WB66JJ wrote:
Is there an upgrade path for El Capitan to Ventura.
No, your Late 2009 Mini is hardware-constrained to running no higher than El Capitan.
Any other options?
I am seeing other reports recently of gmail not working with badly out-of-date versions of Apple Mail like the one in El Capitan. However, for now and as long as you can use FireFox, you should be able to check gmail with the browser.
I doubt Google is supporting the El Capitan version of Safari. Safari versions are inexorably linked to Mac OS versions, so you have no upgrade path for Safari when you have none for your base Mac OS.
Just remember that newer versions of FireFox will no longer support El Capitan, so it is time to consider a computer that is now up to 14 years old. Sad, but that seems to the the way of the world today.