Quick Mac mini Update

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Kids, I use SUN Type 5C keyboard as I type this that I adapted myself for HP Z workstation series. I actually remember when Apple had really good hardware, all SCSI drives, cable-free design, opening up a case and upgrade a component was a breeze and a joy compared to the ugly and dangerous cases of PCs with their burrs and sharp edges. And you could take a hard drive from a cheap pizza-box Quadra and swap it into the top of the line desktop - things would work right away. And that could be a generic SCSI drive. Then, the suits in Cupertino and their Living God Jobs decided to kill clones, Be OS and lost a lot of vendour support, from hardware to software. I remember when Global Village announced they would stop hardware support for Apple, and it snowballed from there. Then they started jumping CPU chips, busses and controllers, cutting corners on the substance while keeping up appearances... There is always a new generation of suckers on the conveyer belt.
I still have an Apple pizza box, running a server on NetBSD for my internal network.
 
SUN had great keyboards.

I have to say, never met a MacBook that didn't have better speakers than any PC notebook, including HP's multimedia series. However good sound is only a BlueTooth connection away.
 
Perhaps we have different standards of keyboard design, and I will freely admit to not having a ton of Sun experience.

With that said, I have an UltraSparc 5 in my office with a 5c keyboard connected to it(I just got up and looked at the model number, since I didn't know it off the top of my head). Honesty, to me, it's a pretty uninspring keyboard with the typical mushy rubber dome feel.

Looking around here, I also have a few SGI keyboards(and that wasn't exactly inexpensive hardware new). The one on my Octane is a PS/2 keyboard that is branded SGI, It's about the same as any other 90s rubber dome, and I wouldn't be surprised if it was actually a Logitech. The Iris Indigo uses an SGI proprietary board, and playing with it, I thought it felt like an Alps. Popping a cap off shows that it is indeed cream Alps, the same as the Apple AEK/AEK2 I like so well. It actually looks quite a bit like an Apple AEK also.

I'll take my mechanical Model M or Apple mechanicals, thank you.
 
Originally Posted by Y_K
Apple used to have very good keyboards as well.


Everything up to the Apple Design of the 90s was fantastic, and most of the Mac keyboards prior to that used either cream Alps switches or their Mitsumi clones.

Even the Apple Design KB is somewhat variable. It's a rubber dome with a "slider"(like the Sun 5c). I went through and cataloged a bunch by country of origin a while back and my subjective opinion of their key feel. I found that the Mexican made ones were universally bad, the Thailand ones universally good, and other countries hit-or-miss(I have a list somewhere on them). Somehow or another, I ended up with a pile of them, and based my observations on probably 30 examples.
 
Originally Posted by bunnspecial
...I find the butterfly, first introduced in the Retina MacBook and since migrated to almost all other laptops, terrible. It has so little travel that I often find myself uncomfortably bottoming the keys out. They also definitely feel "mushy" to me. I admit to not having a ton of typing time on them, but I don't hear a lot of complements from others on them.

I do think though that Apple has finally admitted defeat on that keyboard, as the new 16" has gone back to scissors. Playing with one in the store the other day, it still didn't have as much travel as I like, but is a big improvement both in feel and travel as compared to the 13"(with butterflys) that was sitting next to it at the store.


Apple has failed to block a class action lawsuit regarding the butterfly keyboards.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...rfly-keyboard-class-action-idUSKBN1Y629A

Quote
...(Reuters) - A federal judge on Monday rejected Apple Inc's (AAPL.O) bid to dismiss a proposed class action lawsuit by customers who said it knew and concealed how the "butterfly" keyboards on its MacBook laptop computers were prone to failure.

...Customers claimed that their MacBook, MacBook Pro and MacBook Air laptop keyboards suffered from sticky keys, unresponsive keys and keystrokes that failed to register when tiny amounts of dust or debris accumulated under or near keys.

...They also said Apple's service program was inadequate because the Cupertino, California-based company often provided replacement keyboards that had the same problems.

...The lawsuit covers purchasers of model year 2015 or later MacBook laptops, and model year 2016 or later MacBook Pros laptops. It seeks a variety of damages for violations of several states' consumer protection laws.
 
Originally Posted by KrisZ
Sorry for high jacking your thread alarmguy. I agree that Apple software experience is good, very good actually.


Hey, Ive been meaning to say, all good, thanks!

Lets face it, pick one company, any company in any industry and there will be people who do not like it.

For me, personally, I think, after using windows for 25 years on every computer brand imaginable including being the go to source ALL the time for family and friends to fix issues and buying advice, as well as changing hard drives, motherboards (in the earlier days) that my experience may help someone.

