5 ms·

Does the Mac Mini not satisfy this need? At least for the desktop requirement, I’m aware it may not satisfy your driver requirements.

nexuist 7y ago
The new Mac Mini starts at $700+ and still requires a separate monitor, keyboard, mouse, speakers etc. Certainly not meant to be portable, so if you're a developer and want a laptop (as many developers do) your next choice is a MacBook which is well over $1k. You can buy some shitty Windows laptop to make Android apps on for $400. Will it be a good experience? Absolutely not; but at least you can get it done.
- saagarjha 7y ago
  Apple no longer sells the MacBook; the cheapest portable they sell today is the MacBook Air.
  - oscilloscope 7y ago
    The latest MacBook Air starts at $849 refurbished. Quite a good value even compared to Windows laptops. https://www.apple.com/shop/product/FREA2LL/A/refurbished-133-inch-macbook-air-16ghz-dual-core-intel-core-i5-with-retina-display-silver https://www.apple.com/shop/product/FREA2LL/A/refurbished-133...
    - saagarjha 7y ago
      It’s essentially five year old technology and I don’t see it being supported for much longer. I’m not sure I can recommend it anymore :/
      - zapzupnz 7y ago
        Are you talking about the latest MacBook Air, as per the comment, or the previous version that hadn't changed much since 2014? GP is talking about the 2018 model.
        saagarjha 7y ago
        Missed “latest” in that comment, thanks for the heads-up.
        zapzupnz 7y ago
        No problemo.
mort96 7y ago
The Mac Mini is sort of limited by the lack of any graphics horsepower and the lack of stand-alone displays from Apple. You also can't get one with a really powerful CPU. It's a cool machine, but the tiny form factor is fairly limiting.
- saagarjha 7y ago
  There’s the Pro Display XDR, but it’s obviously quite expensive.
  - mort96 7y ago
    Yeah, I'd expect nobody to buy a $6000 display+stand for their $1000 machine, except for special circumstances where a movie studio or something needs a reference monitor and just a weak machine to just show images on it. That's not exactly the mainstream desktop use case.
    - tracker1 7y ago
      IIRC, it's relatively cheap as a reference monitor for the price. Way more than I'd want to pay, but compared to some of the studio alternatives.
      - mort96 7y ago
        It is. I'm not saying it's a bad or overpriced monitor. I'm saying it absolutely doesn't fit the common somewhat budget-conscious desktop use case.
- askafriend 7y ago
  Mac Mini supports Thunderbolt 3 which has enough throughput to run a powerful external GPU with minimal (~10%) efficiency loss.
  - KibbutzDalia 7y ago
    Ha!
vinayan3 7y ago
Not really. It'd be nice to have a Nvidia eGPU but that's not supported anymore. Apple controls this and there isn't much we can do to change their choice of which GPUs are supported in the OS. PS: My use case would be for CUDA stuff. It being a Mac is nice because I can directly use it as a development machine. So having a Linux desktop at home is the best alternative and SSHing into it.

nexuist 7y ago

The new Mac Mini starts at $700+ and still requires a separate monitor, keyboard, mouse, speakers etc. Certainly not meant to be portable, so if you're a developer and want a laptop (as many developers do) your next choice is a MacBook which is well over $1k. You can buy some shitty Windows laptop to make Android apps on for $400. Will it be a good experience? Absolutely not; but at least you can get it done.

saagarjha 7y ago
Apple no longer sells the MacBook; the cheapest portable they sell today is the MacBook Air.
- oscilloscope 7y ago
  The latest MacBook Air starts at $849 refurbished. Quite a good value even compared to Windows laptops. https://www.apple.com/shop/product/FREA2LL/A/refurbished-133-inch-macbook-air-16ghz-dual-core-intel-core-i5-with-retina-display-silver https://www.apple.com/shop/product/FREA2LL/A/refurbished-133...
  - saagarjha 7y ago
    It’s essentially five year old technology and I don’t see it being supported for much longer. I’m not sure I can recommend it anymore :/
    - zapzupnz 7y ago
      Are you talking about the latest MacBook Air, as per the comment, or the previous version that hadn't changed much since 2014? GP is talking about the 2018 model.
      - saagarjha 7y ago
        Missed “latest” in that comment, thanks for the heads-up.
        zapzupnz 7y ago
        No problemo.

mort96 7y ago

The Mac Mini is sort of limited by the lack of any graphics horsepower and the lack of stand-alone displays from Apple. You also can't get one with a really powerful CPU. It's a cool machine, but the tiny form factor is fairly limiting.

saagarjha 7y ago
There’s the Pro Display XDR, but it’s obviously quite expensive.
- mort96 7y ago
  Yeah, I'd expect nobody to buy a $6000 display+stand for their $1000 machine, except for special circumstances where a movie studio or something needs a reference monitor and just a weak machine to just show images on it. That's not exactly the mainstream desktop use case.
  - tracker1 7y ago
    IIRC, it's relatively cheap as a reference monitor for the price. Way more than I'd want to pay, but compared to some of the studio alternatives.
    - mort96 7y ago
      It is. I'm not saying it's a bad or overpriced monitor. I'm saying it absolutely doesn't fit the common somewhat budget-conscious desktop use case.
askafriend 7y ago
Mac Mini supports Thunderbolt 3 which has enough throughput to run a powerful external GPU with minimal (~10%) efficiency loss.
- KibbutzDalia 7y ago
  Ha!

vinayan3 7y ago

Not really. It'd be nice to have a Nvidia eGPU but that's not supported anymore. Apple controls this and there isn't much we can do to change their choice of which GPUs are supported in the OS. PS: My use case would be for CUDA stuff. It being a Mac is nice because I can directly use it as a development machine. So having a Linux desktop at home is the best alternative and SSHing into it.