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Linux Mint Ditches AMD For Intel With New Mintbox Mini 2 (betanews.com)
An anonymous reader writes: Makers of Mint Box, a diminutive desktop which runs Linux Mint -- an Ubuntu-based OS, on Friday announced the Mintbox Mini 2. While the new model has several new aspects, the most significant is that the Linux Mint Team has switched from AMD to Intel (the original Mini used an A4-Micro 6400T). For $299, the Mintbox Mini 2 comes with a quad-core Intel Celeron J3455 processor, 4GB of RAM, and a 60GB SSD. For $50 more you can opt for the "Pro" model which doubles the RAM to 8GB and increases the SSD capacity to 120GB. Graphics are fairly anemic, as it uses integrated Intel HD 500, but come on -- you shouldn't expect to game with this thing. For video connectivity, you get both HDMI and Mini DisplayPort. Both can push 4K, and while the mini DP port can do 60Hz, the HDMI is limited to 30.
"you shouldn't expect to game with this thing" - Well of course not, it is running a flavor of Linux. I have honestly tried doing Linux based gaming once a year or so just to see where it is at. Currently, Steam for Linux is amazing, but the content after the storefront itself just isn't. I basically had the option of a handful of indy games and Rocket League. Not much else was available, sadly. And then, the Linux gaming box was once again shelved for the next several months while I continue to play games developed for DirectX instead of OpenGL.
Can be read here, instead of going to another site.
jesus how many levels of distro abstraction are we going to
also authors name is brian fagioli and I hope he wasn't picked on real bad as a kid
quote: "...but come on -- you shouldn't expect to game with this thing."
I expect to game on a Raspberry Pi, you insensitive clod!
Tu sais que Slashdot est pour les utilisateurs anglophones, non?
> Linux Mint Ditches AMD
Incorrect and makes no sense Why would the distribution stop supporting AMD?
AMD is dead and Netcraft confirms it. Sell your stocks now!
I presume a mini box in this day and age is going to use USB-PD i.e. power over USB-C
In reality, it's likely using some 12v barrel adapter.
USB-C PD offers a 12v option...
I love these little boxes, but what happens is that they go in the closet and then a year or two later they come out and they use some semi-proprietary DIN plug pin-out and you've lost the power adapter. At least the Raspberry Pi uses a standard USB-Micro cell phone cable port. All the new Chromebooks are using USB-C PD, most of the high end cell phones are using USB-C PD.... USB-C PD supports up to 100w of power, let's get with the times and stop using weird barrel adapters and DIN plugs and go with a modern standard, perhaps?
moox. for a new generation.
I just built an Intel NUC BOXNUC6CAYH for roughly $330 with the same processor, 8GB of RAM, a 500GB SSD, but most importantly, a full HDMI 2.0 port with 4K @ 60HZ support without needing a dongle (video decoding at 4K is still a bit lacking though). When the new Mintbox comes out this summer, it will be facing some stiff competition as Intel will have released its Gemini Lake platform based NUCs which benchmarks are showing to be much snappier than the current Apollo Lake ones. If you want to support the Linux Mint devs, pick up the new Mintbox, but otherwise you can buy a NUC now or a much faster NUC this summer.
Linux Mint itself has not "ditched" anything. Mint, being Linux, still supports both Intel and AMD just fine. The Mint Team also did not ditch anything, because this machine is not made by the Mint Team. As they note in their own press release that the summary failed to link to, the Mintbox is based on Compulab's Fitlet microcomputer.
:P At least Mint Team's press release credited them.
The recently-released Fitlet2 is what switched from an AMD SoC to an Intel SoC. The Mintbox is simply a branded Fitlet, with SSD and RAM included (Fitlet can be bought barebones) and Linux Mint pre-installed. Nothing more than that. So the Mint Team didn't really have a say in what SoC the new generation unit used.
That being said, I have a Fitlet 1 myself and I love it. I'm quite a fan of Compulab's whole range of micro and mini computers. Which is why I'd like to see them actually get credit for this machine, which they make.
Dass verstehe ich nicht :(
Inte det heller :C
Intel NUC with J3455 is $125 new. 8GB is $75. 525GB SSD is $140. For $350, you can have a much better spec than the "Pro" model, and everything just snaps together in the NUC.
MintBox is another revenue source for the Mint project, as opposed to just depending on donations. Mint is also wildly popular. They're one of the few Linux distros actually running things really well for the average user.
I like coming to Slashdot.
But I always run an ad blocker. Not about to let the Soros propagandists who own it now monetize me.
Intel NUC with J3455 is $125 new. 8GB is $75. 525GB SSD is $140. For $350, you can have a much better spec than the "Pro" model, and everything just snaps together in the NUC.
NUC rules! It's the modern Mac Mini, the ultimate Ubuntu machine.
I was hoping the newest major release of WINE was going to fix issues with gaming and allow me to bring my Windows games into my Linux environment. NOPE, NO WAY, NO HOW. Have yet to get a game newer than 2010 to work, be it Mafia II, GTA IV, GTA V, Naval Action, etc. Native gaming on Linux is cheap, unsatisfying, and frankly is the reason why I keep trying WINE and why I keep rejecting Linux for my personal machines. (Note: I'm running a media server, VPN, and firewall using linux boxes.)
This is a huge oversight by this Mint "project". It seems that Intel is doing everything they can to keep the new APUs from reaching market.
They're clearly bribing manufactures to only pair the processor with sub-standard systems, shitty screens, bad memory, etc.
I can see a Linux project wanting to stay the hell away from the 'cherry trail' era Atoms(PowerVR graphics and Intel's position is, essentially, 'these were made to go with Microsoft's attempt to sell Win8 as a tablet OS, not our problem'(so much so that even Win10 support is atrocious), plus 32 bit UEFI); and some of the Bay Trail boards were pretty dicey as well, depending on how much the vendor cared(same risk of 32 bit UEFI, SD slots you can't boot from, HID devices speaking slightly eccentric i2c rather than USB or PS/2(less common as an external connector; still pretty common for what things like laptop keyboards appear to be from the software perspective); but if you can get an Atom that doesn't make horrible design choices(and, despite the 'Celeron' branding, this thing is an Atom) it's the fairly obvious choice for something where you want x86 compatibility and you can't afford one of AMD's new designs.
The integrated GPU is a little better, though the FOSS drivers are a little worse; but Puma cores are seriously feeble; and unless you are saving a fair amount of money(not too likely given that Intel's production cost for equivalent bottom-feeding chips is likely lower; and the selling price constrained more by their desire to sell more i3s) it's hard to get excited about them. Rhyzen based CPUs and APUs are a whole different ballgame; but they don't fit here (either in price or thermally; not that Intel's actually-competent chips would either; with the possible exception of very spendy ULV parts).
at 15W cTDP even outperforming a dual Xeon workstation (MacPro2,1) from a decade ago, https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
You can have last years model of notebook computer for less than $300.
You can have a SBC that does 4k @ 60hz HEVC for $50 while sitting idle.
Where would you use this over a real PC, or this over a SBC/media box? What is the use case?
How much did Intel pay the relevant company to switch? And/Or, were there any payments by Intel in terms of cash/stock/options to the managers of the company which switched?
I've never been a fan of the mint box people. They have selected to use some pretty shity and unsupportable components in the past which has resulted in things breaking or otherwise not working right. Now the Intel stuff is supported better as we have source code, but I bet there are still other pieces that aren't and will be a problem because almost every other company with a Linux system has selected to use some of the worst supported components. Just because it woks today does not mean the developers can fix the bugs or even maintain support.