[Maxhawk]

I don't really have anything constructive to contribute, but I felt compelled to report that my Mini 9 which has been sitting dormant on a shelf for as long as I can remember is finally getting some use again.

I originally had Windows 7 running on it and it was just dog slow and was barely powerful enough to do basic web browsing (likely the fault of Microsoft). I bought it so I could plug into the OBD-II port of my car to log data and make changes. I eventually got a higher end laptop which meant the Mini-9 got relegated to a shelf.

Recently I found a need to run minicom (Linux terminal program) because the product I was working with didn't play nicely with Windows. The product has a USB port which enumerates to a serial port when plugged into a computer. Windows doesn't like it when the COM port goes away and forces you to reload your terminal program but only after the COM port has come up. Linux on the other hand (minicom) will gladly sit and wait for the USB serial port to come up and just work. The issue is that I need to send a couple of carriage returns to the serial port upon enumeration, and by the time Windows sees the port and allows me to load Putty, for example, the prompt to accept my carriage returns has already passed.

I loaded lubuntu (light version of Ubuntu) onto the Mini 9 and it feels snappy and runs minicom like a champ. Sure I'm not doing anything intensive but Win 7 felt slow doing nothing lol.

I suppose the Mini 9 is sort of a relic these days since your typical smart phone is tons more powerful. But for simple stuff it's still useful....