Comments on: Would you use a Mac mini as your development machine?

By: DAn N

DAn N — Mon, 07 May 2012 16:25:17 +0000

Absolutely. I bought the latest line which supports dual drives. I use a 128 Gig SSD as the primary for the OS & a 700 gig hybrid, which runs at the same speed. With 8 gigs of ram, this machine is comparable to a loaded MacPro from just a few years ago. I’d say that’s plenty of power for development and then some.

By: Beginner K.C.

Beginner K.C. — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 12:53:31 +0000

I am thinking about it also… Instead, I am thinking to buy a second hand MAC Mini with the following configuration…

CPU: Intel 1.66Ghz
RAM: 2GB DDR2
HDD: 160GB
Display: Intel GMA950
DVD Writer

As long as they can upgrade to OS 10.6.2 that will not be a big problem, I think… right?

By: Dave the Ninja

Dave the Ninja — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 06:02:08 +0000

I have just bought the new MacMini for the sole purpose of rails development – it is FANTASTIC!

That is all

Ninja

By: pedro mg

pedro mg — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 07:36:55 +0000

My desktop machine for development (Ruby, Merb,…) is a Mac Mini, 2Ghz Core2Duo 2GB Snow Leopard. The keyboard is the Wireless Apple keyboard, really excellent.

Very silent machine, small footprint, beautiful design, fast enough, MacVim with Project and Vimblog plugins, and that’s it.

Laptop ? Linux, Thinkpad please!

By: John Booty

John Booty — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 23:53:58 +0000

In reply to Chris Lawlor.

“is there a good way to get at least two decent sized monitors running on this little guy?”

It supports dual monitors natively! Plug one into the Mini DisplayPort jack and one into the HDMI jack.

I was actually just about to post that the dual-monitor support was the best reasons to pick one of these over a $999 MacBook.

I know HDMI–>DVI adapters are just a few dollars; hopefully there are cheap generic Mini DisplayPort adapters. (If you need one)

By: Chris Lawlor

Chris Lawlor — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 19:58:33 +0000

T think this would be a nice way to get into iphone/ipad app development. I’m pretty addicted to multiple monitors though – is there a good way to get at least two decent sized monitors running on this little guy? If not, I wonder if something like Synergy http://synergy2.sourceforge.net/ might do the trick…

By: Casimir

Casimir — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 17:13:14 +0000

Too expensive. I am looking at building micro- or nano-ATX sized computer from scratch at half the price and better spex.

Apple needs to get their feet back on the ground.

By: hitter

hitter — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 20:35:50 +0000

You don’t need a mac for web development, its just an over priced machine for that, except you will do and not hope to do, but REALLY do iOS development. I wanted a mac previously but now I’ll NEVER get it.

By: John Fiala

John Fiala — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 01:50:13 +0000

Sure, I would. I think Macs are a bit overpriced as it is – in fact I’ve already got a Mac Mini that I picked up really cheap when the newer model came out.

By: Matthew

Matthew — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 15:53:17 +0000

The UK price is a bit excessive – £649, which is $963.52 at the current exchange rate. At that price I really don’t think it’s a worthwhile proposition. Shame, it’s quite a nice machine.