A used 2013-2015 Mac Mini is now cheaper than a Raspberry Pi 4B with the same amount of RAM. The later models with SSDs can be a great bargain. If you don't keep the graphics card active, most can idle at 10-15 watts.

Like all quality hardware, they're becoming cheap enough to have a second (or third) life. They're pretty reliable, especially if you're willing to open it all up to swap the HDD for a SSD (warning: a lot harder than most laptops!).

And plugging OpenCore Legacy Patcher, which lets you install up to Sequoia on those Intel Macs that only officially support Monterrey or Ventura: https://dortania.github.io/OpenCore-Legacy-Patcher/

I'm curious if there are any decently representative use share stats out there for Mac Intel vs ARM. I tried finding some a while ago and found nothing really conclusive (mostly for niches like developer tools or games - what's the long tail look like?).