I really liked the NUC as Intel's answer to the Mac Mini. You might not know that Intel got out of the NUC business last year. Some of the technology was licensed to Asus.
Over time, these machines had become a lot larger and less cute. Some were even big enough to put in a full-size gaming video card. This gave gamers a lunchbox size machine to take to a party, but ended the "not much bigger than a deck of card" form factor of little computers you could hang on the back of the monitor.
Raspberry Pi's a wonderful platform for tinkerers. But rather fiddly for someone who wants a machine that just plain works and has plenty of mainstream help available. Any answers for a Pi start with, "Oh, I didn't realize you're talking about a Pi. Hmm, let me look up how that's different..."
Availability of Pi components is extremely poor if you ever need a spare machine. If your mainstream PC or Mac conks out, repairs and rentals are easily available anywhere. If your Pi conks out, who knows when you could get one from the next batch? If you have work to do today, can you wait a year?
Apple still makes the Mac Mini and it's still a pleasant little computer, with about the same chips and power as a laptop. Compared to a laptop, it's a little less money for the same computing power, since it's not in a mobile case with screen, keyboard, trackpad, speakers and mics, webcam, and battery. About as compact a desktop computer as you can find in a post-NUC world. But, not an all in one rig you can take along in your bookbag, or slide out of sight in a desk drawer.
Debian is still going strong. It's the basis for many distributions built on top of it, including my favorites of MX for not too ancient machines and antiX for very old, limited hardware.
Without getting too geeky I am very impressed with their balance of up to date functionality and engineering choices that work well on older hardware, such as SystemD being optional - which most people shouldn't have to care about, but could prevent some hard to troubleshoot bugs. I also like their friendly troubleshooting help forums.
After using computers since before the original IBM PC, I now think for anyone who can afford $1,000 to $2,000, and aren't involved in extremely demanding computer uses like heavy duty programming, video production, or the latest hot AAA games, the Macbook Air series is the way to go. Simply pick mobile screen size preferred, knowing a big screen can be added at a desk.
Apple's M series chips have astonishing battery life, full day for almost everyone, two full days for some users in this no-fan silent machines.
There are now ways to run Windows and Linux on these machines for those who need software not available on Mac. In general, Mac has occasional weirdness but still tends to just work and minimize confusion more than other platforms. Unlike Microsoft, Apple doesn't make it outrageously difficult to install a machine without an advertising push account, and they don't hijack the machine for enforced OS upgrades.
Re: Linux for old and slow computers
Over time, these machines had become a lot larger and less cute. Some were even big enough to put in a full-size gaming video card. This gave gamers a lunchbox size machine to take to a party, but ended the "not much bigger than a deck of card" form factor of little computers you could hang on the back of the monitor.
Raspberry Pi's a wonderful platform for tinkerers. But rather fiddly for someone who wants a machine that just plain works and has plenty of mainstream help available. Any answers for a Pi start with, "Oh, I didn't realize you're talking about a Pi. Hmm, let me look up how that's different..."
Availability of Pi components is extremely poor if you ever need a spare machine. If your mainstream PC or Mac conks out, repairs and rentals are easily available anywhere. If your Pi conks out, who knows when you could get one from the next batch? If you have work to do today, can you wait a year?
Apple still makes the Mac Mini and it's still a pleasant little computer, with about the same chips and power as a laptop. Compared to a laptop, it's a little less money for the same computing power, since it's not in a mobile case with screen, keyboard, trackpad, speakers and mics, webcam, and battery. About as compact a desktop computer as you can find in a post-NUC world. But, not an all in one rig you can take along in your bookbag, or slide out of sight in a desk drawer.
Debian is still going strong. It's the basis for many distributions built on top of it, including my favorites of MX for not too ancient machines and antiX for very old, limited hardware.
Without getting too geeky I am very impressed with their balance of up to date functionality and engineering choices that work well on older hardware, such as SystemD being optional - which most people shouldn't have to care about, but could prevent some hard to troubleshoot bugs. I also like their friendly troubleshooting help forums.
After using computers since before the original IBM PC, I now think for anyone who can afford $1,000 to $2,000, and aren't involved in extremely demanding computer uses like heavy duty programming, video production, or the latest hot AAA games, the Macbook Air series is the way to go. Simply pick mobile screen size preferred, knowing a big screen can be added at a desk.
Apple's M series chips have astonishing battery life, full day for almost everyone, two full days for some users in this no-fan silent machines.
There are now ways to run Windows and Linux on these machines for those who need software not available on Mac. In general, Mac has occasional weirdness but still tends to just work and minimize confusion more than other platforms. Unlike Microsoft, Apple doesn't make it outrageously difficult to install a machine without an advertising push account, and they don't hijack the machine for enforced OS upgrades.
C from C