2018 Mac Mini Review • Hacker News Board

Re: 2018 Mac Mini Review

#311

Post by kitsunesoba » Tue, Nov 06, 2018, 4:03 PM UTC

garblegarble wrote: post #152

blinkingled wrote: post #12

The pricing is not really justifiable especially given the most use cases of the Mac mini (Home Theater, NAS, Backup etc.) are better handled by other OSes. The NUC8 with comparable specs (sans 6 core CPU) comes at under half the price! If you needed the 6 cores sure but given most workloads other than encoding don't - it's questionable. Even then the 6C processor doesn't cost enough to make up for the difference.

>The NUC8 with comparable specs (sans 6 core CPU) comes at under half the price! I'm actually very interested in these - could you point me at some? I've been interested in getting a NUC8 machine, but the cheapest I can find one for (granted, in the UK) is £750 before RAM & SSD... and I have been seriously considering the new Mac Mini as a result because the final price doesn't seem like it'll be much different. edit…

Doesn’t matter to everyone, but something to keep in mind is that Mac Mini’s have their power supply inside the unit itself while NUCs need those awful wall warts.

Re: 2018 Mac Mini Review

#312

Post by wild_preference » Tue, Nov 06, 2018, 4:04 PM UTC

rorykoehler wrote: post #236

wlesieutre wrote: post #183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't dislike the touchbar, I'm just annoyed at having to pay so much for something I'm ambivalent about.

I don't understand why it isn't just an option. If you want it give you can pay for it.

Hate it or not, Apple has to make it relatively commonplace if they want macOS apps to bother developing for it instead of ignoring it. Their short-term goal is 100% of MBP users, and surely, eventually 100% of all macOS laptop users.

Keeping it optional indefinitely, then, defeats this goal.

Re: 2018 Mac Mini Review

#313

Post by throwawayber18 » Tue, Nov 06, 2018, 4:05 PM UTC

thresh wrote: post #9

The review doesnt tell you that you cannot upgrade or replace your SSD.

I will never again buy a laptop or computer where I can’t replace the SSD myself.

Last time I had a problem with my MacBook Pro and took it in to get fixed. They wanted me to write down my login password before they would accept it!

I had to reschedule and wiped my disk before bringing it back again.

Re: 2018 Mac Mini Review

#314

Post by stephenr » Tue, Nov 06, 2018, 4:06 PM UTC

drcongo wrote: post #160

realradicalwash wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The quote is a bit out of context. The sentence right above it: >It makes almost nothing worse and almost everything better, finally bringing the Mac Mini into the modern age. So, no, it's not "yayy" because it "hasn't gotten worse", it's "yayy", because "[it makes] almost everything better".

Anyone who owns a MacBook Pro with Touch Bar will definitely be saying "yay it hasn't gotten worse!" about these.

I don't have a problem with the Touch Bar. It's kind of handy for occasional things that are context specific and normally involve using the mouse.

Re: 2018 Mac Mini Review

#315

Post by folkrav » Tue, Nov 06, 2018, 4:06 PM UTC

copperx wrote: post #238

muro wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why do you need a PC at all? A TV can play movies directly from a NAS.

Yeah, I thought Media PCs were a thing in the 00's. But it's 2018 now. Why would you have a Media PC?

I personally use Chromecasts, but HTPCs are still a thing, and for multiple reasons : - gaming (console "alternative", emulators, etc) - streaming a personal library of media files (e.g. through Plex) - it's way more versatile than the usually pretty terrible SmartTV onboard software in terms of what content you can access - like Amazon Video that only streams to their own crap stick

Media PCs never stopped working, and they're still better at some things. They're just less "convenient" in some ways, and requires more investment, both in time and money, which is why some people switched to streaming boxes or simply using their TV's software.

Re: 2018 Mac Mini Review

#316

Post by softawre » Tue, Nov 06, 2018, 4:08 PM UTC

wlesieutre wrote: post #233

robertAngst wrote: post #190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> considering that you get a Mac ecosystem People consider this a good thing? EDIT: To clarify, the cost of their proprietary devices mean spending an additional bit. Every other company uses USB C now.

I have a Windows 10 computer for gaming and oh my god am I glad I don't have to use that for anything productive. But hey, at least it's the year of desktop linux!

Desktop linux is actually coming now, who'da thunk it would be as a trojan horse riding in via Windows.

Re: 2018 Mac Mini Review

#317

Post by myrandomcomment » Tue, Nov 06, 2018, 4:08 PM UTC

xattt wrote: post #285

myrandomcomment wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No and that’s the issue. Works great for your local / NAS media. Lots of plugins for all sorts of things, except, Netflix, Amazon, XM. I still use the TV apps for that.

There’s a Netflix plugin that uses the directory structure on Kodi for v18.

Thanks, I have seen and tried it. It’s still not GA and quite buggy. Not at a level I can hand over to my family for use.

Re: 2018 Mac Mini Review

#318

Post by Elidrake24 » Tue, Nov 06, 2018, 4:12 PM UTC

drcongo wrote: post #160

realradicalwash wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The quote is a bit out of context. The sentence right above it: >It makes almost nothing worse and almost everything better, finally bringing the Mac Mini into the modern age. So, no, it's not "yayy" because it "hasn't gotten worse", it's "yayy", because "[it makes] almost everything better".

Anyone who owns a MacBook Pro with Touch Bar will definitely be saying "yay it hasn't gotten worse!" about these.

Chiming in to agree that it wasn't a problem here. Though I also never understood why someone would be crazy enough to leave ESC as the default keybinding anyhow.

Re: 2018 Mac Mini Review

#319

Post by OJFord » Tue, Nov 06, 2018, 4:13 PM UTC

me551ah wrote: post #114

OJFord wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 3. Ability to run Linux natively using WSL. But what are you doing in WSL that you can't do on a Mac (or, of course, a Linux machine) without a 'subsystem'? Sincere question, because the 'Mac is not Linux' things that wind me up tend to require X11 to fix, WSL would be no different.

Mac ships with their own posix subsystem, WSL allows you to install a bunch of popular flavours of linux on top of Windows. I personally run Arch Linux and have access to a lot more bleeding edge packages.

> WSL allows you to install a bunch of popular flavours of linux on top of Windows. I personally run Arch Linux

Oh, I didn't know that, that does make it a bit more interesting to me!

I still think I'd be frustrated (as I am on Mac) with the lack of a configurable (or even of a choice of) window manager though.

Re: 2018 Mac Mini Review

#320

Post by stephenr » Tue, Nov 06, 2018, 4:14 PM UTC

torben-friis wrote: post #11

A $2500 desktop computer with integrated graphics? Honestly, it feels like a bit of a joke.

How much graphics processing power does your text editor demand? How about your build server?

Apple made it pretty clear in their keynote they're focussing this product to be attractive to the 'pro' market that gives zero fucks about a whiz-bang graphics card.