The Mac Mini should still be perfectly usable if you put Linux on it and upgrade it to an SSD.
this post was submitted on 28 Dec 2025
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Any recommendations on SSD and which Linux distro?
You can get an adapter board that will make it work with an M.2 SSD. I believe it's only PCIe 2.0, so there's no point putting a high end SSD in it unless you need a high write endurance. Any SSD will be a huge improvement over a hard drive.
Most Linux distros will run on it since it's using a 64 bit Intel CPU. If you have the version with 4GB of RAM, you will need something very lightweight though. I would run Debian if I was going to use it as a server or Mint if I was going to use it as a desktop.
I installed Proxmox on an old MacMini. It works great for spinning up virtual machines for things like a pinhole, qBittorrent, or a Minecraft server.
*piehole
No idea what Proxmox is but will research!
My NAS is a 2014 Mac Mini running OMV. It works great, very capable little Linux machine. Don't bother with Mac OS.
Which Linux distro do you have running on your Mac mini?
OpenMediaVault is based on Debian. I think it's currently OMV 7, but I'm not at home at the moment so I can't check. Very solid system though.
Are they worth salvaging?
I think they are worth salvaging, if but for a little while until at such time you wish to upgrade to something else.
but I don’t know much about Linux
Here's a good opportunity to buff up your skill set. With two units, you can get into simple networking one device to another. Things like that. I see Proxmox has been mentioned and that might be an avenue to explore. Generally, I don't toss a piece of equipment unless it has zero possibilities for use. I can always find something to do with old equipment even if it's just testing out something new I've learned recently, without screwing up my main stack.
I have an old as eff laptop hiding behind my TV, and I use Unified Remote to make my phone act like a wireless mouse and keyboard for it.
Also, Proxmox is basically the answer to "I hate big tech and have a lot of time to kill. How do I deal?" Make one computer into 30 mini servers.