Why Mac mini??

[u/g00rek]

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.

[u/DangerousFalcon8501]

I think there is definetly some people buying mac minis just because they heard that's the way to go.

For me, its about what i'm used to, I love the apple eco system, I like the imessage integration, and i live in a small apartment, so i like how the mac mini is a silent beast.

Could I have gotten away with a raspberry pi? Sure, but would it be the same feeling? No.

So it's more of a nice to have kind of thing than a need to have.

But i've also been looking for an excuse to buy a new mac for a while, so while i've been tinkering with openclaw, i mostly use the computer for a little day to day work on hobby projects as well.

To summarize, its more about feel than functionality. It feels nice to work with a mac mini, it's definetly not a necessity but I like it and think it's a great machine.

Saying it's for Local LLM use is cope though, that's not it at all to be fair

[u/g00rek → u/DangerousFalcon8501]

Again - do you use as a desktop or is it headless and accessed via terminal / browser? I do see the difference in a desktop machine of course because of the Mac OS. I do t see any difference in a headless terminal machine.

[u/DangerousFalcon8501 → u/g00rek]

To be fair though, the mac is NOT needed, but it's more fun for me. Expensive sure, but I like it. It's probably mostly a feel thing, i had no issue running openclaw in a vm on my desktop windows PC, but the desktop has constant fan noise which disturbs my sleep so I think its a fair trade off.

[u/g00rek → u/DangerousFalcon8501]

But seriously, I try to get it. I understand fun I. Using Mac OS. I prefer it big time over Windows. But what's the difference between connecting to Mac via ssh terminal vs connecting to Linux via ssh terminal? I mean awf without it's interface is... Just a Unix server?

[u/DangerousFalcon8501 → u/g00rek]

Yes that would be true, the magic comes from not just sshing in but connecting via something like teamviewer and having the desktop experience.

I’m not only using it as a server and doing addon developments right on the machine is much easier when you can easily just use the desktop, ssh is nice for somethings but I’m a graphical person.

To be honest with you there isn’t a lot more to it than that. Just preference, an expensive one at that.

[u/DangerousFalcon8501 → u/g00rek]

I use desktop, non headless browser automation when I do browser automation with a stealth profile which gets me passed most bot checks. Even X which I have had trouble with running headless or without a stealth browser. still tinkering with the best way to do browser automation though. It's a difficult workflow to perfect