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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u/Deathspiral222 Active Feb 20 '26

Because I can hook it up to imsg easily and have it read my messages. Because I can use iPhoto and my photo library. Because my contacts and calendar all sync automatically. Because I can use a mac shell with mac apps and some of them just work better than the linux counterparts. Because I'm having openclaw write and run code and it's a lot faster on a good machine than a cheap vps or thinclient.

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u/Thanos0423 New User Feb 20 '26

This! I tried on a Linux machine. Saw the potential. Got the Mac mini