Mini PC for Qubes OS?

User Support Hardware Issues
1

Newbie first post so please be gentle

Im a long time mac user, and after as little research would like to try qubes as a secondary system to my main computer, with a view to possibly making it my main machine eventually.

I would like to install onto a small form factor computer, the literature seems to favour laptops, and the recommended machine for the latest release of qubes is discontinued. Can someone please advise of a decent spec mini pc/ small form factor computer that will work well. I dont mind changing a network card etc to get a good system.

I was hoping to use one of my 3 iMacs but it appears thats not really an option due to apples bespoke hardware.

1 Like
2

How small do you want the computer to be? Does it need to work on battery (laptop), or a small computer would work?

1 Like
3

There was a topic about mini computers Mini computers that play well with Qubes?

3 Likes
4

I’d prefer not to run it on a laptop, I dont really have any space limitations, but would rather not have a great big pc tower on or under my already busy desk

2 Likes
5

Could you elaborate a bit on the term “decent spec”, please?

  1. Do you have special needs apart from the usual stuff (browsing, mailing, office stuff like printing documents etc.)?
  2. What iMac-hardware would the new small form factor pc “compete” with?
2 Likes
6

I dont have any specific needs, pretty much what you listed, and maybe Inkscape and gimp, by decent spec I mean something that will run the os well and not bog down when there are several VM’s running at the same time

1 Like
7

Well … then I’d highly recommend the topic, @solene posted above. Within that topic my favourite would be @qubist 's recommendation. Above all other things (given that all hardware components are supported) you’ll need RAM. 16GB seems to me like a bare minimum to really work with qubes-os (everything below is rather a PoC). The more, the better.

2 Likes
8

Latest NUC with max ram was my typical system of choice. Had a small detour to Topton s600 because it was considerably cheaper and newer generation i9 was available, now going back to NUC 14i9

3 Likes
9

Just out of curiosity? Does it run with coreboot?

1 Like
10

No idea, not in my priority list

1 Like
11

Could you please clarify what you mean by this (the bolded portion)? I suspect there may have been a misunderstanding or miscommunication somewhere.

2 Likes
12

I found a list of machines “recommended by the community” on the qubes website, for the latest version of qubes there was only one desktop shown. When I follow the link to it, the page states that the motherboard is no longer in production

IMG_4785
IMG_47851179Ă—511 129 KB

Looking further on the website I see there are two other desktops in the Qubes certified section, however they are a little more expensive than I was planning on spending on the machine.

1 Like
13

The Librem Mini:

Note that it is being replaced with the Librem Mini v3 in the near future:

See also:

Related:

2 Likes
14

Ah, I see. Thanks for clarifying. Based on your earlier remarks, I had thought that a full ATX motherboard and the mid-tower desktops were too large for your requirements, so I didn’t recommend them. If these sizes are actually okay, then perhaps others can recommend some other good options in these categories.

1 Like
15

I would prefer something small, as Ive got used to effectively just having the monitor on my desk as I run mostly iMac. Most of the small form factor seem to be either under powered & running celleron processors and low memory. Or higher specked and around ÂŁ1k or more.
I guess I could get something bigger to try the system.

1 Like