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tensility ◴[] No.44464926[source]
The thing is, I don't use a RPi for desktop-like experiences, so I don't want all of the accessories you've padded the price with just to have a cheap unix node somewhere that I need a small amount of compute or, especially, physical presence. For a desktop UI experience, I have and prefer much better machines to drive full desktop UIs than either a Pi or an N1x0. For that, I use one of my Macs.

Of course, I already know we don't have similar needs or desires for a desktop experience, because I haven't found a good reason to run Windows for a couple of decades (since I'm not a PC gamer type and that seems to be the primary interesting reason left for running it), other than to occasionally boot up the newest version and try it out to see if I'm actually missing much.

Also, for servers that get real load, I'd often rather run them from (unix-based) containers in the cloud anyway, if only for maintainability's sake. Heck, I already have NUCs depreciating out in storage that I don't bother to use because a RPi is usually a more solid and energy-efficient choice, unless I want a decent desktop experience or need a high-load server, for which purposes an N1x0 isn't usually the machine I want or need, either.

Now, that said, if you do want a cheap minimal desktop experience machine and you don't mind or even want the Windows experience, I suppose a used N1x0 probably is a great choice.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

replies(2): >>44467839 #>>44468031 #
1. tensility ◴[] No.44468031[source]
Of course, something like the mini-NAS that Geerling describes in the following article IS a great fit for an N1x0 machine. These are really all just a spectrum of tools we have available, many of which are better fit than others for particular niches. A NAS seems like a perfect fit for N1x0. So, yeah, my initial response was dumb, but so is dismissing the RPi simply because you're trying to apply it to the wrong kinds of use cases.

<https://www.jeffgeerling.com/blog/2025/mini-nases-marry-nvme...>