3 ms·
If you remove the hyperbole here, i think a bunch of the author's points are probably right: IE "Need a Mac because you're wanting to explore iOS development?
by DannyBee 8y ago
If you remove the hyperbole here, i think a bunch of the author's points are probably right:
IE
"Need a Mac because you're wanting to explore iOS development? Get the Mac mini and continue to use the keyboard/mouse/display that you've already got on your desk. It's no longer the affordable way into the macOS environment that it once was, but it's the best thing Apple really has to offer."
"Apple's refusal to build, y'know, a regular desktop computer means that the mini often ends up being the best option if you really are committed to using macOS."
etc
I've own/owned 5 or 6 mac mini's at this point (including the 2018)
At this point, i buy them to shove them in a closet somewhere.
Size is not a factor in that.
It's big enough at this point (compared to NUC's, etc) that it has no meaningful size advantage.
As a server, you'd want some different tradeoffs.
As a desktop, the only reason you'd use it is, as the author says - you don't have a lot of options in what you can use for MacOS and this checks some boxes the other option doesn't.
It'll probably be the last computer i buy from apple to set up for others - MacOS isn't as bulletproof as it used to be.
For the second time, I had to debug obscure apple bugs for my parents over thanksgiving - which is why i set them up with a mac mini in the first place - to stop having to deal with this on windows or linux.
- danso 8y ago> It'll probably be the last computer i buy from apple to set up for others - MacOS isn't as bulletproof as it used to be. What have you moved on to if I can ask? Windows 10?
- DannyBee 8y agoNothing yet. I have a few Windows 10 machines around, for example, the one that controls my CNC machine, and the one i use for CAD. So far, zero issues, which is "better than it used to be". I'll try it for the family and see what happens. In the past, my dad used to set up Linux server machines for my Mom, which is what was there pre-mac-mini (he's a long time software engineer). They were just so finicky in practice (IE audio on webcam would stop working so she could never be sure a video chat she started would actually work, etc) That did not last all that long. My mom started to avoid that desktop like the plague, so it ended up with Dad running Linux and Mom running Windows.
- chucky_z 8y agoIf you can swallow the privacy concerns, Chromebooks/Chrometops seem to be remarkably reliable and 'just work.' My main experience with them is in Google Hangouts through a 3rd party (Promevo), and the only troubleshooting I've had to do required a total system refresh, which the box itself found it's own OS was corrupted, re-installed from a remote source, and then after a quick 10-min setup was right back to where it was the second it broke. I would probably not use one personally, but for family computing they seem a right treat.
- setquk 8y agoYou haven't appreciated MacOS until your entire family has hosed windows 10 laptops that they've been saving up to bring around so you can fix them at Christmas...
- DannyBee 8y agoYeah, i only mean "i'm gonna try something else". The world in fact, may still suck elsewhere, but MacOS is no longer so good that i'll avoid trying. It used to be.
- setquk 8y agoI just make sure people get iPads if I don't want to deal with shit :) Problem? Apple store mate. Go ask there.
- pjmlp 8y agoI appreciate it, but those are first world problems.