOS can be run on some other computer. I think the author's intent was "Do I actually need [to run] macOS?"

manarth 10y ago

According to the Lifehacker article on building a Hackintosh, the process is a lot less fiddly than it used to be, and a lot more hardware is now supported. Other guides suggest that the NUC is mostly supported, bar a few issues (e.g. on-board mic doesn't work, not the infra-red sensor). However, even if you have a totally legit paid-up copy of OS-X, it's only licensed for installing on Apple hardware.

yborg 10y ago
For most of the hackintosh ports onto the NUC or NUC-style hardware, the onboard Bluetooth/WiFi is usually not supported because there are no OS X drivers for the integrated chipset used. This is kind of a deal-breaker for me. The process of applying new OS revisions is also painful. I guess the hackintosh process is pretty straightforward on certain models of full-size motherboards, but I haven't seen a fully functioning SFF impementation. If there was one, I would get such a box.
- deeth_starr_v 10y ago
  My experience is not recent, but I ran hackintoshs for about 3 years in the early days (dates are fuzzy but 2008+). Recently, I looked into NUC's and mini-PC hacks and I don't think Broken BT/Wifi is correct as long as you pick a supported platform. There are mini pc's that work I'm sure. I had a Shuttle SFF working flawlessly back then. The main issue now is getting call forwarding working (call rings on your phone the hackintosh answers it). There is a place that sells an aircard/ide combo for $150. Yes expensive. The updates. OMG. Yes, this is what made me buy a Mac Pro. Back then, when there was an update it was return to Windows land. Crashes galore until you tracked down every little issue on the boards and mitigated them. For someone that doesn't need to update their system often, a hack could work out. I loved it, could boot into Windows and play games and then boot back to OSX for video editing etc. But eventually did a cost benefit analysis and I was spending too much time on the updates that were required by the s/w I was using.