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I continue to use MS Office on my Mac mini mostly because my wife still devoted to Word and I would hate to give up the full version of OneNote. Also, you tend to stick with what you’re used to. Despite the cost, I keep it because the Family subscription is a relative bargain. That said, I  know Mac users who are perfectly happy with Apple’s suite.

If you’re looking for something in between — free but Office-like — LibreOffice is a good option. It has excellent Office compatibility and I found that it includes simple drafting tools that I’ve appreciated when designing and building custom cabinets.

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rc primak, Will Fastie

Couple of things to note about the Mac mini. I own three of them, and use two. (The third is an original Mac Mini, and is little more than a museum piece. Almost nothing runs on it, now.) I prefer the Minis because of their small size (they are stacked on my desk) and compatibility with non-Apple peripherals. They are also extremely quiet.

The older of the two active machines (circa 2012) is on Intel silicon and the other is a 2020 M1. The former (Intel) is connected to a far-from-new VIZIO combo TV/monitor, and the latter is attached to an older Acer display — both via HDMI. Image quality and color on the Acer is great; the VIZIO is not bad for a combo unit. Nothing special was required to set them up.

I sprang for an Apple keyboard and mouse for the M1, because it’s my primary computer. I use a generic  Technet Bluetooth keyboard and mouse for the older unit, and adding a USB switcher lets me share the keyboard and mouse with my Windows tower. (Having two HDMI ports, the VISIO supports both Mac and PC.)

The Tecknet keyboard works fine with the Mini, though you will portably have to run through a couple of initial prompts for key placement. The only important distinction is the keyboard’s Windows key is the all-important Command key for Apple machines. (If it’s confusing, perhaps a “Command” sticker on the Windows key might help.)

Unlike the older machine, the M1 has been great for intensive work such as photo and video editing. My only gripe, and it’s not an Apple problem, is that VirtualBox is minimally supported; i.e., I still can’t run Windows in a virtual machine. Four years on and the VB developers can’t (or won’t) make it work?

Also, my Mac Minis have NO ports on the front. I solved that problem with a third-part product that has the same footprint and color of the Mini. It adds four ports and card readers where they can be easily accessed, plus an internal bay for a hard drive. (Both Minis and the port doc stack nicely.)

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Myst, Will Fastie

Broadband performance is complicated. I’m a good test case for slower broadband. We have DSL and it comes to the farm on old phone wiring. It works well enough for the most part. Where trouble starts is too much streaming. If we want to watch a movie or TV show, the rule is to be sure nothing else is streaming, PCs and Macs are not getting updated, OneDrive and Dropbox are not trying to sync, etc. Sometimes, the problem is the local Wi-Fi. I have two wireless networks running at the same time. I used inSSIDer to ensure they were not conflicting. But when I run Wi-Fi on my notebook on one network, it takes out my Bose Wi-Fi speakers on the other network.

And then there are things you can know. For example, does broadband speed drop when too many customers on the same circuit stream at the same time?

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Elly

The paid and free versions of the newsletter are currently sent from entirely different systems. One should have no effect on the other.

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Elly, Bluetrix, Wayne

Blame the editor for that one. I remember back in the day a big campaign to get digital converters out to everyone with a then-standard analog TV. But at that time, you could use the same antenna, I believe. Somehow, that got twisted in my mind to requiring a special antenna for HDTV. In any case, most of the old antennas on roofs probably not going to work. The wires have long since been cut or corroded. And if the antenna still has the flat wires, you need something to adapt them to coax for HDTVs, and you might need an attenuator, according to what I read online.

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TaskForce141, rc primak

Ha, I wish I had a fireplace. I’m working out of my 12’x20′ cabin with electric heat until my new house is finished (hopefully in two months). Had to dig out the propane heater for the evening. It was lucky I had a battery backup for the DSL modem — and the lines were still up — and I’d recently bought a new battery for my ThinkPad.

Thanks all.

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Lugh, jburk07, SueW, rc primak, Steve S., Elly, Microfix

Jet Wings. Way cool! Wish the newsletter still did the Wacky Web Week. This would be a natural. Thx.