
The mintBox, a Linux Mint computer - LeafStorm
http://blog.linuxmint.com/?p=2055
======
noonespecial
In the course of my business, I deal with dozens of different embedded PC's.
There's one thing I wish players in this space would keep in mind: If you want
to take a shot at this window of power and performance (the level at which
people start thinking "set-top box") you really have to beat out the $250
netbook I can get at walmart. If my first thought is, "nice form-factor but a
netbook/mini-itx/mac-mini solves the problem for the same price", you pretty
much lose just because the others are easier to get.

This is what really caught my attention about the Raspberry Pi. It was OpenWRT
sized and priced, but promises netbook sized abilities. I just wish I knew how
to get a case of them.

~~~
drostie
Yeah, the one big thing that this one has going for it is its noiselessness
due to using its case as a heat sink. Torvalds has also talked about how he
wants a "whisper-quiet" computing environment; I'm surprised that so few
companies treat this as a design target. It's probably more popular among
computers designed to be used as thin clients, which it looks like the mintBox
is.

It's nice to see how much you can compress into that small package, though.

~~~
alexchamberlain
An RPi is fanless, right?

~~~
regularfry
Fanless, and caseless, and bulk-storage-less.

~~~
DHowett
An SD card counts as bulk storage. ;)

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nabilt
My family just got an Apple TV and I'm very impressed at the fit and finish,
but I was disappointed at the lack of features. I would love a more open
device where I could install whatever I want. For example I would love to
mirror my display, have better integration with Android and web browse
directly on the box. Any recommendation for good media center software to
install on the mintBox that can do this?

~~~
DanBC
GeeXboX (<http://www.geexbox.org/>)

OpenElec (<http://openelec.tv/>)

XBMC (<http://xbmc.org/>)

None of them have particularly good "elevator pitches" for what they are or
do. I hear people like XBMC.

~~~
baggers
I second OpenElec, which is effectively a minimal OS which boots straight to
XBMC. I threw it on my aspire revo and it ran beautifully while using under
300mb of HDD. It pulls media wirelessly from my server and I use the android
XMBC Remote to control it. I would warn that it probably worked so well for me
because they have a build specifically for nvidia ion graphics based machines.
Saying that though, they also have builds for Fusion HTPCs, Intel, XTreamer,
Apple TV, and a generic build with or without proprietary graphics drivers.

------
will_work4tears
I can say that I'd never pay 599 for this when the Mac Mini is pretty much the
same price and on top of that is much more powerful and feature rich.

If they were even closely comparable I'd consider it.

~~~
Karunamon
.. and proprietary and closed as humanly possible.. and sold and supported by
a company who actively campaigns against your interests

(sort of kidding)

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dbro
Depending on what you're planning to use it for, there are some less expensive
devices that are worth considering, eg. for about $90 shipped to the US

[http://www.aliexpress.com/product-
fm/546571245-Mele-A2000-TV...](http://www.aliexpress.com/product-
fm/546571245-Mele-A2000-TV-box-Allwinner-A10-hackable-device-wholesalers.html)

I just received one and installed Debian squeeze on it, following the
instructions here [http://rhombus-
tech.net/allwinner_a10/hacking_the_mele_a1000...](http://rhombus-
tech.net/allwinner_a10/hacking_the_mele_a1000/Building_Debian_From_Source_Code_for_Mele)

Shipping took about a month, but now that it's here it's as good as I
expected.

~~~
nl
_Shipping took about a month, but now that it's here it's as good as I
expected._

It's not clear if _as I expected_ is a good thing or not.

From [http://rhombus-
tech.net/allwinner_a10/hacking_the_mele_a1000...](http://rhombus-
tech.net/allwinner_a10/hacking_the_mele_a1000/Building_Debian_From_Source_Code_for_Mele/)
I read:

 _X11 is not very stable and the Mali driver is being worked on. You can try
running X11 with a frame buffer._

That's going to kill it for a lot of applications.

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fingerprinter
I'd love one of these...though I would put Ubuntu on it...but at those prices?
I don't think so.

 _The mintBox is available in two versions.

mintBox Basic ($476 + shipping, duty & VAT):

250GB HDD APU G-T40N (1.0 GHz dual core + Radeon HD 6290 – 9W) 4GB RAM Flat
metal case mintBox Pro ($549 + shipping, duty & VAT):

250GB HDD APU G-T56N (1.65 GHz dual core + Radeon HD 6320 – 18W) 8GB RAM
Ribbed metal case_

~~~
tikhonj
I'm curious: what do you see as the advantage of Ubuntu over Mint? My
understanding is that Mint is just Ubuntu with a different default desktop
environment and some multimedia codecs.

Do you just like Unity? (For what it's worth, I actually like it as well.)