Im now so impressed with this Mac mini (and I agree, nothing is perfect or right for everyone) but kind of hoping to completely switch platforms now that I have the Mac Desktop and carry that over to my first iPhone that I think, MAYBE my wife is going to get me for Christmas, honestly dont know.
Been at work all week, turned this thing on this morning, still amazes me how fast the mini is.

I can see at times a purpose for Windows computers but we have so many in the house it doesnt matter, the one example I can think of is my workplace benefits election program will only run on Edge at home, cant use the Mac. Of course I could do that at work too but still .. .anyway, just use my wifes computer or any of the other 3 windows computers I have in the house.

The one negative I find and that goes for ANY product if you had a choice I guess it would be nice to have some ports on the front, but Apple likes styling over function and that is ok, no big deal but Im a function over styling person and to have some USB C ports one the front would have been great, no big deal.
 
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Originally Posted by alarmguy
KrisZ said:
The one negative I find and that goes for ANY product if you had a choice I guess it would be nice to have some ports on the front, but Apple likes styling over function and that is ok, no big deal but Im a function over styling person and to have some USB C ports one the front would have been great, no big deal.


The last computer Apple made with front ports was what many would argue was their last true "pro" computer-the "cheesgrater" tower that stretched from the first generation G5(2003) and continued up to the 2012 Mac Pro. I still use my Mac Pro 5,1(2012), and it has an extremely useful 2x USB and 2x FW800.

Apple also embraced USB wholesale back in the late 1990s, but has always-to me-been rather stingy with their ports. 2 has, by and large, been the norm although in later years they did stretch that to 3 or 4 on desktops and also 3 on a few specific laptops.
 
2018 Mac Mini version-

Four Thunderbolt 3 USB-C ports.
Two USB-A ports.
HDMI 2.0 port.
Gigabit Ethernet port (upgradeable to 10Gb)
3.5mm audio jack.
Plus Bluetooth and Wi-Fi of course
 
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Okay, guess I'd forgotten that Apple actually got semi-generous with USB on the Mini(it's about time). The older Minis generally had 4 USB Type A. The "trash can" Pro has 6x USB A.

The MacBook Pros did get 4 USB-C in the touchbar models, but IMO that's still too few given how much those ports do.
 
** Final update ** (unless something goes wrong .. ha ha ...)

Current OS is Catalina Version 10.15.2

Im just in awe every time I log on.
Its just so stupid fast it still amazes me every website I go to,"click" and its there, amazing .. I would go out of my mind if I had to go back to a slower computer :eek:)

Ill report any issues that may come up in the future.
 
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Same here. I got so sick of Win 10 trying to do everything you did not want. I was looking at refurbed Mac laptops. They were expensive and then I saw refurbed iMacs were cheaper. After a little research, I discovered that if you get one of the late 2013 issues, you can run the latest OS. I bought one for just under $400 and it looked new. I updated to Catalina and have enjoyed learning how and where to find things. It has a 1 tb HD and a 256 mb ssd. It boots up and runs very fast.
Fast forward to my winter place in FL where I just bought another one to leave down here. $370with no marks on it. Updated to Catalina. This one runs slower with out the SSD.
I don't need to carry my computer around so the desktop is fine for me. I have an iPad for that. I'm 71 and hate to have to learn new technology but I'm doing fine with the Mac, iPad, and iPhone.
 
Yes, after decades of computing, the Mac mini has been the best decision I have made.
Just loving it, lots of fun. Im off weekends, after working on corporate computers all week long I love coming home and firing this thing up, its just so darn fast, I cant take it!
Flipping through screens on the internet just blows me away!

Granted all the Win 10 computers in my house do not have SSD.
 
Originally Posted by alarmguy
** Final update ** (unless something goes wrong .. ha ha ...)

Current OS is Catalina Version 10.15.2


I will be installing a Crucial MX500 SSD in my Mac Mini (2012) and was thinking of doing a clean install with Catalina. I researched Catalina on various Mac forums, and found a lot of very unhappy people. A few serious bugs (e.g. requiring logic board replacement !), and a lot of minor bugs. Some were calling Catalina the Mac version of Windows Vista, because of the high number of bugs.

So I will be installing Mojave (10.14.6)
 
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Originally Posted by SubLGT
Originally Posted by alarmguy
** Final update ** (unless something goes wrong .. ha ha ...)

