Pros: Small, its very good for a media center.

Cons: BAD BAD, network is now cutting out, can't transfer large files to the computer without it disappearing from the network. Would not buy again, expected quality from ECS, there is a reason I have never bought anything from them before.

Pros: I love this thing. It mounts on the back of a tv, and I use a wireless keyboard/mouse combo and it runs lubuntu just fine. I was afraid it might be underpowered and that perhaps 2 gigs of ram might not be enough, but it works fairly well. I added Kingston 120GB Mini-SATA (mSATA) MLC SMS200S3/120G to each of the three I bought. Worked great. Installed the os on the 32 gb included and used the new 120gb for storage. Had the wireless keyboards already, so around $150 total invested in each. Not bad for a pretty nice little computer that you can mount on your tv or on the back of your monitor.

Cons: The ONLY thing I find at fault with this model, is that the wireless network will just DIE when you use the hdmi cable connected to the TV. It takes about 5 to 10 minutes for it to die, but die it does. I would say maybe I just had a bad wireless chip, but I bought 3 of these, and it happens on all 3. The power/block cord seems a bit flimsy, but it works. For the wireless being buggy and failing to work after 10 minutes using the hdmi I deducted 1 star. If that was fixed, it'd be perfect. I think the issue is probably with the hdmi connected, the unit heats up a bit more than when it isn't, and this causes the wireless to flake out and die. (could possibly be a linux driver issue... but seems unlikely as it seems to run fine with just vesa connection).

Other Thoughts: Yes, but would definately want them to know about the wireless issue.

Pros: - works great with Windows 8 or Windows 10
- OpenELEC works wonderfully as well.

I set this up as a Windows 10 based KODI machine with nextPVR because the windows drivers work great with this machine for playing media content. OpenELEC worked great as well; however, the built in PVR backend (TVheadend) I don't think is up to par; otherwise, if using OpenELEC as just a frontend media player it works. Overall very pleased with how well it works with Windows 10.

Cons: I really wanted to get mythbuntu working on this PC as both a backend (just attaching an external USB hard drive) and frontend. Unfortunately it requires a good amount of effort getting the correct video drivers to play media files well. While I delved into it a bit, I wasn't happy with the result and just don't have time to dig deeper into getting it to work right as OpenELEC proves this can be done. With other linux based solutions however, the media playback just seemed to lack the clarity I'm use to with a dedicate Nvidia card.

Other Thoughts: It can be a bit of a pain getting this thing to boot properly if you are not aware of the need to adjust the bios parameters for legacy boot vs UEFI.

Pros: Linux Mint 17.3 installed easily. Plays YouTube and local HD content readily. It's TINY :). VGA port makes it more connectible to older monitors. USB 2.0 are occupied by keyboard and mouse, but Bluetooth peripherals would solve that slight shortage of ports.

Cons: Bluetooth works under Linux Mint; WiFi doesn't (natively). Other than that, I cannot think of a negative. CORRECTION: An update or two after install, I got a prompt for my WiFi password. Absolutely everything works with Linux Mint 17.3 Mate.

Other Thoughts: This little PC replaces a desktop PC in which the motherboard died. For the cost of a new board and RAM, I got a new PC, and it is nearly as capable as the behemoth it replaces. If there is a shortcoming to be mentioned, it would be the lack of storage, but with the abundance of external solutions available this is hardly an issue. I had my doubts at first, but after a couple of weeks, I admit I am impressed. I might just have to convince a few friends with older PCs to buy a Liva. New tagline for these little PCs: Love-a Liva <3

Pros: Small and low power. Runs fast on OpenBSD x64 Not to shabby running Win7 x64

Cons: Doesn't have 2 nics to make a super small PFsense box

Other Thoughts: will try some usb to nic converter to load PFsense Update! Dlink DUB-100 works !! I read that they do not preform well. I am testing tonight and will post results soon

Pros: VGA and HDMI video. Love the VESA mount.
Was able to install and boot Linux Mint 17.3 from USB drive.

Cons: I have been installing OSs onto HDs since the early 1980s and this was one of the most difficult.
I was unable to get this unit to boot from internal eMMC drive.
Not a mention of installing Linux on LIVA website.

Other Thoughts: This BIOS setup allowed me to install Linux Mint 17.3 to an external USB drive:
Operation System Select: Windows 7 or other
Boot Mode Select: UEFI
Boot Option #1: USB Flash
only by using the USB 3.0 port.
I would like to see a review with more hints on how to install and boot from eMMC drive.
I hope I can install and boot from eSATA drive...when it arrives. Two weeks and awaiting
delivery from http://www.newegg.com/Goldendisk

Pros: Small, silent, runs cools, great video streaming box which is why I bought it.
It's small enough to sit behind my sound bar, but might mount it to the back of the tv with the supplied bracket (tv is on a stand, so might have to glue it or just use velcro).

