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PUBLIC DEFENDER

By Brian Livingston • Comment about this article

Microsoft is ending all security and feature updates for Windows 10 on October 14, 2025. (There are exceptions, but they require fees.) Some of my readers who resist upgrading to Windows 11 — which can require a whole new PC — are instead considering the previously unthinkable: buying a Mac.

This kind of speculation has been spawned, in part, by Apple’s introduction of the new 2024 Mac mini last October. If you buy computers based on their cuteness factor, brace yourself. The latest mini is adorable. At only 5 inches (12.7cm) square and 2 inches (5cm) high, it’s a shiny little block of aluminum that you can fit into one hand. (See Figure 1.)

Figure 1. The front of a 2024 Mac mini M4 Pro has two USB-C ports and a headphone jack. The back has a power port, an Ethernet port, an HDMI port, and three USB-C ports. The entire unit is only 5 inches (12.7cm) square. Illustration by Apple Inc.

The minis are sold without a monitor, keyboard, or mouse.

Many PC users already have monitors and other user-interface devices that might work when plugged into one of the mini’s ports. It’s tempting to think you can just disconnect everything from a Windows 10 PC, plug it all into a mini, and happily compute just as before.

Is that realistic? In the next few weeks, you and I are about to find out.

I mentioned to AskWoody’s editor, Will Fastie, that I had never owned a Mac or an iPhone. He said, “Perfect!” To him, that meant I was an ideal person to test switching from Windows 10 to an Apple computer. He assigned me to write a series of columns on the process. This is the first.

I’m not an Apple veteran. But if you’re considering buying a Mac to avoid upgrading Win10 to Win11, you probably aren’t an expert, either. That’s fine. In my forthcoming series — one column each week until I write a final conclusion — we’ll run into all the same problems together.

It’s not quite true that I’ve never “owned” a Mac. My main experience with Apple products goes back to 1989. I was between IT-management jobs, having just been downsized. Fortunately, two friends hired me to work in a retail computer store in the New York City metro area.

Their plan had been to develop a computer magazine. The two of them would be the publishers, and I would be the editor. While we pursued that idea, I helped out in the store by assisting customers who came in to buy PCs or Macs, usually with a network to connect everything.

At the time, Apple had just released the Macintosh SE/30. I quickly learned that Cupertino’s products were easily infected by computer viruses. I felt that Apple’s response was lacking.

The magazine never happened. Instead, a well-known investment bank based in Rockefeller Center hired me in January 1990 as a full-time IT consultant. My 12-month assignment was to convert the firm’s hundreds of PCs from DOS 4.01 to Windows 3.0. The company wanted to switch from Microsoft’s Word for DOS to the improved graphical power of Word for Windows.

I learned enough in that one-year period to enable me to write my first book. Windows 3 Secrets was published in June 1991. When I signed the author’s contract, the publisher told me that no computer book had ever sold more than 30,000 copies. But my freshman effort — and its update, Windows 3.1 Secrets, with 150 additional pages — sold more than 250,000 copies in 30 languages. The title was far and away the best-selling computer book in the world.

So Windows has been good for me. InfoWorld, a major tabloid newspaper for the tech industry, hired me to write a regular column titled Window Manager. It ran every week for 12 years. Revealing Microsoft’s bugs and workarounds kept me plenty busy. I found little need to analyze Apple products, much less invest in them by spending good money.

Now comes the 2024 Mac mini. It’s being promoted as a family of more-powerful machines than their predecessors — and at attractive prices. When Will asked me to write this series of columns, I promised him that I’d keep an open mind and give Apple the benefit of the doubt.

Never make promises.

The Mac mini isn’t a new thing. The first model was introduced in January 2005 at a Macworld convention in San Francisco. That means the mini has a 20-year backstory.

What’s new in the 2024 models is Apple’s exclusive M4 CPU. Apple switched the mini from Intel silicon to its own M1 chip in November 2020. The M1 boasted up to three times more speed than the mini’s previous Intel processor. M2 chips appeared in January 2023. And now, today’s M4 chip offers faster performance than ever before. Of course, “faster performance” is relative.

To write my review columns, I went out and purchased a Mac mini for myself. (Disclosure: AskWoody reimbursed me for the cost.) If you’ve never been to an Apple Store, they’re aggressively white, like standing in front of a lighthouse lamp at full intensity. (See Figure 2.)

Figure 2. An Apple Store at night — like this one in Seattle — is blindingly illuminated, like a Cathedral of Light or a Leni Riefenstahl film. Photo by author

I’ll explain in a minute why I visited an Apple Store rather than simply buying a unit online. But first, let me emphasize: If you’re going to buy a Mac mini, it’s critical that you decide in advance which of the four models might meet your needs.

Figure 3 shows that the base configurations of Mac minis have only 16GB or 24GB of RAM. This being Apple, you cannot add memory after you’ve bought a mini. The RAM is deliberately integrated with the motherboard chip set, making the memory impossible to expand.

