Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

My Next Mac Mini

rustyshelf.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

221–230 of 361 posts

Re: My Next Mac Mini

#221

Post by JustSomeNobody »

fowlerpower wrote: post #157

Someone here needs to explain it to me because I just don't understand. We have the largest computer company in the world, a shit load of people work there, supposedly smart people. Yet they can't put together a refresh of many of their desktop machines. Why the fuck not? What do all those people getting paid all that money do all day? I can only imagine the conversations, "it takes years it has to be super innovativ…

They are trying to figure out how to make them thinner. Apple is very weight-conscious.

Re: My Next Mac Mini

#222

Post by 746F7475 »

yalogin wrote: post #187

The problem is evenntoday there is no replacement of comparable alternative to the Mini. The Intel NUC is just a kit not a machine. So I cannot order it for my mom. Either the machine has no profit margin or the other companies are clueless to not bring a worthy competitor to market in all these years.

I'm guessing that market is kind a small. Most people I know have either transitioned into just using their smart phones and tablets or at least into using laptops and on other side thous who want to play games have needs that mini/mini-like computers can not fulfill.

Mini is kind a odd computer, it isn't mobile yet doesn't provide much more power than a laptop (if any). I think a mini-like computer would probably do everything I need it to do, but I rather get a laptop and just dock it. Which also has the extra benefit of being portable

Re: My Next Mac Mini

#223

Post by 746F7475 »

rwmj wrote: post #9

I would take a look at the Gigabyte Brix. The basic model is £119 [1] - considerably cheaper than the Intel NUC. I have a couple running a firewall and a little server, and they have trucked along for years without problems. [1] For a more complete spec including the other parts you may need, see: https://rwmj.wordpress.com/2015/05/04/new-home-gateway-route...

For on it seems to only have one HDMI and no minidisplays, most displays don't come with VGA anymore.

Re: My Next Mac Mini

#224

Post by JustSomeNobody »

eanzenberg wrote: post #212
flycaliguy wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think they are folding their desktop and laptop stuff into the IOS stuff, planning on a singularity in the next couple years. The iPhone will be able to carry their business over the hill of user discontent in the meantime.

That's exactly what they're not doing, and I dunno why everyone thinks they will.. maybe because that's what msft is doing? Apple repeatedly said their laptop/desktop/macos variants will remain for hardcore users who need that freedom, while ios is for users who want simplicity.

The same hardcore users who dislike the new Macbook Pros?

Re: My Next Mac Mini

#225

Post by newscracker »

CoolGuySteve wrote: post #53
finstell wrote: post #34

Nowadays, I kind of enjoy seeing posts about people abandoning Apple ecosystem. Although it's painful, I myself have been yet another avid fan of pretty much Apple offered, it feels like this is not going to last forever. When they do the math, iPhone might seem the most lucrative (they seem not to care about anything else) but since they are killing the ecosystem with no Mac Pro, no Mac Mini and with so called pro M…

I had whatever the latest iPhone was for the past 8 years. But at some point I realized a whole Huawei/HTC/LG/whatever Android phone could be purchased for the price of an iPhone screen repair and it's pretty much adequate for what I want to do. So now I'm using a Nexus 5X. It's okayish, but costs 1/3 the price of the iPhone 7 that would also be relatively ok. Phones are just phones these days. The awkward part is th…

> Phones are just phones these days.

I disagree with this. Most Android phones have a bad track record of getting OS updates (which may not be extremely important with Play Services not being part of the OS) and security updates. Depending on what one buys, it may be a phone with an outdated OS and no security updates or something that gets by for two to three years (on average). Apple provides updates for four years or longer (this has been the minimum for the past several years).

Combine the above with more malware spreading through APKs from random sites and "friends", I'd say Android is still stuck in the DOS era of PCs.

Of course, I realize this is a very harsh comparison that doesn't touch upon the flexibility that some users love, but in my opinion, non-tech-savvy people shouldn't be using anything but the best flagship phones if they choose Android and stay away from getting APKs from different sources. Any cost advantage with respect to an iPhone then disappears.

