Yeah I’ve had some doggy cables that have worked but then randomly stopped with a message saying it’s not supported so 
Who knows. Either way it’s a stupid idea, at least for just charging.
They only do this to inflate the cost of their cables. I mean £15 for a lighting to usb 3 cable. Really?
The 7th gen Y series (only the m3 retains the m, confusingly) is similar in speed to the 5th generation U series used in the MacBook Air, especially considering Apple is running the Y in TDP-Up mode to the best of my knowledge. The MacBook Air being faster was true in 2015 but not today.
Apple have stopped doing their own standalone displays so they are unlikely to limit the displays a mini can use.
I have one as my Plex server, it only uses 15W.
Mac Mini isn’t a bad wee machine, often contemplated getting one to replace my 2009 iMac, but yes could do with an upgrade (might get one this year 
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As for the macbook air… kinda redundant now, but I guess it’s more about an entry line for students (if they keep it at the current price point).
If they came out with an iPad of some description that run OSX… i’d be throwing money at them…
My Mac Mini is 7 years old now and actually works totally fine for its use case. Bought it for under £300 in NY back in the day so it’s been great value.
I’d definitely consider a newer one as mine won’t be getting Mojave for some reason but the way Apple’s prices are trending I’d wager that the cost will be anything but Mini.
Give the Air a retina screen and keep the price constant and I’d wager you’d have all the machine many people would want.
The early MacBooks were very reasonably priced, in fact they often worked out cheaper than Windows laptops with an equivalent Core 2 Duo. These days the prices (even used) are obscene.
The only way i’d consider an Apple laptop is if the new model came in under £600.
Nowadays i usually just buy refurbished PC hardware and Hackintosh it. In the last couple of weeks i picked up an immaculate ThinkPad T440S. 1080p touch screen, LTE modem, i7 for £200. Slapped an SSD in there and got macOS running. Just need to mod the BIOS and fit a compatible Wifi card.
Unless there’s some sort of contractual obligation to use Intel processors (or Apple’s planning to switch to their own ARM CPUs) i’ve always thought the Mac Mini would be a good candidate to experiment with AMD. A Ryzen 2400G would give a substantial CPU boost over the 2014 Mac Mini (and even the more powerful 2012 one) and an even bigger boost to graphics.
I’m quite happy with Linux 
Whats the draw for using a Mac to most people? To me its kind of like paying someone more so that I get the benefits of using a UNIX but without having to worry about configuration and compatability. I have a very developer mindset on it 
I came from Linux to Mac OS X in 2004. I did actually switch my main desktop back to Linux (Solus) at the beginning of this year but a few months ago i picked up an iPad and then an iPhone.
After that it just seemed silly not to switch my desktop back to macOS in order to get the tight iCloud/Messages integration, especially when i knew how easy and well it ran on my machines.
Linux still looks like a toy on the desktop and I don’t need hyper configurability I just need it to be well thought out and work.
I don’t disagree with wanting something to “just work” but I personally find Gnome 3 with some plugins for changes to multi-monitor behaviour does “just work” for me 
It’s the having to have ‘some plugs’ that gets old rapidly.
For me the saddest thing is the fragmentation of effort on the linux desktop. If there’d been a proper co-ordinated desktop under Linus, we’d have a kickass desktop. Instead we have a bunch of poor attempts to beat apple and MS.
I love linux (I first ran it using boot and root floppies on a 386 - that dates me!), but it stays on my servers, not my front end.
Whats the draw for using a Mac to most people?
User experience and the amount of good software available for them.
Yup, this sort of thing is why I run Ubuntu (over say Arch) and use the Fish shell (instead of using zsh). They are more an attempt to “just work” and try to be practical
Ten years back I would have completely agreed with you about the Linux desktop situation but I actually don’t find it to be a problem anymore IMO
It all depends on your needs really. I like having an MBP Pro for work, but that aside I’d always spend my money on a Windows machine. Chrome, Photoshop, Reaper and Vegas combined are 99% of my computing needs. All of them will run better the more power you throw at them, and the last one is Windows only.
Some people have an audio/video flow that’s Final Cut and Logic Pro, and that’s all good too. If that’s the case you obviously need to stick with Mac.
The MacBook Air is, for my money, the ultimate work laptop. Portable and light, great keyboard and touchpad, decent size, don’t mind the bezels/resolution… Ideal if you’re not doing anything that requires heavy lifting…
The new MacBook fits that description perfectly too though, and the base model is at the same price as the Air I believe.
The new one is a little too small for my taste. And the keyboard’s still not quite there… Oh, and one usb c port…? 
(And the price 
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Edit - I thought the MacBook was still more expensive? But to be fair I haven’t looked in forever!
One aspect that annoys me about it is that it doesn’t have a HD Webcam. It’s standard def, unless that’s changed.
Same price as an Air and low end iPad.
