Enter the Mini

It finally happened.

The replacement for the G4 tower has arrived.

It’s a late 2014 Mac Mini model with a 1TB mechanical drive, 8 GB of RAM, and a 2.6 GHz Dual-Core Intel Core i5 processor.

With those specs, it becomes the fastest computer in the room.

I’ve already backed up what I needed from the G4 onto the Mini.

After a couple of kernel panics copying data like the old iPhoto and iTunes library, all of these bytes now rest easily in macOS Monterrey’s Photos and Music applications on the Mini.

Some things never change, but sometimes it takes some time to adjust.

I was a little concerned the unupgradeable 8GB of ram might be inadequate. But I’m not planning on pushing this little gem of a computer.

It’ll see me through blogging and writing projects easily, and that’s all that matters.

The space savings and speed gains are significant.

I had to put the G4 back online yesterday as I needed to pull a few more things from it on to the Mini. Mission accomplished.

Now, the Mini is resting atop the Tangent Core 2 Duo offbrand tower with 8 GB ram. I like how the footprint is a mere fraction of the G4’s.

I temporarily pulled the HP Compaq PC offline to navigate the rat’s nest of cables and wires that routinely accumulated over the years.

I’m thinking of leaving the little-used HP offline permanently like the G4.

The HP is dual-booting Windows 10 Home and many Linux operating systems spanning two hard drives. In addition, the Tangent tower is already running Windows Professional 10 with a much faster Core 2 Duo processor than the HP Compaq has.

It’s all about making the most of the room I have. So, accordingly, I’m already looking to the day when a mini-Windows PC of some kind will replace the PC tower.

Finally, while it was my fastest machine before the Mini came on the scene, My Giada mini-PC with 1.75 GHz i5 processor with 4GB of Ram runs Zorin 16 quite nicely, still navigating the web nimbly and without issue.

I purchased an inexpensive HDMI adapter with audio and USB cables to get the pictures and sound right on the Mini. Then, I had to change the output to headphones, and all was well listening-wise on YouTube.

One thing that will take some getting used to, unless I change how the mouse and keyboard work, is the mouse’s reverse scrolling (from that of Windows and Linux) and horizontal keyboard word skip keys (sending the cursor to skip words or to go to the end or front of the line the cursor is on).

Not a big deal, though, as I’m sure once it drives me crazy enough, I’ll look into how I can make these Mac actions more PC-like.

Technological things that have been static for quite some time can be hard to abandon.

However, when the writing is on the wall, and you need some more power and storage, it’s best to make a plan (instead of waiting until I couldn’t use the Internet anymore with the G4).

Things change, and it’s good to be able to change a little, at least yourself, before they do.

The Mini has me returning to Apple.

And it feels like home again.

Forgive me, Linux and Windows fans, but things are cyclical, and I’m back trying a Mac again (albeit with a PC monitor, mouse, and keyboard).

So, maybe you’ll go easy on me as I’m still using Windows and Linux, just taking a mild break from them.