My First Mac 2012-2018

Sat 03 Nov 2018, 01:44

Well, something really unexpected happened: My mid-2011 Mac Mini died. Outta nowhere.

It was just sitting there, running Pi-hole inside a VMWare VM. And all of a sudden I noticed the internet wasn’t working on anything. So I went to check the router and eventually I realized the power light on the Mac Mini wasn’t on.

Soon after that I realized nothing happened when I clicked the power button, and all I could hear from the computer was a very quiet clicking sound, which I have no idea where it comes from because only mechanical thing in that computer is the CPU fan, and that was not moving. I uploaded some clips to Twitter.

So, it’s dead. My first Mac is dead. Honestly, that’s fine. I got it in 2012 and I used it as my main computer, and then somewhere around 2014 I started using it as my first Plex server and running the Plex Media Player app on it too to make it a HTPC essentially, for a year or two. Eventually it just sat around in my closet, only occasionally being brought out to create a macOS install USB for Hackintosh purposes. And as mentioned, this last month or two it has been running Pi-hole (and iOS content caching server but that was more or less useless).

I don’t really have much nostalgia for it. I never really liked it that much, because right after I got it they got a 2012 refresh so it was instantly old, so I didn’t really develop any emotions for it. I just remember working during the summer of 2012 and getting money. For some reason I had gotten into Apple stuff so I bought the cheapest Mac that was available. I also got 8 GB of RAM for it, which was easily user replacable (and officially supported) and I ran with those sticks for its entire life. Some years later I also got a SSD for it, which made a huge difference and made it usable until today.

Getting a New One?

The irony in all this is ofcourse that this week Apple finally announced updated Mac Mini’s and they’re great. I won’t be getting one.

Sure, I wouldn’t mind having one, but I think they’re too expensive. When I bought my Mac Mini in 2012 it was like $500 or something, really cheap. The new ones are about 2x more.

And I really don’t need one. I went back to running Pi-hole on a Raspberry Pi 2.

I just think it’s so funny and almost scary that the week Apple finally updated the Mac Mini, my Mac Mini died... is it a sign?