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A lot of people need Mac servers (eg. for building and testing macOS and iOS apps). Right now, the best computer for that use case is an iMac. iMacs are really
by jakobegger 8y ago
A lot of people need Mac servers (eg. for building and testing macOS and iOS apps). Right now, the best computer for that use case is an iMac. iMacs are really inconvenient as servers.
The Mac mini is a perfect server: needs little power, it's small and stackable, easy to replace if something fails, doesn't have unnecessary components like big graphic cards or screen.
I'd love to buy a couple Mac minis as build servers and for running unit tests, but the current version is too slow and way to expensive.
- cutler 8y agoWhy are you surprised a Mac Mini is too slow as a build server? It's just a low-end laptop chip in a box. I don't get the server use case.
- wcfields 8y agoThe server use case for Mac Mini is a huge compromise. Sonnet Tech [1] makes a 1U rack enclosure with a PCIe riser connected internally to the Mini's Thunderbolt port. Internally we had one used for our company's OSX Server running profile manager before going to Jamf Pro. [1] https://www.sonnettech.com/product/xmacminiserver.html https://www.sonnettech.com/product/xmacminiserver.html
- lazaroclapp 8y agoOk. But then, which Mac would you use as a build server? Mac servers no longer seem to exist, iMacs and Mac Pros are not stackable, you can't build iOS/OSX apps on a standard linux box, and laptops have the same issue as the Mini. That's why a Pro-focused Mac Mini, with even a mid-end desktop CPU and reasonable RAM would be ideal here, and a Mini with a modern laptop CPU would still be a vast improvement of the current situation.
- cutler 8y agoI'd say this use case is ideally suited to the Hackintosh but I haven't attempted it. I mean there's all that server grade hardware out there just waiting to be hacked to work with OS X.