Re: My Next Mac Mini

#226

Post by ivanhoe »

coldtea wrote: post #10

> Well, perfect except that six years in this machine is very creaky. It needs a reboot every week or so (otherwise it will refuse to launch anything). That sounds totally unrelated to the age of the machine, and totally related to what's installed, the mini running out of disk, etc. Maybe do a clean install of the OS? Aside from the mechanical parts (CD ROMS, Hard Disks, etc), the "digital" parts of a PC do not age…

Can't pin point the problem, but I experienced pretty much the same with my old mac mini. It's probably a combination of factors: HDD gets fragmented over the time, new software and versions of OS are more demanding, drivers not optimized for old hardware, etc. Some of this can be solved by upgrading to SSD or clean OS reinstall, but not all.

Re: My Next Mac Mini

#227

Post by rilut »

esfandia wrote: post #148

I had the same experience as the OP. My Mac Mini was getting old, and the fan was making a worrisome noise. I wasn't going to buy the "latest" Mini, since it is very stale, hard to upgrade and expensive for what it is. Funnily enough I was already running Windows on that Mini anyway, so my next computer didn't have to be a Mac. But I did enjoy the small footprint, and I have to say that the Mac is probably the easies…

Doesn't Windows 10 installs all your drivers automatically?

Re: My Next Mac Mini

#228

Post by mwfunk »

krzyk wrote: post #214
fowlerpower wrote: post #157

Someone here needs to explain it to me because I just don't understand. We have the largest computer company in the world, a shit load of people work there, supposedly smart people. Yet they can't put together a refresh of many of their desktop machines. Why the fuck not? What do all those people getting paid all that money do all day? I can only imagine the conversations, "it takes years it has to be super innovativ…

Largest? You mean employing the most people or having the largest area? As for the employees, Apple has about 115 thousands, IBM has about 379 thousands, Samsung has 319 thousands, HP has 289 thousands (source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_the_largest_informatio... ). You probably meant the most valuable (stock number * stock price).

He probably just meant "having the most resources" in some very general sense. But it's true, in terms of # of employees it's nowhere near the largest. In fact the vast majority of those 115000 people are retail employees. I would estimate that in terms of engineers, it's more like 20k or less.

Re: My Next Mac Mini

#229

Post by kupiakos »

newscracker wrote: post #225
CoolGuySteve wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had whatever the latest iPhone was for the past 8 years. But at some point I realized a whole Huawei/HTC/LG/whatever Android phone could be purchased for the price of an iPhone screen repair and it's pretty much adequate for what I want to do. So now I'm using a Nexus 5X. It's okayish, but costs 1/3 the price of the iPhone 7 that would also be relatively ok. Phones are just phones these days. The awkward part is th…

> Phones are just phones these days. I disagree with this. Most Android phones have a bad track record of getting OS updates (which may not be extremely important with Play Services not being part of the OS) and security updates. Depending on what one buys, it may be a phone with an outdated OS and no security updates or something that gets by for two to three years (on average). Apple provides updates for four years…

Non-tech-savvy users still have to disable the option to disable third-party APK's in order to be at risk in that area.

Re: My Next Mac Mini

#230

Post by lobster_johnson »

nextos wrote: post #154
esfandia wrote: post #148

I had the same experience as the OP. My Mac Mini was getting old, and the fan was making a worrisome noise. I wasn't going to buy the "latest" Mini, since it is very stale, hard to upgrade and expensive for what it is. Funnily enough I was already running Windows on that Mini anyway, so my next computer didn't have to be a Mac. But I did enjoy the small footprint, and I have to say that the Mac is probably the easies…

There are brands that build absolutely awesome fanless cases on top of Intel NUC boards. I recommend those: http://www.aleutia.com/computers/ http://www.cirrus7.com/produkte Intel is a bit lazy. Many manufacturers are selling cheap fanless devices for a lot less money. Their Core m3 is a fanless CPU. They should release a fanless NUC themselves. I love NUCs because their hardware just works on Linux and they are rela…

Last year I got a fanless box from Atlast to use as a headless Linux server running Plex Media Server. Really excellent little box.

Quad-core i5, 120GB SSD, 8GB RAM, Ubuntu preinstalled. $600 plus $50 shipping to the US (they're in the UK): http://www.atlastsolutions.com/fanless-mini-itx

They Atlast guys are also very friendly, and they know Linux.

Post reply on HN