{"id":47748,"date":"2026-06-02T06:37:06","date_gmt":"2026-06-02T10:37:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/?p=47748"},"modified":"2026-06-02T06:37:06","modified_gmt":"2026-06-02T10:37:06","slug":"reclaiming-my-creative-life-with-vintage-macs-the-home-stretch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2026\/06\/02\/reclaiming-my-creative-life-with-vintage-macs-the-home-stretch\/","title":{"rendered":"Reclaiming My Creative Life With Vintage Macs: The Home Stretch"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"

A screenshot of screen sharing<\/span> where I am controlling one Mac remotely from another.<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

Over Memorial Day weekend I tried installing Linux Mint XFCE<\/em> on the 2012 Mac Min<\/em>i, paired with a new OWC Mercury Elite Pro Dual<\/strong><\/em> \u2014 a dual-bay external enclosure that holds two 3.5″ drives.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Mercury Elite Pro Dual — the repository of our digital life<\/p><\/div>\n

My aim was to build a family server so that I could gather and organize the past 30+ years of our digital life. I want to get it all together; separate the wheat from the chaff and create a separate offsite backup of the good stuff for safekeeping. I bought the Mercury new because I didn\u2019t want to risk vintage equipment on this one. Getting a reliable server together has been a long-overdue project.<\/p>\n

What was supposed to be a straightforward setup turned into a lengthy detour. The Mercury wouldn\u2019t cooperate properly with Linux, so after dealing with the compatibility headaches I wiped the SSD and installed Catalina \u2014 an old but compatible Apple operating system for the 2012 Mini. It just works. SMB shares are solid, screen sharing is smooth, and it\u2019s running quietly as the family server.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Dummy Plug (Yep, that’s its name.}<\/p><\/div>\n

I\u2019m using a dummy plug in the HDMI port so the Mini runs completely headless \u2014 no monitor, keyboard, or mouse attached. The dummy plug tricks the computer into thinking everything is present, and it quietly goes about its work serving files. If I need to make adjustments or do any maintenance, I can just connect via Screen Share from another Mac on the network.<\/p>\n

It’s not the direction I originally planned, but the old Mini is doing the job without drama. I was hoping to future proof it with a modern Linux installation, but as it says in the ads, the Apple just works. This will do nicely.<\/p>\n

It all seems to be working so I am slowly migrating the art files over. I am now facing the daunting task of organizing all of this stuff. What do we need? What needs to be reviewed? What should go into cold storage? It will be an evolving process.<\/p>\n

This home stretch is more of a marathon.<\/p>\n

The infrastructure is in place and it is past time to return to the real work whether it is pixels or pigments. I have to stop with the constant tweaking and use these machines as tools that they are meant to be. It\u2019s time to move on and start filling this server with actual work<\/p>\n

