[vox] Desktop Recommendations

[Timothy D Thatcher]

Hi Bob,

I have a system76 Meerkat and it's a pretty solid machine. Small, quiet,
low energy consumption, good performance. It's just an Intel NUC rebadged,
really, but that's fine for me. Works great. S76's PopOS is pretty nice,
too, it's very similar to Ubuntu but with some notable improvements. Like
ditching snapd for flatpak, which is just... so much of an improvement on
its own. But you can install whatever Linux flavor (or other OS, I suppose)
you want on the Meerkat. You may be able to save a few dollars if you're
willing to roll your own NUC, there are plenty of resellers with a billion
different models available.

I can also recommend a SimplyNUC Ruby if you prefer an AMD chip, near
identical to the Meerkat/NUC in form factor, performance, price, etc. In
fact I just recently repurposed the Meerkat as a home server, and installed
PopOS on a Ruby to use it as a desktop. I've been happy with both so far.
YMMV based on your specific use cases, of course.

Generally I'm really liking the NUC-style boxes for average desktop use.
I'm not doing intense gaming or anything on them, though the GPU in both
the Intel and AMD are decent, AMD probably a little better. I watch
movies/youtube/etc, do graphic design, development, and other Linuxy type
things on them and they perform great no matter what I throw at them.
Rarely do I even hear the fans ramp up, only if I push them pretty hard,
like very high render distances in minecraft ;)

Tim


On Wed, Jan 26, 2022 at 9:25 PM Bob Scofield <scofield at omsoft.com> wrote:

> Hi,
>
> My wife needs a new computer. We are both Linux Mint users, though my
> wife is open to either Windows, Mac, or Linux.
>
> Sadly, Zareason has gone out of business. So I'm looking for a company
> that sells Linux desktops. Among others I see System 76, Lenovo, Think
> Penguin, and Puget Systems. Does anyone have any recommendations for a
> seller of Linux desktops?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Bob
> _______________________________________________
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>
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