BrainOut!
The mumblings of a Christian autistic husband, dad, IT guy and amateur radio operator - Will Brokenbourgh / AF7EC
I forgot how much I like (macOS) Catalina!
Just a quick one folks...
Even though I've been using Linux Mint Debian Edition happily for the last few weeks on a slightly older Ryzen 7
Pro, I decided to power up my old Mac mini today (2012 model) just to keep it up-to-date. My last macOS usage
was on the 2013 Mac Pro running Monterey a few weeks ago, and I've never been a big fan of that OS. I like to
have at least one backup computer available and somewhat updated, just in case my main one decides to do teh
naughty thingz. I also like to have an alternate operating system available, in case some horrific problem rips
through the Linux ecosystem and destroys every running kernel. 
In my recent post about the Mac Pro 2013, I noted some of
the issues I was having. Well, it quickly escalated after I posted that. Increased graphical glitching, input
device issues, etc. Enough was enough. The 2013 Mac Pro now sits as a large, expensive rug weight -- a lesson
hopefully learned about doing business with a supposed "trusted name" who really was/is a disguised wolf. I also
should have done more homework on model-specific glitches, though in my defense, nearly every computer model out
there shows up in searches with this or that issue. I guess I just got one of the bad ones. No recourse now.
Anyway, back to this computer, the 2012 mini: It's nice to use a relatively sane Mac GUI again, instead of the
hot neon-nuclear meltdown that is macOS Monterey. Monterey is just too yucky to me. The dock has wasted space
all around it and the title-bars and other UI elements are just straight wrong in my opinion. The fonts
used are awful, too. macOS Catalina has nice regular-sized fonts for the menu-bar, while Monterey's look small
and awkward and noticeably downscaled. Trying to drag title-bar icons for various tasks also is a pain in
Monterey. If you enjoy sane UI's, Monterey is just pain in general. You "forward thinkers" can have it
-- it's all yours!
While the Mac mini 2012 is no power-house, it's responsive enough to do typical things and not seem too slow. This one has an Intel i7 compared to the typical i5, and man are those i5 minis slow (I have one on the shelf here so I know). My primary mission in using this i7 version right now is just to keep it up-to-date, then go back to my Linux machine. I did make some changes to this mini on top of the updating -- I was using MacPorts previously on this computer while the Pro was using Homebrew. I like Homebrew better because MacPorts got to the point where a few of my mission-critical packages just wouldn't build, and searching that project's bug system showed that some of these packages hadn't been touched in months. So Homebrew it is, and it's been pretty reliable.
I also removed LuLu, a free alternative to Little Snitch. Both LuLu and Little Snitch are programs and systems that monitor network traffic and allow you to block said traffic if you feel it's malicious or violating your privacy. Had to do a system update, which usually takes a long time. Of course there were the other little tasks like updating Firefox, Thunderbird, Keka and rebuilding SpiritVNC-FLTK. Also updated any App Store apps and I'm sure I'll think of a few other things...
This post isn't some marvelous deep-dive about anything, just thought I'd say "Hey" to the world and let people know that the higher the version number of macOS, often the worse it gets, unfortunately.
God bless you, and thank you for reading!
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