(Boy, am I glad I never got into video.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Over Memorial Day weekend I tried installing Linux Mint XFCE on the 2012 Mac Mini, paired with a new OWC Mercury Elite Pro Dual \u2014 a dual-bay external enclosure that holds two 3.5″ drives.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":47770,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[317,4,700],"tags":[6375,6367,6374,6373,6366,6369,6364,6368,6370,6363,6365,6350,6274,6371,6372,6298],"class_list":["post-47748","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-computers","category-news","category-pixels-versus-pigment","tag-art-repository","tag-cigar-box-projects","tag-digital-archive","tag-diy-server","tag-dual-drive-enclosure","tag-dummy-plug","tag-family-server","tag-headless-mac","tag-mac-catalina","tag-mac-mini-2012","tag-owc-mercury-elite","tag-reclaiming-creative-life","tag-retro-computing","tag-screen-sharing","tag-smb-share","tag-vintage-mac"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/gutman-screenshare-window.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1ed1x-cq8","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":47075,"url":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2026\/02\/12\/forward-to-the-past\/","url_meta":{"origin":47748,"position":0},"title":"Forward to the PAST!","author":"Joe_Williams","date":"February 12, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"When tech giants rely on subscription software and planned obsolescence, the only direction I can go in is Forward to the Past!","rel":"","context":"In "Blast from the Past"","block_context":{"text":"Blast from the Past","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/category\/blast-from-the-past\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/FORWARD-TO-THE-PAST2.jpg?fit=1000%2C386&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/FORWARD-TO-THE-PAST2.jpg?fit=1000%2C386&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/FORWARD-TO-THE-PAST2.jpg?fit=1000%2C386&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/FORWARD-TO-THE-PAST2.jpg?fit=1000%2C386&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":46749,"url":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2025\/12\/30\/reviving-an-old-imac-elementary-my-dear-watson\/","url_meta":{"origin":47748,"position":1},"title":"Reviving an Old iMac? Elementary, My Dear Watson","author":"Joe","date":"December 30, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Similar to my Mac Minty which I have written about here and here, I have brought new life back to an otherwise ignored iMac in work with the installation of a Linux operating system. This time the Linux Distro I have chosen is Elementary. The 2013 iMac was a beast\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Computers"","block_context":{"text":"Computers","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/category\/computers\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/elementary-screenshot-2.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/elementary-screenshot-2.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/elementary-screenshot-2.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/elementary-screenshot-2.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/elementary-screenshot-2.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":47683,"url":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2026\/05\/20\/reclaiming-my-creative-life-with-vintage-macs-the-maltese-mac-mini-stack\/","url_meta":{"origin":47748,"position":2},"title":"Reclaiming My Creative Life With Vintage Macs: The Maltese Mac Mini Stack","author":"Joe_Williams","date":"May 20, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"My second cigar box mini-stack is now complete. Like the first one, it pairs a vintage Mac with a modern one \u2014 a 2010 Mac mini running Snow Leopard and a M1 Mac mini running the latest macOS. They share one keyboard, one monitor, and one mouse through a KVM\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Computers"","block_context":{"text":"Computers","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/category\/computers\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Maltese-Mac-Mini-Stack.jpg?fit=1200%2C1100&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Maltese-Mac-Mini-Stack.jpg?fit=1200%2C1100&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Maltese-Mac-Mini-Stack.jpg?fit=1200%2C1100&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Maltese-Mac-Mini-Stack.jpg?fit=1200%2C1100&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Maltese-Mac-Mini-Stack.jpg?fit=1200%2C1100&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":47326,"url":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2026\/03\/30\/reclaiming-my-creative-life-with-vintage-macs-the-cigar-box-mini-stack\/","url_meta":{"origin":47748,"position":3},"title":"Reclaiming My Creative Life With Vintage Macs: The Cigar Box Mac Mini Stack","author":"Joe_Williams","date":"March 30, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"After months of tinkering, I finally built the Murci\u00e9lago Mini-Stack: a 2010 Mac mini sitting on top of a 2022 M1 Mac mini, all resting on a cigar box. Two Macs, one keyboard, and zero subscriptions. Here\u2019s how I reclaimed my creative life with vintage hardware I already own.","rel":"","context":"In "Computers"","block_context":{"text":"Computers","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/category\/computers\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/stacked-isometric-minis-4.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/stacked-isometric-minis-4.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/stacked-isometric-minis-4.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/stacked-isometric-minis-4.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/stacked-isometric-minis-4.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":47119,"url":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2026\/02\/19\/it-never-ends\/","url_meta":{"origin":47748,"position":4},"title":"It Never Ends!","author":"Joe","date":"February 19, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"Two Mac minis dating from 2012 are pictured above. The one on the left has an Intel i5 processor and it was running happily with an installation of Linux Mint. The machine on the right is a new acquisition. It is a server version of the Mac mini and it\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Computers"","block_context":{"text":"Computers","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/category\/computers\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Two 2012 Mac Mini Computers","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/55068101278_fdd6cfa24f_c.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/55068101278_fdd6cfa24f_c.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/55068101278_fdd6cfa24f_c.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/55068101278_fdd6cfa24f_c.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":11689,"url":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2013\/02\/05\/more-thoughts-on-the-hackintosh\/","url_meta":{"origin":47748,"position":5},"title":"More thoughts on the Hackintosh","author":"Joe_Williams","date":"February 5, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"I have successfully built a Hackintosh or, as the folks at Tonymacx86 call it, a CustoMac Mini, and the more I think of it, the more it makes sense. Mac aficionados on various forums and websites have been wishing for a mid-tower Mac that would be beefier than the entry\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Computers"","block_context":{"text":"Computers","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/category\/computers\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"upgradable","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/upgradable.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/upgradable.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/upgradable.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47748","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47748"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47748\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47797,"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47748\/revisions\/47797"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47770"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47748"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47748"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47748"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}