Believe that mini uses a stripped down version of Xandros OS, which may have a firewall included by default. Most linux distros come with a firewall, you just have to turn it on if you feel you need it. You would have to check yours. Xandros is easy to use, very intuitive. I played around with it, it's neat but didn't like it because of the small 4GB SSD that's 90% full when you get it. People have complained after doing OS updates the drive is 98% full. It needed a bigger SSD, at least 8GB.