Well, you and I completely disagree there. 5 years of basic security support is not "well within reason" by any stretch of the imagination. That's pretty lousy in my opinion for a personal computer.
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The new Mac mini is almost certainly coming
- Thread starter GabrieleR
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The thing is anyone who does any kind of research knows that support for future versions of MacOS starts getting very iffy around the 5 year from original release mark.
If we were talking about a brand new computer I would agree but we aren't. We are talking about a computer that was 5 years old to begin with — which Apple continued to supply security updates for 5 years after that. As someone else mention we may even seen another security update for Catalina.
It's a bit of an edge case to be fair - people know they aren't buying 'new' in the refurb store, and don't forget the security updates for two additional years.
Windows 7 got 10 years support. Windows 10 will get 10 years when it finally finishes in 2025. Bear in mind that TPM modules on Intel CPUs seems to be the hardware feature that determines if a PC can load Windows 11.
This in effect draws the line in the region of 7th generation Intel CPUS - around Kaby Lake age. What do you do with the people with highly expandable Windows PCs facing a de facto demand to upgrade the hardware of their Skylake (and prior) PC if they want to run Windows?
Apple deciding on the whole to give a Mac 5 years from date of discontinuation plus 2 years of security patches is par for the course.
Older machines with SSDs have a very long life - but if you can't boot camp to Windows 10 soon and expect Windows updates do you go Linux on your 2012 Mac mini?
Virtually any PC that could run Windows 7 could run Windows 8 and Windows 10 just as easily, so we’ve got 15 years right there? And those same PCs, even without TPM, can run Windows 11 (at least for now). No hack necessary. Just burn the iso using Rufus and you’re done.
But Windows 10 Security updates end in October 2025, and although there has been an outcry, I doubt people will force Microsoft to continue to support Windows 10 for many more years - they are just introducing some security features to Windows 11 and meeting resistance because people don't want to pay for upgrading what they consider to be a perfectly usable PC.
I don't think what you're suggesting is 'simple' for most PC users.
And that back support has resulted in totally jaw dropping goofiness like "How to Enable 16-bit Application Support in Windows 10". When people are wanting to run 16-bit code in 2021 you know something has gone totally wrong. As for the rest - here is a 2013 iMac with Catalina running System 9.0.4 via Sheepshaver:
The work to get Sheepshaver to run natively on M1 is slow though making some headway,
Before the pandemic hit, I had volunteered at a local community college bookstore during their setup for the fall semester. You think vanilla 16-bit is weird, they were running Windows 10 on a per-tapered iMac running some DOS era inventory system.
If it works it works right?
That is nothing. The hotel I worked at used a UNIX system that predated DOS. As we were part of a franchise corporate required everyone to upgrade to Windows. The audit, which had taken 3 hours to run now ran in about 30 minutes. The old system worked but it didn't work efficiently.
An added problem is if something happens you are totally FUBARed. One of the government funded museums I worked for had a Kaypro. The hard drive got corrupted but the oldest OS they had was DOS 1.0 which didn't work. Unable to find a copy of CP/M it wound up being a door stop.
Been thinking about ordering a Mac Studio for awhile now, just have not pulled the trigger...
Kinda still want the slimmer Mac mini though, hoping a M2 Pro model comes out soon...?
M1 Max SoC would be awesome, but I kinda think waiting for the M3-series of SoCs will have more to offer in regards to GPU power & hardware ray tracing...
So now I am really leaning towards a M2 Pro-powered Mac mini as my first foray into the ASi mac OS world...! ;^p
Kinda still want the slimmer Mac mini though, hoping a M2 Pro model comes out soon...?
M1 Max SoC would be awesome, but I kinda think waiting for the M3-series of SoCs will have more to offer in regards to GPU power & hardware ray tracing...
So now I am really leaning towards a M2 Pro-powered Mac mini as my first foray into the ASi mac OS world...! ;^p
How long are you willing to wait? My guess would be that any new mini would not arrive until at least this fall.
