I have fallen in love

...with VIA's Pico-ITX motherboard.

I was one of the Mac Mini's and Macbook Air's harshest critics about their low capabilities. I'm still scathing about the Air - its portability is not the sort of portability that people find useful. The Mini is not good as an entry-point Apple computer, and it's still locked down with a proprietary software stack. Despite what Apple fanbois say, it's not a "cutting-edge form factor".

And it's a giant compared to the computer I want to build, with a Pico-ITX board and a 4 gigabyte SSD. You could LITERALLY take it anywhere. The board itself is 10cm x 7.2cm. The power supply probably adds another 3-4cm on the long side.

It's not a powerful PC. It's not expandable. It's not supercheap, but it would cost less than my current computer. It's not easy to get the parts here. It doesn't even have the best Linux compatibility. But it's tiny, it's quiet, it works for basic tasks, and I've just got to get one.