I like my M1 16GB Mini. It is an excellent machine indeed. and the power draw even under load is rather amazing compared to a Ryzen 9 based desktop with a reasonable graphics card. No regrets here.
Oh, and is it (near) silent, very very rarely a tiny bit of fan can be heard at close proximity but I only heard it twice thus far, and that was after pushing the machine for a while, to see how far it would go 
Update: I’m now running a locally built VCV Rack and plugins on a Mac Mini M1. I’m also having a good time learning the Mac way of doing things.
Vast gratitude to Lars Bjerregaard for his patient guidance and encouragement while I decided on the purchase and beyond. Very nice to have someone to call on when in doubt. 
Great thanks also to Patrick Lindenberg for his excellent guide to building VCV Rack on the M1:
Best regards to all,
dp
Makes me happy that you’re enjoying your new machine Dave, that’s what it’s all about. I hope you’ll have many happy musical moments with it for the years to come.
It’s probably not too late to make a Time Machine backup, partition the drive, and set up a dual-boot macOS/Linux system.
As much as I’ve been a fan of Macs since 1986 (MacPlus), I now believe that Apple has turned to the Dark Side and has become Evil. I still like my MacBook Pro though.
I did get the Linux machine back on its feet and I intend to set it up again for music work. But I’m going to stay on the Mac for my current production work.