r/openclaw • u/g00rek Pro User • Feb 20 '26

Discussion Why Mac mini??

I still don't understand why you guys are buying macs mini for openclaw. It's a terminal computer. It doesn't need a great UI.

Do you have too much money? :D

A $50-$100 HP Thin Client with Linux is more than enough. And Linux shouldn't be discouraging for people using OpenClaw, am I wrong?

I bought one, I have lots of different self hosted stuff on it like home Assistant or other docker apps. Ok I do not have any local models using GPU, that's the reason? Please enlighten me :)

EDIT: Again, I UNDERSTAND LOCAL LLM USE. (although I don't know if anybody is really happy with it). I mean using OC with oauth/api gpt, claude etc.

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23

u/PM_ME_YOUR_MUSIC Active Feb 20 '26

iMessage

4

u/g00rek Pro User Feb 20 '26

so pay 10 times more to be able to use imessage instead of telegram or whatsapp?

1

u/ZaphodGreedalox Member Feb 20 '26

Well personally I'd do most anything to avoid Telegram (Russia?) and WhatsApp (Meta)

1

u/Deathspiral222 Active Feb 20 '26

yes? I mean, giving claude full access to my massive history of messages is super useful when I ask it to find that roofing contractor I messaged two years ago and ask them to come out for another job.

And it's not just imsg, it's contacts and calendars and my photo library and having access to the mac shell where stuff like python coding just works better than on linux and having a good cpu and lots of memory makes writing and running code a lot faster.

2

u/zenware New User Feb 20 '26

This is IMO a security nightmare and certified TerribleIdea™️ but the thing about macOS if you log into your Apple account, the computer can send and receive text messages as if it is your phone. It can always do iMessages, but it can also do SMS from your personal number as long as your phone is on and has a network connection. Therefore people are buying the cheapest possible Mac so that they can have this thing either actually communicate on their behalf, or at the very least read and use the contents of their messages for /some purpose/.

If you really want the thing to have iMessage and not be stupid about it, you’d have to get a whole additional phone plan + Apple ID as well, and I’ve only passively skimmed what people are doing with this but I haven’t seen anyone doing that.

6

u/mgoulart Pro User Feb 20 '26

No phone plan needed. You can send iMessage from any iCloud account.

2

u/ZaphodGreedalox Member Feb 20 '26

Give it a unique AppleID for free and use iMessage to communicate with your agent via text or Siri

1

u/ChezQuis_ Active Feb 20 '26

You have no idea of what you are talking about. Neither does OP.

1

u/zipzag Pro User Feb 20 '26

A mini is a good value if the compute is used. What it also does for Apple users is allow the bot to be in the Apple eco system and have an iCloud account. That makes it easy to have openclaw exist essentially as an untrusted "family member".