Will a base Mac Mini do these tasks sufficiently

[The_Interloper]

The knockers seem to be dilettantes who have the budget to indulge their desires, thus overlook more modest machines that adequately deliver for the needs of more humble folk.

What a load of rubbish. Budget has naff all to do with it. The base Mac Mini is atrocious value for money and offers mediocre performance for a premium price. £479 in the UK buys you a puny 1.4GHz mobile HASWELL (!!!) processor, 4Gb of soldered non-upgradeable RAM (unlike your 2009 model, which has more!) and a dismal 5400rpm spinner. Those are terrible specs. Even the old 4Gb Macbook Air (which these internals are based on and shipped with Mavericks, it's that old!) had the benefit of flash storage.

If the OP absolutely MUST use OS X and is willing to put up with the base model's shortcomings, then go for it. But how can anyone justify Apple's practice of selling pathetically outdated and underperforming hardware at ludicrous prices designed to exploit the uninformed or those locked into the Mac ecosystem? Dismissing those who criticise these practices as well-off, indulgent dilettantes is beyond insulting. I've used Macs for 20 years and what the company is currently offering is an embarrassment.

 

[garethjparr]

Steady on everyone. I'm not naive. I'm a tech geek (and professional) of 30 years, only with pcs, windows and to a limit degree unix and android.
I came asking for opinions of those that knew. I won't (and didn't) follow it all blindly. It was immensely valuable.

Yes, I have bought a base model (not at list, I might add). So far it is adequately performing for my family needs. Yes, I have been given options to increase the performance in future if I want/need to. But, currently it is filling my geek needs and moving along at a pace that is suited to me as a noob!!!

Once again, I thank everyone wholeheartedly for their input, positive or negative. It has all gone a long way to increase my understanding of how macs sit in the technology world.

 

[dandeco]

Yeah, I plan to replace the 5400 RPM hard drive in my 2012 quad core Mac Mini with a 1 TB (or similar) SSD. Performance is fine for the most part, though it can take a little while for programs to open or respond on occasion (depending on memory usage), and it can take a little while to boot sometimes. Perhaps switching to a SSD will eliminate most of that.