Apple’s first Mac mini redesign in 14 years looks like a big aluminum Apple TV
The smaller mini loses some ports but gets tons of other functional updates.
I totally don't need this, and I guess my big, loud, hot, noisy, annoying desktop is finally stable so I don't reeeeallllly have any justification there but somehow I still preordered.
...and got the trackpad.
Be nice to be free of both Windows and Linux on the desktop - sorry guys: <3 Linux-the-Server but not Linux-the-Desktop, even after 25 years of trying to.
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I'm tempted by this too (or maybe the upcoming MacBook Air). I'm just worried that I'm not going to like MacOS. I'm pretty happy with Linux, like FOSS, but Apple just has the best hardware at the moment.
Been an OS X user since, well, the preview release.
It really scratches the need-a-unixish-userspace and wants-a-gui-that-makes-some-damn-sense itches really well.
It's hardly perfect, but it's a case where 95% of things work 95% of the time, leaving me to do what I meant to do, and not figure out what stupid thing is broken and what I'm supposed to do to un-broken it.
Modern desktop Linux, especially if you ditch Gnome and go with KDE, is shockingly close, until you run into something that just plain is missing. I can't say I've had an experience like that with OS X so it's staying on the desktop until I do and/or linux makes me an offer I can't refuse.
I will say if you're into "tweaking" shit and customizing everything and enjoy fiddling with the OS endlessly for the sake of fiddling you're probably not going to like OS X. It's more of a 'set your settings, and then don't touch anything' kind of experience.
Is there a reason why the two USBC I/O ports on the front aren’t ThunderBolt capable?
Having a couple of I/O ports nice and accessible at the front is awesome, but why limit them to 10gb/s when TB3 will do 20Gbps, TB4 will do 40Gbps and TB5 will do 80Gbps. I imagine there will be many people out there that will inadvertently use the front ports thinking they’re the same speed
It costs extra to have hardware that can support the full spec on all ports simultaneously. The rear ports have the higher bandwidth to support screens with lots of pixels and a high frame rate, plus they are more likely to be daisy chained.
Thunderbolt is for permanently attached expansion (10gb Ethernet, eGPUs, multi drive enclosures, port expansion/docking etc) and USB is for quick connections (USB keys, SD cards, etc).
I seriously doubt anyone will ever use these ports for Thunderbolt devices, because there are very few thunderbolt devices that people use regularly, and if they know what Thunderbolt even is they know to look.
I had always expected the Mac mini to be about the size of the current Apple TV and was surprised by how much larger they were when I finally saw one in person. I don’t know if it really makes much difference, but I’m glad to see this.
I know the mini has been around forever, but I just don’t understand the use case for this product in today’s world.
The air is similarly capable, only a few hundred more, and not tied to a power cord/ monitor/ desk. As someone who owns a lot of Apple devices, and usually doesn’t need much of an excuse to buy more, this one still eludes me
Some people just don’t want a laptop. Also „only a few hundred more“ is still a lot of money…
It’s $500CAD more for less RAM, a much worse processor, single monitor, lower top speed due to reduced thermal headroom, less & worse ports, no Ethernet jack, worse/no headless support and a battery that will swell up in a year because I leave it plugged in all the time.
If you have a desk and like to sit at it, this is a much better choice. For me a laptop no longer fits into my life. I do everything on my phone, and for what needs a computer I want a big screen, keyboard and chair.
To each their own. I think this is the best value product Apple has released in over a decade. At $669CAD for Education it’s an insanely good buy.
For stationary workstations limited to only driving two displays, permanently committing to one built in display hurts flexibility. A MacBook air can't have a dual monitor setup where both monitors are the same size.
The mini form factor cools better, and can do more sustained work with the same hardware.
More ports means more straightforward connection to things like hardwired Ethernet, external storage, etc., good for certain stationary uses.
A couple hundred dollars is like double the price. The MacBook Air starts at $1099 for the current generation, almost twice as much as the $599 Mac Mini. For now, the Mac Mini is also ahead by a generation in the M-series chip and base storage/memory, too, so it literally is more than twice the cost for a similarly specced MacBook Air over a Mac Mini. Presumably the next generation Air will also have some improvements to the base model, but I expect it to be the same price.
I personally use my M1 Mac Mini as a pretty good home server. That might not be a super common use case, but I'd think it would make a way better desktop than a MacBook Air.