New branded Linux Mint mini computer

[bimsebasse]

This is cool!

Official blog announcement: http://blog.linuxmint.com/?p=2055

Order: http://www.fit-pc.com/web/purchase/orde ... t-mintbox/

[xenopeek]

Cool, cool, cool! I have a fit-PC2, these things are awesome for in the living room. Time for an upgrade

[squeezy]

Just saw this on Softpedia, http://news.softpedia.com/news/Linux-Mi ... 4476.shtml

Very cool!

[intok]

My only question is will there be an HTPC version?

I'd love to see one with a CrystalHD DPS and a TV tuner built in to make the most of the E450 in the MintBox Pro, I wonder if there will be one around the time the Brazos 2.0 refresh is out, the E2-1800 http://www.cpu-world.com/CPUs/Bobcat/AM ... -1800.html would make for a nice speed bump to the Pro's E-450 while still staying at only 18w.

[hooked2u]

Great! A new product/appliance with LM installed and tested.

I perused the blog in its entirety, unlike many. Its obvious due to the repetitive questions that were answered in earlier posts to the blog. Laziness? I am 'old school'. I read through the blog to determine if any questions that I may have are answered. If not then I would/will post my question. Unlike the many posts that I read asking this or that when the their question was already asked by another and answered.

Priced too high? Its a new appliance. New appliances are always priced high. When/if the volume of the 'new' appliance increases the price may drop and be more affordable to the masses that seem to have shallow pockets.

No appliance/product can be manufactured to suit everyone's needs/satisfaction, so the comments I read are silly. If the buyer can adapt his/her needs from the given product, then purchase it. From the designer prospective, all the comments in the blog are great input for the designer to attempt to design the product to meet the majority of prospective buyers. Adapt to what is available if you don't have the knowledge to build it yourself. If you can adapt the product to cover most of your needs then maybe the alleged 'too high priced' will be enough justification for you to make the purchase.

Back in the day we adapted the 1k ram with no static storage capability to serve our needs. If the product described doesn't meet your needs... don't buy. Quit complaining!

[intok]

Whats wrong with having an HTPC version? Theres plenty of people that want a small set top HTPC they can throw on the shelf next to the cable box and the playstation that can record, edit and playback the shows they watch.

If you want that currently you are looking at a box that will have to be parted out and assembled yourself, will more then likely not work 100% with Linux and not be sending any money back to any Linux or OSS teams.

The reason I ask about adding the DSP is because XvBA doesn't really work and only works with the FGLRX drivers, the DSP allows for offloading of video decode for pretty much every common codec, bitrate and resolution, only the oddball DVD rips you torrent will likely exceed it's capabilities. the E-450's CPU should be enough to handle lower quality real time transcodes, but not while also playing something back, if OpenCL over both the CPU and GPU picks up steam and we get a video transcoder written to use it that will quickly change.

And it's not like these DSPs are big anyways, they fit on a laptop MiniPCIe card, same as a laptop wireless card.

Furthermore the DSP could eventually become a Co-processor if the rumors about what AMD is doing with OpenCL and their Heterogeneous Computing initiative are true.

This is actually stuff I've bugged System76 and Zareason about for some time now.

[Mex_hahaha]

Do forgive me if this comes off as ignorance, but the prices seem a bit steep considering it is a free OS. Do they not?

p.s. I love Mint and am in no way trying to bash what the team is doing.

Edit** Somebody made a good point about it being a new product, thus its price.

[akavir]

I too want this as an HTPC. I do think it's a bit pricey, but it's so sexy! With the 4 USB's on the front it will look nice between my video game consoles!

[RJim]

I'm a bit hesitant to post this without some kind of high-temperature flame-resistant gear.... but my question really is What is the purpose of this unit?

It is too small and limited to be used for heavy graphical work / video editing / gaming like a desktop would be.
Also without a built-in display, keyboard or mouse it can not really be used as a laptop or travel PC in a car or on a flight.

The only place where I can see this being used is as a Home Theater box. Is that the intention? Because it is not mentioned anywhere on the blog or the sale page that I could see.
Does it have a DVD/BluRay drive?

I would say play to its strength, Market the MintBox as a HTPC as others have said, although lack of DVD/BD might hurt it a bit. Can they be added?

Am I just completely missing the point here? If so please set me straight.

--Jim

(p.s) This post is not a flame or troll; I really would like to see this MintBox succeed

[intok]

Well as it currently is it is a great low power browser and casual gaming box, the E-450 is fast enough to run most Humble Bundle games and thus most games available natively on Linux, the CPU is a real 64 bit dual core AMD K10.5 running at 1.65Ghz.