~~~
hack_edu
Ubuntu has a huge community that makes any question you have easily Googlable,
as well as a much more mature ecosystem in general. Even if they're built on
the same foundation, these little things really make a difference and ease
headaches.

And really, you can't write off the simple fact that its been around and
strong for so many years. You can rest assured that it will continue to be.

~~~
ekianjo
I don't really understand your point. You can install the exact same thing on
Mint as on Ubuntu. Both environments are very similar, and you can have the
more resource efficient Cinnamon as Framework on Mint instead of Unity on
Ubuntu. It's basically the same thing, and Mint benefits from the very strong
Ubuntu foundation,.

~~~
codesuela
exactly, if you have a problem then you can just Google for the Ubuntu
solution which will always work unless it is a DM specific problem.

~~~
ekianjo
I forgot to mention you can even install the Ubuntu software center on Linux
Mint. So, you get the best of both worlds, with no compatibility issues.

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staunch
At < $300 we're in serious business, but at these prices it's not interesting
(to me).

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Niten
Looks like a rebranded Fit-PC3: <http://www.fit-pc.com/web/fit-pc/fit-
pc3-info/>

~~~
tikhonj
It is. From the article: "The mintBox is a CompuLab fit-PC3 unit, with a green
retro-lit Linux Mint logo, and 10% of each sale goes towards Linux Mint."

I think a product like this is a great idea for a Linux distro.

~~~
ChuckMcM
That is a confusing site (the Fit-PC site) because it talks about and AMD
based 9WTDP design but all of the indicated re sellers only have Atom based
designs.

~~~
ZeroGravitas
I think the third iteration (the one with AMD) has just launched.

------
seclorum
For $250, I've built an Android and Ubuntu tablet, using the Pandaboard ES as
the base with a 10.1" capacitive touchscreen (multi-touch).

It functions extremely well and makes me wonder why no serious manufacturers
are pursuing this avenue right now .. it seems to me to be a very powerful
combination of parts.

Ripe opportunities abound for anyone with the skills to bootstrap a hardware
startup constructing such things. I sure wish I had the gumption to do it (I
could handle the software side, anyway..)

~~~
blackguardx
Where did you get the display?

~~~
seclorum
From <http://www.chalk-elec.com/>

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ericmoritz
Am I wrong to feel disappointed when boxes like these are more than $200?

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bborud
My first reaction: it looks like a piece of shit. Appearances should not
matter, but they do.

~~~
brk
It may look bad, but at least it's expensive.

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forgotAgain
_Although the metal makes the mintBox heavier than other devices its size, it
makes it feel really unique, robust and well engineered._

This sentence really turned me off. If you're going to sell something as well
engineered then don't say it _feels_ that way. Give the results of drop tests
or heat dissipation tests.

------
josteink
This seems like a pretty obvious (and simple) response to Google's Chromebox.

------
crumblan
For anyone thinking of trying Mint; they _will_ install customized search
engines in your Firefox _and_ Chromium, it is a shit experience, and it is
irritating to remove or avoid.

I would suggest you do not use Mint if you plan on doing any internet
searching.

~~~
ImprovedSilence
Really? Is there no way around that? Ie just change your browser search
settings? I was looking to try out mint, cuz Ubuntu is leaving something to be
desired these days.

~~~
ineedtosleep
It's just a simple package that's installed with Firefox. The parent is just
making it seem like a huge deal, but it's trivial to remove the package and/or
change your default search provider.

~~~
crumblan
I did not find it trivial to remove the package, and changing my default
provider didn't work for whatever reason.

~~~
idleloops
Sounds annoying. Did you try through the firefox (registry) - about:config?
Failing that you could try something like Firefox Nightly.

~~~
crumblan
I eventually got it, but I did end up doing the registry and mucking out some
bits in /etc. Then I figured, "hey, I haven't tried Debian yet." So that's
probably my next step... but it's looking like if you want it done right
you're going to have to compile it yourself :/

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joshAg
seems like i just found my new dvr/media box. that looks awesome!

------
dimecyborg
Now I know what is going to come from windows.

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cheatercheater
The most amazing thing about it: the photos.

The photos are made with a cheap digicam with no lighting. I'm not saying this
to complain, but to praise.

That's because the photos prove (at least to me) that the project is done in
someone's bedroom at almost no cost at all.

That someone at this level of business development can defy laws of business
and offer something like the mintBox is amazing and is a sign of how the times
have changed.

Ten years ago, no one would have dreamt of this sort of thing.

Then again, forty years ago they would have. That was also the most amazing
time for computer science, when the seminal advancements were being made that
still continue to resonate with the world. So maybe, with the whole maker
crowd, and statup biz, and this sort of mintBox ramshack business mentality,
we're looking at another golden age?