For storage, minis offer 256GB and 512GB solid-state drives (SSDs). You can theoretically replace these with larger SSDs. But don’t try it. A professional computer technician might completely disassemble a mini, melt off its original solid-state module with a hot-air gun, and finally solder down a new drive. One slip could easily fry your mini, turning it into a useless hunk of metal.

To add to the complexity, you can, in fact, get more RAM or a larger SSD than what is in a base model. But that’s true only if you special-order the machine with your upgrades specified.

For example, you can order a mini with 32GB of RAM instead of 24GB. You could also get one with a 1TB or 2TB SSD. The top-of-the-line model, the Mac mini M4 Pro, can arrive to you with 48GB or 64GB of RAM. And the Pro’s special-order SSD capacity can be 1TB, 2TB, 4TB, or 8TB.

But — like a lot of Apple products — these alternatives are very expensive. For example, ordering a mini M4 Pro with an SSD of 4TB instead of 512GB adds an astounding $1,200 to the $1,400 base price. (You’d be much better off buying an external drive, such as the speedy Samsung T9 Portable SSD. A 4TB unit costs just $340 or so.)

Figure 3. Windows 11 PCs that are comparable to Mac minis have lower prices but more features and expandability. KEY: The “Apple price” is usually nonnegotiable (but see text). The “list price” of the PCs may be lower from some dealers. The “benchmark” numbers are the PassMark CPU score. The PC prices include a keyboard and mouse; the Apple prices do not. All prices rounded. Sources: Apple Mac mini page, Dell Inspiron Small Desktop page, Target HP Essential Desktop page, PassMark CPU score page

The striking thing about the prices in Figure 3 is how affordable the HP and Dell machines are. The PCs that have 16GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD cost only $700 or $750. That’s $50 to $100 less than an $800 Mac mini with the same capacity. (See the second row of the table.)

That’s just the beginning of your savings when you shop in the PC marketplace, as opposed to buying within Apple’s parallel universe:

If you’ve already decided that buying a Mac is the only way to avoid upgrading from Windows 10 to Windows 11, you should know some Apple secrets that can get you better prices.

To obtain a Mac mini for testing, I visited my closest Apple Store — the one in Seattle — as shown in Figure 2.

Walking in, I was quickly met by a greeter in Apple garb. She turned me over to a friendly young saleswoman.

I explained to the rep that I was thinking about buying a Mac to avoid having to upgrade my PC from Windows 10 to Windows 11.

She replied — I swear I’m not making this up — “I don’t know what Windows 10 is.”

I’m not sure whether she was pulling my leg, thereby maintaining the corporate stance that Apple is Everything, Everything Else is Nothing. Perhaps she was truly unaware of Cupertino’s biggest rival. To maintain my cover as an innocent PC user, I responded that Microsoft planned to discontinue support for Windows 10, so I needed a new computer.

As a good salesperson should, she immediately suggested some of Apple’s most expensive products: the iMac (a computer hidden within a widescreen monitor; $1,300), the MacBook Pro ($1,600 to $6,900), and the Mac Pro ($6,000 and up to whatever your life savings may be).

She never mentioned the Mac mini. I finally named it as the product that interested me. A demo unit was indeed on display in a corner. But unfortunately, the store was out of stock.

I decided to call the next-closest location, which was only five miles away. They had one! After a short drive, I was standing in yet another Apple Store, this time inside a bustling shopping mall.

An earnest young man went through the same spiel for me: “Hello, buy an iMac, a MacBook, or a Mac Pro.” I had to bring up the Mac mini on my own initiative. Once again, one was running on a table in an out-of-the-way corner. I requested the bottom-of-the-line model: the $600 unit.

When my mini arrived from the storeroom, I asked the salesman, “Can I get a senior discount?”

The rep frowned and just said, “No, I’m sorry.” But he immediately brightened up. Noticing my obvious resemblance to a college student, he said, “But I can give you a $100 education discount! You’re going to be going back to school, right?”

Heck, for a hundred bucks, I’d say I was a teenager attending Harvard.

So the deal was done. Whipping out my credit card, I was charged only $499 instead of the “nonnegotiable” price of $599. That also reduced the amount being computed for the state’s 10.1% sales tax. The Guv got $10 less of my money right there.

My receipt is shown at left. I managed to knock about $110 off my bottom line, just by asking a question or two.

That’s not all. A friend of mine — who happened to be buying a MacBook — got not only a 10% discount by saying she was a “teacher.” She also received a free gift card worth $150 for any other thing in the Apple Store.

Apple’s prices aren’t as fixed in stone as the public has been led to believe.

It turns out that there are several ways to get discounts at an Apple Store. This is why I recommend that you visit a store in person rather than buy online, if purchasing an Apple product is truly your intention:

For more on snagging discounts on Apple products, see a ShopYourWay article.

The takeaway of today’s column is this: Don’t buy a Mac until you’ve read the forthcoming columns in my series. It may turn out that your best course of action is to migrate your data and software from your Windows 10 machine to a new Windows 11 PC — a familiar environment.

Watch for Part #2: “Problems setting up a Mac,” appearing next week.

