Disclaimer: I've searched for "Qotom" on this site but found no mention.

I'm thinking of buying this box:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00Y8461WK/...I1L2YNHYH7SC20

I finally got sick of flimsy laptops that never *fully* work with Linux (I couldn't ever get the mini cardreader on my last one to work and the dvd drive door never opened when I wanted it to) and since I now own an Android, which is portable, I'm thinking of buying something that's much more modular and not exactly portable.

The thing is I'm cheap and not willing to cough out 1200 for some nice LeNovo laptop.

So I'm really looking at the above device. But I couldn't find any information on what chipset it uses and all the other stuff to make sure it'll work with Linux or Debian or whatever. Mostly I'm interested in running Debian. The kinds of software I usually use are LaTeX, Octave, OpenFOAM, and some light programming. I'm not looking for a "gamer" box, but something that can do some visualization and has a bit more power than a Raspberry PI.

Does anyone have experience with these kinds of devices? What about the Intel NUC boxes, and so forth? What has been used successfully in this community? What do you think I should ask the seller before purchase?

Thanks for all your helpful advice.

Not cheap but almost for sure will run Linux.

Intel NUC's have an advantage in that Intel has always provided superb support for linux.

I can't confirm that you selection on Amazon will fully support virtual machines so you'd have to confirm that.