I would be very surprised if they put out a M2 Pro mini. It would cut into the M1 Max Studio sales. It isn't Apples goal to maximize desktop volume by adding more incremental price points. Their goal is to maximize profits, and the entry level Mac Studio will sell well at $2000. If they wanted a Mx Pro Mini they would have already introduced an M1 Pro Mini last October when they introduced the M1 Pro MacBooks. I think they have created 3 tiers of desktops and the Mini will be the low-end only tier once again. The Mac Studio will be their broad mid-tier desktops at 2 basic price points, and the Mac Pro their elite upper-end desktop. My guess, of course.
I agree. Apple will not do anything to the Mini that will cut into Studio sales, which is why I do not expect them to offer a 32GB RAM option for the Mini anytime soon.
But will be very happy to be wrong on that.
I'm not sure if the improvements of the M2 will really put the M2 Pro into the same ballpark as the M1 Max. M2 Pro might be somewhat faster (15%?) in CPU, assuming the same number of cores, and could get more GPU cores (maybe 20 instead of 16?), but would that encroach upon the 32 GPU-core M1 Max? Probably not, although it could be close to the 24-core M1 Max.
That said, I think that you may be right, and that Apple will (frustratingly) leave the gap between Mx and Mx Max unfilled by a Pro variant in the Mini.
Ok I've been waiting a long, long time for this new mac mini. And what? We have a studio.
The studio is something that does not fit me at all. I don't want it. It's bulky, it's expensive and most importantly it does not have an option to pick the M1/M2 Pro. Crazy.
Not to mention they've repeated design errors from the past where the headphone jack is on the back instead of the front (obviously).
I am a programmer and 42 GPU cores are something I don't need completely, what I need is a bunch of CPU high-efficiency cores.
Now please tell me, will there be something like mac mini with m1 pro or the only option available is the mac book pro?
The studio is something that does not fit me at all. I don't want it. It's bulky, it's expensive and most importantly it does not have an option to pick the M1/M2 Pro. Crazy.
Not to mention they've repeated design errors from the past where the headphone jack is on the back instead of the front (obviously).
I am a programmer and 42 GPU cores are something I don't need completely, what I need is a bunch of CPU high-efficiency cores.
Now please tell me, will there be something like mac mini with m1 pro or the only option available is the mac book pro?
Let's be hopeful for an M1 Pro Mac mini release some time this year. By summer would be preferable, but fall would be OK too.
Failing that, we'll have to wait for the M2 Mac mini, perhaps this fall or next spring. I suspect an M2 Mac mini would support 32 GB.
??? M1 Pro has half as many efficiency cores as M1. And why would a programmer want more efficiency cores?
Definitely something amiss there. After 2016 headphones are supposed to be wireless in the Apple ecosystem. The jack on the back is for speakers but they label it for headphones. Then on Studio - high impedance.
I don’t understand how they didn’t put one in the front also…
Particularly on a device where they recognized how convenient it is to have the SD card slot upfront
Apple just can’t seem to give in and do the basics for some of this for some reason
I much prefer the audio jack on the back. That goes to my amplifier / computer speakers.
My headphones are AirPods, but even if I wanted to use wired headphones from the front, I could simply use a $10 USB-C to audio jack dongle.
IMO, the only way it would make sense to have an audio jack on the front is to have two audio jacks, one on the front and one on the back, but I understand why they wouldn't bother with that.
A single audio port only on the front would be a design fail, IMO.
My headphones are AirPods, but even if I wanted to use wired headphones from the front, I could simply use a $10 USB-C to audio jack dongle.
IMO, the only way it would make sense to have an audio jack on the front is to have two audio jacks, one on the front and one on the back, but I understand why they wouldn't bother with that.
A single audio port only on the front would be a design fail, IMO.
My guess is in discussion with potential customers, the overwhelming majority said they physically connect to something other than headphones and that putting it in the back was more convenient.
Why not "both"?
Nice for plugging in some headphones
There really isn't a good argument against that -- it's just Apple being Apple
Sorry, at this point, you may just need to get an extender cable
Extender from what?
The point with dual ports is that you could leave your normal speakers connected in the back and simply plug in headphones on the front (auto takeover of the output)
It's super convenient