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That seems... expensive.... Wouldn't it be cheaper just to buy a mini? Just checked - yes it is after about 2 months.

by bifrost 6y ago

eli 6y ago
Isn’t that true for all EC2 instances? That’s not why one buys EC2
- penagwin 6y ago
  This, although I think the 24 hour minimum set by apple kinda undermines the scalability asset. Obviously the 24 hour minimum means you’d be better buying one for most CI uses, which I think is what most people want them for. However I think I remember a image can that also manipulated used apple hardware for the metal api? They would still benefit from the ability to scale on at least a daily level.
  - bradfitz 6y ago
    From an AWS employee: https://twitter.com/WindexCowboy/status/1333876188385841158 https://twitter.com/WindexCowboy/status/1333876188385841158 > The use of the Dedicated Hosts concept keeps the license requirement decoupled from the instance life cycle. While you do need to allocate the Mac for a minimum of 24 hours, you can launch and terminate a fresh mac1.metal instance on that box as many times as you like.
    - macintux 6y ago
      Yes...ish. See https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25562532 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25562532 for a huge caveat: scrubbing the old instance takes anywhere from 30 minutes to 4 hours. So there are time constraints that make this far from ideal.
est31 6y ago
Amazon's cloud offerings are generally quite expensive compared to owning yourself. That's why such a small part of Amazon's revenues can be such a large part of their earnings.
bigphishy 6y ago
Also consider purchasing a refurbished mac mini. I bought one on ebay for $350 2 years back, I've added 16 GB RAM and a samsung evo SSD. At a total cost ~$500, this old mac mini is a beast.
- jjeaff 6y ago
  Yes, that has been my plan for a while. But due to low memory on older systems, you can't upgrade to the newest versions of MacOS. I had just assumed they were not user upgradeable. So knowing now that they are, I'll have to take a look again.
nathanvanfleet 6y ago
Aren't you paying for the network access as well as not having to manage the hardware? Rack space, networking and usually cooling etc all add up.
supernova87a 6y ago
Macstadium seems to be offering pricing of $59 per month, which is much more competitive versus buying the hardware outright.

That seems... expensive.... Wouldn't it be cheaper just to buy a mini? Just checked - yes it is after about 2 months.

eli 6y ago

Isn’t that true for all EC2 instances? That’s not why one buys EC2

penagwin 6y ago
This, although I think the 24 hour minimum set by apple kinda undermines the scalability asset. Obviously the 24 hour minimum means you’d be better buying one for most CI uses, which I think is what most people want them for. However I think I remember a image can that also manipulated used apple hardware for the metal api? They would still benefit from the ability to scale on at least a daily level.
- bradfitz 6y ago
  From an AWS employee: https://twitter.com/WindexCowboy/status/1333876188385841158 https://twitter.com/WindexCowboy/status/1333876188385841158 > The use of the Dedicated Hosts concept keeps the license requirement decoupled from the instance life cycle. While you do need to allocate the Mac for a minimum of 24 hours, you can launch and terminate a fresh mac1.metal instance on that box as many times as you like.
  - macintux 6y ago
    Yes...ish. See https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25562532 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25562532 for a huge caveat: scrubbing the old instance takes anywhere from 30 minutes to 4 hours. So there are time constraints that make this far from ideal.

est31 6y ago

Amazon's cloud offerings are generally quite expensive compared to owning yourself. That's why such a small part of Amazon's revenues can be such a large part of their earnings.

bigphishy 6y ago

Also consider purchasing a refurbished mac mini. I bought one on ebay for $350 2 years back, I've added 16 GB RAM and a samsung evo SSD. At a total cost ~$500, this old mac mini is a beast.

jjeaff 6y ago
Yes, that has been my plan for a while. But due to low memory on older systems, you can't upgrade to the newest versions of MacOS. I had just assumed they were not user upgradeable. So knowing now that they are, I'll have to take a look again.

nathanvanfleet 6y ago

Aren't you paying for the network access as well as not having to manage the hardware? Rack space, networking and usually cooling etc all add up.

supernova87a 6y ago

Macstadium seems to be offering pricing of $59 per month, which is much more competitive versus buying the hardware outright.