The endless uses for an always-on Mac | Hacker News Reader

The endless uses for an always-on Mac

sixcolors.com

61 pointsAmorymeltzer29 comments

The article is about the benefits of running a home server, but the author is more familiar with macos than other OSes.

A perfect summary.

It's disappointing that the author thinks a NAS is some off-the-shelf appliance of sorts. Your old desktop with a few big HDDs in it can be a NAS. It's more about the role.

That is just how the word is commonly used.

Just like people associate "server" with a specific hardware form factor and not an android phone running apache. For many people "a NAS" refers to a dedicated hardware device with a specific look and which provides network storage services.

I've been using Macs for my entire adult life. My always-on linux server is my little piece of sanctuary.

Same

I am seriously considering switching some workloads from amd/linux to mac mini and osx at least until there is a better platform for cost-efficient ml inference for whisper and other large ml models where common cpu/gpu ram is cheap and convenient.

Amd should've had this market sealed with their integrated graphics platforms, maybe they will still get there with the new crosscompilers to Vulcan.

Don't need massive perf just 2x faster than cpu and better energy efficiency.

Currently the only option for cost-efficient ML inference is Linux. MacOS doesn't have CUDA drivers, which makes it pretty much useless for production.

The Pytorch support on M1 is nice, but there's a reason VPS providers aren't throwing away their A100s for an M1 Ultra any time soon. The inferencing performance is different by an order of magnitude on the latest chips, and still a sizable lead when adjusting for power consumption. Not sure why you'd switch to an OS with weaker driver support to try and eke out better ML performance.

Is there a specific reason why Mac is particularly good for this?

One possible reason. I remember talking to a tech who worked for a company that made information kiosks. The kiosks ran Windows, but on a Mac Mini. He told me the reason was they had less hardware failures when they used them.

One of the things I'm thinking about recently is putting a Mac mini on my desk for occasional iOS development on multiplatform projects (main laptop is Linux) and keep it always running as a CI runner for those projects.

not really, he’s extolling the virtues of a home server—the author is just most comfortable with a mac. this would be a nearly identical blog if it were linux or windows.

Wow, a file and Plex server. The innovation.

Do the endless uses include hardware transcoding of videos that is common with NASes?

Maybe; he's using it as a Plex server.

How could OP fail to mention media server?

> Running a web server to serve that page and a few other random pages.

Dull. Not just any web server, with Apache 2.4 already installed by default, once httpd.conf is configured, in particular for directory listings and with softlinks to directories with proper permissions, and once the server is started, macOS serves media, i.e. pictures, music and video files that's just sitting in folders on the filesystem, no web development necessary. I never understood the need for dedicated media server software when Apache2 (Web Sharing) has done it so effortlessly since Mac OS X 10.0 Cheetah; it has always just been there.

They did, they mentioned Plex.

Thanks, missed that, but it drives my point home: with Apache2 behind Web Sharing, Plex, and all software that claims to be a media server, is entirely superfluous and just adds unnecessary work for the user.

It took me a maximum of 5 minutes to download, install, and set up Plex and use it as my home media server.

It would take me hours to figure out how to do all that with Apache.

> It took me a maximum of 5 minutes to download, install, and set up Plex and use it as my home media server.

This is an obvious exaggeration. It would longer just to consolidate media into Plex libraries.

> It would take me hours to figure out how to do all that with Apache.

Wow. Here's a clue

     sudo cp /etc/apache2/httpd.conf /etc/apache2/https.conf.bak

     sudo vi /etc/apache2/httpd.conf
         # hint: learn apache once, use many times

     sudo ln -s /Directories/you/want/apache/to/see /Library/WebServer/Documents/

     sudo apachectl start

Took me less than 10 minutes.

What on Earth are you talking about? There are two folders for “libraries” a TV folder and a Movies folder. I save media into the corresponding folders, point Plex to the folders and Plex takes care of the rest. It’s a ten second process.

Thanks for the script. I have no interest in learning how it works, though, I just want to watch a darn movie…

> I save media into the corresponding folders, point Plex to the folders and Plex takes care of the rest. It’s a ten second process.

Unnecessary step, and if it only takes you 10 seconds, you really have no media to speak of: when it is TB of media, you're fucked.

> Thanks for the script.

Not a script, just a few loose commands.

Have you actually used Plex? It doesn't just serve up directory listings of media files and stream them. It's also not hard to set up.

Plex requires setting up libraries of media, such as a pictures library, a music library, etc., which is annoying to say the least. Whether it is easy is not the point, the fact that it requires installing it and configuring it when Apache2 will functionally do everything Plex can without consolidating files, which leads to duplicates and eating up storage space.

Apache and Plex are nowhere near comparable software, what on earth are you talking about

You are mistaken. Plex is really just a dedicated web server with a bunch of annoying feature creep.

Plex requires me to install Docker (which I use elsewhere so would install anyway) and docker compose -f file with my entire media setup

We could endlessly debate which cognitive model is best but you know, that’s stupid… because there is only one…

…Packaged executables should die off. I want to compose electron state in a machine not some randos config formats and syntax art.

I don’t understand Apache OR Plex (or nginx or Docker, etc). Would prefer logic simply be modeled in open code libs I can list in a dep file and run; but software _products_ whether open like Apache or closed like Plex, with a bunch of opinions on acceptable UX/CX are foisted on me by Apache or Plex devs.

I’m just as sick of learning one asinine tribal jargon after as I am the arguments about which tribal jargon is superior!

Bring on the AI chips that abstract away software. Bleh what a trashy gossip fueled industry.

Apache won't automatically trancode your 4k videos for lower resolution devices

Automatic transcoding is the last thing I'd want wasting processor cycles.

> Whether it is easy is not the point

That's a wrong assumption. For many (most?) users of Plex, that's pretty much the entire point. :)

Try it out yourself, and then see what you reckon it would take to set up Apache to match Plex's functionality. It'll take significant effort, if it's even capable.

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