Thanks. The only caveat is that the old mini will not let me upgrade the operating system to the latest. But I can still get buy for now with my online applications. I can really see the memory issues with Chrome as sometimes the computer just freezes up for several minutes.
RAM upgrade FTW to start; using Chrome helps mitigate lack of OS updates. Chrome has its own update channel and security fixes, along with pretty good sandboxing.
Personally I’m loathe to use an OS that doesn’t get updates, but at least you keep chugging along.
If you like Minis, one possibility outside the Apple realm is to consider an Intel NUC. They pack a decent punch and support modest specs nowadays.
Personally outside my crazy workstation, I just use a Chromebook. The shift to so much web based stuff took out a lot of people’s needs for more power outside of gaming and workstations.
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If you plan to continue using the machine then a RAM upgrade is definitely worth the money. The operating system is what it is. In the past I’ve used both Linux and Windows on older Apple hardware years after Apple stopped supporting it. Depending on your tasks you might find other modern operating systems to be as good as or better than older versions of macOS. This is ironically another thing you wouldn’t be able to do using the new Mac mini.
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I wasn’t aware people were buying Mac Minis to do anything but compile iOS apps. As you said, they’re terrible value for anything else.
The laptop market though–keep in mind that Apple isn’t a computer company, they’re a phone and tablet company that sells computers. Moving the Air and smaller MBP to the same platform as the iPhone and iPad is a brilliant engineering move for them. It’s a few years away, but I imagine that iOS and macOS will complete their merge and Apple will basically sell you a general-purpose computing device in your choice of mobile form factors from pocket to laptop.
I 100% agree that they’ve abandoned the pro market in exchange for the prosumer market, but the pro market is teeny tiny whereas everybody is a wannabe YouTube star now.
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Soldered on SSD for the win!