		Contribute your thoughts in this article’s forum!
		Do you know something we all should know? Send your story to Brian in confidence!

The PUBLIC DEFENDER column is Brian Livingston’s campaign to give you consumer protection from tech. If it’s irritating you, and it has an “on” switch, he’ll take the case! Brian is a successful dot-com entrepreneur, author or co-author of 11 Windows Secrets books, and author of the fintech book Muscular Portfolios.

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APPLE

By Will Fastie • Comment about this article

Now you know what I alluded to a few weeks ago: Windows fanboy Brian Livingston is writing a comprehensive series about Macintosh — specifically, the Mac mini.

No, we’re not changing course. This newsletter covers all things Microsoft and Windows and will continue to do so.

But as I have noted in my news coverage of Apple over the last few years, there has been a seismic shift in personal computing as Apple transitioned into its own silicon. This cannot be ignored, especially because Microsoft has made strong efforts to make its software solutions available beyond Windows’ borders and into the Apple folds.

For example, if we’re talking about Microsoft 365, can we ignore the fact that it’s available for Mac?

Surprises sometimes come in small packages. That’s the case for the Mac mini, which became smaller than its predecessor but is surprisingly powerful. It’s not just me saying that; YouTube exploded with reviewers touting even the base model of the mini. And it’s not just post-release afterglow. The “after 60 days” reviews are in, and most continue to be strongly positive.

Yet in all the hysteria about the new, M4-based Mac mini, the question of suitability for die-hard Windows users is rarely discussed. Those raving are well-established Mac users, steeped in Apple culture, the way we are immersed in Microsoft culture. The best way to determine whether Apple is a viable alternative for well-established PC users is to have a well-established PC expert research the matter.

Maybe.

Our annual survey of Plus members is under way. We ask very specific questions about our reader’s primary computer, including which operating system is used. We also ask about other devices and their brands. Although the 2025 survey is not yet completed, we have enough responses to know that trends are emerging more or less as expected.

For example, we know that the percentage of readers using an Apple operating system has steadily risen over the past four years while the percentage using Linux has remained steady, despite some respondents’ insistence that they would be moving to Linux in the forthcoming year. The share for Apple is small, around 4.4%, but there are two important factors. The first is that for every point Apple rises, Windows drops by the same amount. The second is that those using an Apple OS jumped by 16% year over year! Again, this is based on a relatively small sample, but it’s statistically a trend. As for Linux, the needle hasn’t moved; adoption by our readership is less than half that of Apple.

My conclusion is that those who say they will move to Apple in the forthcoming year usually mean it. It’s not just a spontaneous answer given out of frustration with Microsoft.

A high percentage of our readers are already in the Apple camp because the percentage of those using iPhones is steadily rising. It’s the reason that Susan Bradley regularly discusses patches and bugs in the Appleverse.

Yes.

Microsoft is a different company now than it was during the period of Windows’ explosive growth. The AskWoody community continuously voices many grievances about the company, its practices, its software, and its concern for customers. Bugs are legion. Rarely does an issue of the newsletter go by without some complaint. Frustration constantly surfaces in the AskWoody support forums.

It is thus proper that questions be posed: Is Apple a reasonable choice? Can a Mac be an effective replacement for a Windows PC, not only for the hardware and software but also for the culture?

That’s what Brian intends to find out.

Should Brian conclude that a nearly invisible desktop computer at a surprisingly low entry-level price is worthy, it could mean one of two things for you.

First, and most obviously, you could switch. Although we want you here and appreciate your support, we also want you to make the best technology decisions for your unique situation.

Second, knowing that the Mac environment is worthy, you could redouble your efforts to persuade Microsoft to pay more attention to its customers and to improve its products and culture. You could use the Windows Feedback Hub every day!

Although Brian’s analysis will be based primarily on a personal-use environment, its conclusions may influence businesses.

Thin-client computing has reached its ultimate place in the world because of high-speed Internet services and cloud-based software solutions. Businesses with as few as ten employees used to need on-premises servers, but today even larger businesses can do everything in the cloud. Importantly, this means that powerful computers are no longer necessary for most desktops. Some of us thought that Chromebooks would represent the ultimate client solution, but small PCs are often better all-around choices, especially when UI performance is important.

But cloud-based computing does not necessarily require a Windows client. After all, people are using their phones to do banking. iPhone, Android — that choice no longer matters.

We want to be thorough.

Our newsletter does not have the space for a monolithic presentation. We must break this up into a series, which I think you will find more digestible as well as more organized.

More importantly, Brian needs time. You would not (or should not) trust anyone’s judgment that came after a very short period. Spreading Brian’s work over three months assures you that he has been properly immersed. Something that did not occur to him in week two may surface in week eight and influence his ultimate conclusions.

Once Brian’s epic series reaches its conclusion, we’ll be back to business as usual, with modest coverage of Apple news and ongoing work conducted on our trusty (?) Windows PCs.

Contribute your thoughts in this article’s forum!

Will Fastie, editor in chief of the AskWoody Plus Newsletter, is a die-hard Windows user.
Does he own a Mac? Maybe.

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