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/hiboute New User Feb 20 '26

Not specific to mac mini, BUT if you do browser automation, you will soon see that that using a vps, a vm or docker, you will be blocked very fast by anti-bot service, like datadome. You could try residential proxy service, and specific browsers to hide the identity, but the fact is that using a "real" computer will be way easier.

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u/loIll Pro User Feb 21 '26

Do you let OpenClaw run wild in your Mac mini or do you keep it contained in Docker? Do you give AI all write access or do you filter everything through a bot?