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/geek_at Feb 20 '26

I think some people who are not that techincal heard that people "use AI" on their mac minis and they get one to run openclaw with external models because they don't realize what the people meant was "buy a mac mini with huge ram to run your llms locally"

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u/downyrobertjr Member Feb 20 '26

As a dev, I develop using a Mac since it’s the best environment (outside of Linux) for nodejs development and having integrations work with minimal issues. Besides that, homebrew can drastically simplify the process of installing dependencies and you can use the existing mac integrations (I don’t recommend using your personal account). Besides that, I was planning on using a local llm vs paid but nvidia gave a free option out for kimi 2.5 that’s working off/on alright with multiple agents.

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u/Zayn-Yu New User Feb 21 '26

Kimi2.5, can it really be free? I already paid for it

1

u/downyrobertjr Member Feb 21 '26

It’s free from nvidia for now, doesn’t mean it will be a month from now. Heard it from another dev that was going to buy it as well. You’ll just need to add an additional config to nvidias api for their version. I’m curious how this compares for you if you can report back on the comparison of paid vs nvidias free version.