| The Refurbished Mac Mini Story |
The Refurbished Mac Mini Story Part 2: The Software
Before you read this, you should read The Refurbished Mac Mini Story Part 1: The Hardware first!
Now that I had purchased my first Mac, the refurbished Mac Mini and upgraded the RAM, I was so excited! I connected the Mac Mini to a keyboard, mouse, and monitor for initial setup. The operating system was different from Windows but not completely different from Linux. I had played with a few Linux installations in the past. I had a few growing pains as I used my Mac because I just didn't know where to find some features so I turned to the search engines for guidance. Soon I was learning more and more about Macs. And liking it more with everything I learned.
Since I wanted to use the refurbished Mac Mini for a media center computer, I started with Front Row, the media center software that was included in the operating system. I liked Front Row but there were some features that were lacking for my entertainment desires. I felt like the Mac Mini was capable of more so once I again, I turned to the search engines until I found OSXBMC (now called Plex). It was free media center software and I was very excited about it. I was a little familiar with Xbox Media Center and this was similar but for Macs. The team behind it was constantly working to improve the software so there were the occasional bugs, but overall, it was great. For starters, this software played all media formats and it made it easier to organize the media I had. At the time, I still had a Windows tower for my media storage and I just streamed the media to my Mac Mini. This allowed me to keep my loud (due to multiple fans) tower out of my living room. Later, I added an external hard drive to the Mac Mini and retired the Windows tower. Note: You should have a backup solution if you do this. You never know when the external hard drive will fail. Next, I setup Screen Sharing on the refurbished Mac Mini. I used TightVNC on my windows laptop (later replaced by a Macbook) so that I could add the Mac Mini to my entertainment center and control it from my laptop. Once I purchased my Macbook, this capability was built in so I no longer needed TightVNC. I also added the Caffeine app to keep my Mac from going into sleep mode. Now, my refurbished Mac Mini was ready to be my media center computer.
This was fine for a while but I wanted to find more use for my refurbished Mac Mini. It did the job as media center very well but it was a computer, a Mac at that. I knew it could do more! Later, I installed VMWare Fusion so I could test and run other operating systems. I use Screen Sharing to access the Mac Mini, then operate the virtual machines so everything appears on my Macbook while the Mac Mini is doing the hard work. Also, recently I cancelled my cable television service. Using the web browser, I still have access to plenty of television shows using different services such as Project Free TV and Hulu+ (on Apple TV). It's not always as convenient as cable but it works and I can watch whenever I choose.
If you have or decide to buy a Mac Mini, the software listed above can be helpful. There are more options depending on how you want to use your Mac Mini.
Continue to The Refurbished Mac Mini Story Part 3: The Ending?
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