Current OS is Catalina Version 10.15.2


I will be installing a Crucial MX500 SSD in my Mac Mini (2012) and was thinking of doing a clean install with Catalina. I researched Catalina on various Mac forums, and found a lot of very unhappy people. A few serious bugs (e.g. requiring logic board replacement !), and a lot of minor bugs. Some were calling Catalina the Mac version of Windows Vista, because of the high number of bugs.

So I will be installing Mojave (10.14.6)


Hmmm ... being new to MAC I dont feel qualified to answer, except for me, it works perfect.
I am skeptical of forums, at times, because we know people who have issues will be in the forums and makes one wonder how many issues are really out there.
But I do understand your concern at the same time if you search Mojave of course you will also find issues or any operating system for that matter, still I am not discounting what you are saying and with a mini 2012 maybe you would be better off with the Mojave?
 
Originally Posted by alarmguy
....But I do understand your concern at the same time if you search Mojave of course you will also find issues or any operating system for that matter, still I am not discounting what you are saying and with a mini 2012 maybe you would be better off with the Mojave?


I would upgrade from Mojave to Catalina 6-8 months from now, if Apple gets their act together and makes some serious progress on taming the bugs in Catalina. Apple charges a premium price for their hardware, and should offer a premium software experience, like they used to do. (I have been using Mac computers for 20+ years).
 
Well, for me, after 24 years of using Windows/MS products I can testify I am having a premium experience with my Mac mini Catalina computer!

Thank goodness for that, I did have a rocky start but was unsure if the brand new model Canon printer ( so new the printer software was only available the same month I bought the printer) or Apple was at fault all I know after an update it all started working that way it should.
and .. .being a bought it new from an authorized retailer, registration process was messed up but got straightened out. (should have not happened but it did)

Other then that, for me personally exactly what I need, blows Windows away in speed.
With that said, there is no one size fits all, the Mac is a perfect fit for what I need. It doesnt mean a lower cost or same cost Windows computer isnt better for someone else. I just got tired of all the crap on Windows, way, way, way too much of everything that I dont need or use.
 
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I don't like Catalina for two reasons: I can no longer run 32 bit apps and it gets rid of Dashboard. The former is a daily use thing for me, while the latter is a many times a day thing.

Funny enough, the second point is a bit contentious on the Mac forums I participate in. The opinions are either "I use Dashboard all the time so losing it is a deal killer for me" or "I don't use it, so I'm glad it's gone." (funny that no one seems to say "I don't use it, but I'm sorry it's not there for the people who do").

In any case, I have Catalina on my backup-to-a-backup 2012 MBA, and it runs fine in my experience. I haven't had any stability issues, but I'm sticking with Mojave or earlier on my primary use computers.
 
The 2 most serious bugs with Catalina :

Bricking of your Mac:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/250715174?page=1
https://9to5mac.com/2019/10/24/efi-firmware/

Loss of emails:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/250716550?page=1
https://mjtsai.com/blog/2019/10/11/mail-data-loss-in-macos-10-15/
Quote
...I upgraded to Catalina. A clean install. I have now discovered that 90,000 emails are missing, dating from 2000. The mail folder size is now 2.7GB as compared with the usual >35GB in size. For example, we are missing our email records of invoices sent out to customers. That's how we discovered the problem ... we tried to find the old records (messages) in Mail. The Mail record is no longer reliable. We cannot full tell what is there and what is missing. Fortunately we have an earlier backup. But the time and effort now required to rebuild the Mail database is significant. And, at this point, we can't trust Catalina to maintain it's integrity...


I believe a Catalina update prevented more Macs getting bricked.
But the loss of emails bug has not yet been addressed, AFAIK. It was not even mentioned in the documentation for the latest 10.15.2 update.
 
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Glad I dont have 90,000 emails that I need and not backed up?

Anyway, reading the links you posted I think everyone was able to restore their lost emails assuming the reports are true which I am sure they are.
But, not a concern of mine and honestly there is a "story" out there for every operating system update, including my own Windows 10 updates on my new (at the time) HP computer.

I tend not to believe many self made websites or posts in forums that use the words "I've heard a bunch of reports of data loss", more or less I am a hard numbers person, percentages of issues compared to the number of updates.

I am one, due to using Windows for 25 years, very skeptical about installing any updates on any computer (or cell phone) until I know it works.
I did do the Catalina right away though and maybe in the future I would hold off a bit.

Bottom line, we are still in the dark ages, 25 years from now, if not sooner, the year 2019 will still look like the start of the computing era.
Much like the start with the invention of the light bulb to homes having electricity to iceless "ice boxes" known as refrigerators. Im not quite sure we are up to the "refrigerator" stage yet.

:eek:)
 
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