First Linux Box

I solo stake on a Raspberry Pi 2 and it's worked out well so far.

For the price of even a minimum-spec Meerkat, it looks like you could get a couple of these, which will outperform it and get better cooling, and for a decent one (better CPU, larger 2nd drive for a longer service life), you could buy a gaming PC. Don't worry about Win10 being preinstalled, switching to Linux is easy.

(Note the products at those links won't be valid in a week, but similar ones will still be available at the site.)

[edit]OK, just took a larger peek around System76's website, and you shouldn't buy from them. Their machines are so expensive that "ludicrously overpriced" is an understatement. Apple computers are a better deal.

 

I'd definitely recommend switching to Linux, but if your goal is secure Decred staking, then it's going to be challenging for a newbie. My favorite intro to Linux book is the Linux Phrasebook. Even if you intend to use a GUI to stake, you'll still want to be familiar with the commandline, which is what that book is all about.

As for System76, the Meerkat looks to be a rebadged Intel NUC.

I own a System76 laptop. It's an overpriced, rebadged Clevo. The NUC sounds like a nicer thing to rebadge, but it's still a rebadge. You might be able to save yourself some money by buying a NUC and then installing Linux on it yourself.

If you're interested in security, you also may want to check the list of Qubes compatible hardware: https://www.qubes-os.org/hcl/

At a glance, the NUC looks to be compatible.

 

+1 on the Raspberry Pi. I currently use the Pi2 as a backup solo stake machine in a different network/location than my primary. It's a bit slow sometimes but the new Pi3 with the quad-core ARM CPU should be even better. Those mini/compact PCs are way overpriced. You'd probably be fine with an older laptop... Linux doesn't take much CPU power to run.

I think Linux being more secure is an idea that has stuck around from the WinXP days. I think the latest versions of Windows do a pretty good job at keeping users safe from themselves. After all, it is the users who unknowingly infect their own computers 100% of the time. Safe browsing habits and a locked down firewall should be just fine on any OS.

 

Well, 99% of the time. WannaCry actually used an exploit that allowed the malware to infect a machine without any user interaction, which is what made it so insidious. That said, it used an exploit that only existed on machines running a version of Windows 8.1 or earlier from before March of this year, and the prevalence of infections says more about the policies of companies(and the NSA) where machines were infected than about Windows or WannaCry.

Linux is more secure for the same reason Macintosh computers don't tend to get viruses: since most user- and business- machines in the world use some version of Windows, most malware is designed to hit Windows machines. If Linux ever overtakes Windows as the primary operating system in the world, expect it to suffer just as much of a reputation for poor security as Windows does.