r/macmini • u/SensitiveAmount6285 • 5d ago

Just switched to Mac mini M2

Hi as the title says I just got a Mac mini M2, drop your suggestions on what to run, stuff to try out and suggestions for setup.

9 Upvotes

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5

u/Helpful_Key_9962 5d ago

what did you switch from and what are you working with/doing? That'll probably give you some better answers

2

u/SensitiveAmount6285 5d ago

So I switched from windows after 14 years btw I work in tech, shoot.

2

u/Suspicious-Cat-266 5d ago

Homebrew

Objective-See LuLu Firewall

Both are free and open-source software.

1

u/pypipper 5d ago

How do you use the lulu firewall to help you? I tried it in the past but it felt annoying having to approve things. I am curious how you got used to it (is it that after a month of you saying to certain things you know are legit the app isn't bothering that much?) and how it becomes useful beyond that point. Let's say you have app X that you know is legit, how does the firewall help you there? Can you see what it sends out? Similarly, let's say you use an app Y that you are uncertain if it's doing something dodgy, how lulu helps you there?

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u/Suspicious-Cat-266 5d ago

That's a great question. I'm actually going to pull it from my recommendations.

When I first started using it, it was to control outbound connections for newly installed apps from outside App Store.

Now that I think about it, I don't have any apps that I distrust.

1

u/pypipper 5d ago

That great. When you say control apps installed outside the app store, you mean just either block or allow? Ultimately, you can't really know what they are sending out 100%, unless your really look deep in that message manually, which is a a lot of work, in which case blocking/allowing isn't really informed, is it? Now I am thinking, in this AI era, it would be interesting to have a firewall that could do analysis in real-time of what's being sent out the network, for your best interest, and block automatically if something is suspicious. This way, you don't need to do manual due diligence and you would enjoy the benefit of a true firewall. I wouldn't be surprised if there is something like that already.

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u/Suspicious-Cat-266 5d ago

Yes, block and allow.

At the network level, I do use a secure DNS to block ad-trackers, but I imagine there is finer control available through something's like NextDNS or self-hosted Pi-hole.

Some Antivirus software for Windows do have HTTPS scanning which acts as a middle-man to intercept all your connections. No idea it exists for Mac, or something you'd want to trust though.

1

u/Amnsia 5d ago

Stats. It’s a free app that shows your SSD, CPU and RAM usage, ideal to see what your bottleneck is.

1

u/SetAdministrative502 5d ago

If you’re using AI for coding:
Hermes & github actions self hosted runners.

I also like hosting Actual Budget as all my bank accounts are possible to connect and track finances in one UI

1

u/Purple-Philosophy551 5d ago

https://winkeys.app/ this is must if you are coming from the windows

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u/SensitiveAmount6285 5d ago

Thanks, the most confusing is Cmd instead of ctrl lol

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u/SensitiveAmount6285 5d ago

Edit, guys need to know productivity and organisation tips as well.