My setup right now is two monitors side by side. One is for my Intel NUC with EndeavourOS and the other monitor is for my Mac-Mini M2. I am literally using the Linux machine 99.99% of the time, as I am just so in love with Linux since joining the dark side about 6 months ago.
I keep telling myself I may need the Mac for work or something, or that maybe it’s a good idea to keep just in case I need a different OS. But then, on the other hand, I feel like I’d be better off having a backup device with another Linux system setup.
Have you ever been in a similar situation with a Mac or maybe a Windows machine? Did you regret getting rid of it? Do you find having one of those machines lying around useful or handy ever?
Just keep the Mac mini, the M2 chip is and will still be supported by Apple for some time now. That machine is in a league of its own at the moment and who knows, perhaps soon Arch Linux ARM will support Apple silicon (M1 and M2) natively in its kernel and you can run Linux on it giving it a new lease of life.
My personal opinion is, especially because of the (usually) high resale value of Macs, I’d say if you don’t see yourself needing it in the next year or so, then sell it.
I’ve fallen to that trap before (not with Macs, but with hardware in general) of keeping hardware on a shelf devaluing it to shit as time passes.
The money you will get by selling it now will buy you a 2x more powerful system in a couple of years (if in a couple of years there is indeed a need for you to buy new hardware).
And if you are just excited about the ARM cpu of your M2 Mac, the good news is that slowly but surely there are ARM processors from other vendors entering the market, which are also way more likely to have a lot better Linux compatibility/support.
The way I see it, the only chance for it to turn out to be a bad sale, would be if there is a geopolitical escalation with Taiwan in the meantime, in which case the silicon market is going to become a nightmare in general. But at that point we will have objectively bigger problems to deal with
That would be a best case scenario and seeing that Asahi Linux exists, what you’re suggesting is very likely. Well, I guess I’ll hang onto it. Something to look forward to
Certainly is. I checked out their GitHub page and my Mac Mini which is M2 Pro is almost complete. I will patiently wait it out until I can install it. The one thing I didn’t like though from the YouTube videos I watched was that it creates a dual partition. I would want to WIPE CLEAN my Mac install.
I never regretted selling my mac-mini. I did, however, regret buying it.
I agree with @peciwov. Sell it while you can still get good value out of it.
It will be a while before running Linux on those will be a fully seemless experience and in the meantime there are plenty of other boxes that can run Linux at a much lower price point. Better yet, hook both monitors up to your primary machine and don’t even have a second box unless you specifically need it.
