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GabeU's avatar
GabeU
Distinguished Professor IV
4 years ago

New Mac Mini M1....

I decided that, after 26 years of Windows based computers, I would try a Mac.  The Minis are pretty inexpensive when it comes to a Mac, though still somewhat pricey overall.  Back when they came out with the iMac in the late 90s I wanted one, but it was far outside my budget.  When they changed to using Intel processors they lost their appeal, at least for me, as what set them apart was no longer there.  When Apple announced the transition to using their own CPUs, it sparked that interest again.   And I like mini PCs, so this is a perfect fit.  It's not quite as mini as my other mini PCs, but it runs circles around them.  

 

So far, it's been great.  It's quite a bit of learning, that's for sure, as some things are done very differently on a Mac, but as time goes on I'm getting a better hang of it and I'm learning to do new things more quickly.  I just got a new 2TB Western Digital Elements drive today, connected it, selected it for Time Machine, and in around six minutes it had written a nearly 12GB backup.  Six minutes.  And this is with a mechanical drive!  Just unreal.  I have it in the USB-C port with an adapter, but still.  

 

My next try is downloading Steam and trying one or two of the few games I have through them (Half-Life series, Half-Life 2 series, Portal and Portal 2).  I don't know how well they'll work with this new type of CPU, as I believe it will have to use Rosetta 2 to translate it, but we'll see.  

 

The responsiveness of this thing is amazing.  You click and whatever you're trying to open or do is practically instant.  It makes my Ryzen 5 3400G desktop seem ancient, even though I just built that early last year.  I'm so glad I got this.  I got the 16GB/1TB model.  I know they may be coming out with models that have the M2 processor later this year, and likely more RAM, but they'll be a good bit more expensive, I'm sure.  I'm happy with this.  

 

Has anyone else out there gotten one of these recently? 

general discussion is not a support area
  • MarkJFine's avatar
    MarkJFine
    Professor
    4 years ago

    Plus, you've run Linux before, so using commands in the terminal window should be second nature on a Mini. Virtually anything you can run in Linux, you can rebuild under Darwin (Mac kernel).

     

    You can even have a virtual Xserver running if you download XQuartz. And, if you install Homebrew, you can add all sorts of unix/Linux things that have already been rebuilt for Darwin. A good example is Pan, which has always been my newsreader under Linux, and now under Mac.

    • GabeU's avatar
      GabeU
      Distinguished Professor IV
      4 years ago

      Actually, I was never very versed in the terminal.  The only command I even remember is the one to get an update.  sudo apt update or something like that.

       

      I haven't used the terminal at all on this Mac yet.  

      • GabeU's avatar
        GabeU
        Distinguished Professor IV
        4 years ago

        I've been using this Mac Mini M1 solely for a week now.  It's taken a bit of getting used to, but I've not yet found something that I couldn't do with this and that I needed to reconnect my Windows desktop for.  I actually completely removed the desktop and put it in one end of my bedroom closet.  

         

        The bad news is, no gaming.  The few games that I have through Steam cannot run in this environment, so that's a disappointment.  Granted, I hadn't played them in a while, but still.  Hopefully, as the Apple silicon based Macs come to replace the Intel based units, Steam will be working on a system that will allow their games to run on them.  It'll be quite the challenge, but I have a feeling these will start making more of a dent in the PC market.  

         

        I had to go with Edge for a browser, as Safari doesn't have a warning if you're going to accidentally close a window that has a bunch of tabs open.  Edge does.  And Edge has quite a few more extensions available for it, though I only use a couple. 

         

        So far, so good.  I'm glad I got this.