I've got an old Mac-Mini 2012 laying around. It was a gift. I never wanted to switch to Mac on this solid, but not very powerful machine. Over xmas last year I booted the thing, and it was unbearable slow, even with the original version of the OS on it. After an macOS update, it was unusable.
I put an SSD in (thanks YouTube for the guidance) and booted it with Debian and on top of that installed CasaOS (web-based home server OS/UI). Now I can access my music (thanks Navidrome) from on the road (thanks Wireguard).
Docker is still a mystery to me, but I already learned a lot (mapping paths)
My domain has been running on a Mac Mini 2012 since new using Mac OS. Internet services are generally constrained by the available bandwidth and don't need much processing.