Cons: Took a couple weeks to get it all setup and going finally with ubuntu. I don't use linux much, so was a learning curve. Stay with the default bios and make sure you create the linux partitions when installing it or it will fail after the install starts because it doesn't have the scratch disk or something. Had to mess with the sound drivers to get sound to work over hdmi. Maybe because I installed it with a vga monitor.

Other Thoughts: Now have it running as a streaming box with Kodi hooked to my windows 7 pc streaming my dvd collection. Works better with a hard wired 1gb connection because the pc is upstairs. Also run it with slacker audio streaming in a web browser through the sound bar. Hooked up an old wireless usb keyboard and mouse and can now access it from the couch much better than typing on the phone or tablet (have VNC for desktop remote). For a $100 I'm pretty happy.

It's not a roku or Apple tv, but they don't stream your own dvd images, which is what I use. So much better than having a big PC in the living room sucking power for a simple task.

Originally tried to install the kodi/ubuntu bundle distribution, but that didn't work. Not sure if it was because of the limited dist. or I just needed to create the linux partitions first. So ended up installing the regular ubuntu dist and then added kodi.

Still weird they don't have any documentation to walk you through a ubuntu install, just Windows 8 I think.

Pros: Tiny little PC
Great price!!! -- $75 after rebate
Silent, fanless
Have Linux Mint 17.1 booting off the eMMC after some work/research
Wanted to run pfsense or untangle on it as a headless firewall/router appliance,but not sure that it is possible unless I add an mSATA drive, so maybe have to find another use for this - again, the price was great, so no big deal.
Will extend desktop if both VGA and HDMI ports connected to monitors (on linux anyway)

Cons: Would be nice to be able to upgrade RAM, but it is soldered on.

Other Thoughts: As others have said, booting linux from the eMMC is not a straightforward process. Don't know why ECS makes it such a secret.
This worked for me:
1) leave BIOS alone or reset to defaults (I messed around too much w/ win7, other OS, legacy modes - won't work!)
(use Win8, UEFI modes)
2) get a 64bit distro (I used a linux cinnamon mint 17.1 I had laying around)
3) as others have noted, use Rufus (http://rufus.akeo.ie/) to make a USB boot image, and make sure you check “GPT partition scheme for UEFI computer” for the partition scheme.

At one point I also had a 64bit version install via CDROM, but couldn't boot - probably due to BIOS settings I changed.

Pros: 1. worked out of the box using a USB stick
Using this as my Digital picture frame I install a puppy linux version and added the console program feh. open a terminal window and type the commands and it can search down through all my folders in my Pictures directory.
bought a cheep AOC LED 22' monitor for a little over $100 and this box for $100 including shipping. Ran Kodi on it and it worked but just barely. you could play a local movie, you could stream. But you had to do one thing at a time and dont ask it to do anything else while a movie was running. but what do you expect from an atom processor?
2. really small form factor.
Its small fits in your hand

3. has HDMI and VGA
if you still need VGA this has it for you but it still has the HDMI

Cons: 1. Price
When I first saw this it was $85 now its up $160? I think you would be better served going with the $200 Gigabyte Brix with the projector lot more computing power. When these were $85 to say $110 I would say great deal, now that they are around $160 I think you would be better served going with something else

2. eMMC card
I tried but couldnt get it to boot off the eMMC card.
Look in these reviews and I think someone got it to work, and gives you what to try, but after spending some time with it, and it didnt work, I didnt feel like spending more time on it. Sound like from what I read you need windows 10 or a newer Ubuntu to make it work off the built in eMMC card. Its formatted in eFat? and only really recent OS can read it or know what it is, but dont take my word for it Im going from memory on what I read on the internet!

Other Thoughts: For what I used it for it worked great it's small comes with a VESA mount and does what I want it to do.
if you rather spend $160 for an atom processor computer than $200 for an i-3 it wont do you wrong just know what to expect from it. I gave it 4 stars based on the price I paid for it and knock the star off because of the eMMC diffculty.

Pros: Works as intended.
Runs great with Linux (I've tried Lubuntu 14.04, Xubuntu 15.10 and Ubuntu 15.10).

Cons: Does not state that the OS must be 64 bit, in spite of only having 2 GB of RAM, I learned this through other comments here on Newegg after some trial-and-error.

Other Thoughts: I had a very difficult time getting this to run as a Steam In-Home Streaming Client, but that was because Valve packages libraries that override the system libraries, but do not always work as intended. Following the advice online from several sources, I found that I needed to install 32 bit packages of libva1, libva-X11-1, and libva-glx1 (sudo apt-get install libva1:i386 libva-X11-1:i386 libva-glx1:i386), then install Steam, and then delete every libva* from the .steam directory in my home directory. This would have been easier had I been able to install a 32 bit OS. After this, I could activate hardware decoding for the Steam streaming, and it seems to work great now. This box works well as a Kodi/XBMC client, too, so long as UPnP is enabled on a host PC somewhere, but I'm sure it'd do fine with local HD video files, but I have not yet tested it.

There's some screen tearing, but that's another Linux and Intel issue, not a LIVA X issue, which can be fixed by adding Tear-Free to x11.conf.d (Google can tell one how).