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It took some work to get this thing working the way I wanted. Not recommended for someone not computer literate or willing to tinker. The included Ubuntu OS is a little too much for the hardware. And, you are left with little to no free "disk" space. However, Lunbuntu runs well on the unit. Another key point: if you want the stick on all the time, you will need to use the dedicate, included power adapter. Otherwise, power from your TV or monitor will not be constant due to power management features of the TV or monitor.
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: New
Intel made a big mistake with this product and that's why you see this sold very cheaply. Instead of fixing the firmware so you can install a much smaller Windows operating system, they just dumped it cheap to resellers...which made no sense at all because these would have sold a lot better with Legacy/CSM BIOS on them...10 times better at least. The main issue is system resources (RAM and storage) get overwhelmed by updates...especially storage. Low storage space errors galore after only 2 hours and it just gets worse. This is a result of 3 years worth of updates waiting to be installed. The device is truly unusable as it is. You can try turning off updates (I don't recommend), also avoid downloading or installing anything whatsoever, but that's a lot of the reason most people use a computer is to install or download stuff. It does not make a particularly good browser because of the system resource issues. It tends to be slow. Incredibly easy to exacerbate issues unless you know what you're doing (are a technical person). The keyword with this is "sparse resources". Don't expect performance if you're choking the hell out of it with stuff. Ultimate fix is a much smaller OS that uses much less system resources. Trying to find one of the smaller Linux distros that doesn't have one issue or another, but not easy. I'm trying to pressure Intel into correcting this with updated firmware. Would make a world of difference if you could install ANY OS you wanted...right now you're solely restricted to UEFI-only OSes, which cuts out anything older than Windows 8.1 Pro 32-bit. If XP could be installed with new Legacy/CSM BIOS firmware, that would be appropriate for the amount of RAM and storage on this thing. Holding breath for that is NOT advised, however. UPDATE: Peppermint OS works fine, but most end users would not know how to install properly because you have to use gparted to resize the EFI partition to the minimum of 33MB and increase the root partition to take up the extra 450+ MB of space left over, then increase the swapfile using a few commands at the command line (suggested size 768MB) and add info to the fstab file. Not for beginners!!! Read full review
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: New
This is the first generation of Compute Stick which has limited memory and storage. It ships with Ubuntu 14.04 and, unfortunately, the resource intensive Unity desktop. I removed several larger packages (like libreoffice) as I do not intend to use this system as a regular desktop system. I then installed the xfce desktop environment, synaptic and openssh-server; wierdly, the latter is not installed by default. Synaptic can sort by installed package size and will help you conserve storage. A bluetooth keyboard and mouse are recommended as this device only has one USB port.
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: New
Ubuntu linux really will run in 1G of RAM! I am using this compute stick to feed my living room 40-inch LED screen from YouTube and other Internet sources. With just 1G RAM, however, firefox is too big -- it hung up when I tried to expand the youtube window to full screen. Chromium works just fine, even at full-screen, 1080p. The 8G of storage is enough for minimal ubuntu, but I had trouble putting updates in. The processor and RAM are right at the edge of what's possible for viewing, but it IS POSSIBLE. I couldn't find a less expensive, usable option for this purpose.
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: New
I got this unit specifically to be a Digital Signage sink. To that end, I was able to squeeze (and I mean squeeze, barely more than 1.6 Gb disk free once installation was completed) Windows 10 32-bit on this device using a method known as WIMBoot. Disclaimer: This is highly not recommended by the way, don't do that unless you know EXACTLY what you're doing! As it was intended to be a digital sign, I don't need a ton of performance in things like graphics, so this unit works pretty well in that regard. However, one of the design aspects of the signage software is internet-connectivity, something that is SORELY lacking in this unit. For some reason, it just seems like the WiFi antenna is not optimally placed, and it's incredibly difficult to connect to any networks, even right next to a router. I highly recommend getting an external adapter if you intend to actually get this connected to a wireless network. Other than that, the unit seemed to work just fine for my purposes.Read full review
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: New
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