So after the Mini arrived the iMac started - but when I initialized the Mini, I did not want to import the mess of a file structure that I had on the iMac, I figured I'd move stuff over manually and rearrange it all, cleaning up iCloud Drive along the way. That all went great. used mostly airdrop to transfer stuff off the iMac hd.
But...
Setting up mail with my gmail accounts went south right away. Google would not authenticate the new computer and sent me into a frustrating loop of verifying my identity that always ended with - "We cannot verify that the account belongs to you at this time. Try again later." I tried later with the same results. Problems come with the passkey that I set up when I lost access some time ago on an iPad and authenticated using the iPhone. Then try to use regular password and - "Please step this way into the waiting room sir." Fortunately the other devices still have access, so there's that.
Otherwise - it is sweet. Speedy, cool looking (and feeling - I love the grainy smoothness of the aluminum), I have it running two older HD monitors, Microsoft Remote Desktop to the office, multiple tabs in Safari, BB Edit with two projects, Gimp, and a photo project in Affinity. I took Randy Singers advice and got Affinity and Free Office. Free office opens docx as he advertised but uses really ugly app icons with a "FREE" banner on the face. Even if you turn them to something else they reappear as the ugly ones when you run the program. Maybe that will change if I get the "free registration key". Or maybe I will have to wander into the package to change the icon there too.
So far good. Only gripe I have is with the monitors, older ones I plan on replacing. They take up two ports (the hdmi and one thunderbolt for an hdmi dongle. I have an Asus Pro Art that will daisy-chain the monitors but these two won't do that.
Now if only gmail would let me in....