I need some advice here. I'll be the first to admit that I want to build a CarPC just for the sake of building one.

That said I want the following features:

1) GPS Navigation (I'm currently using my PDA for this and would like a more 'integrated' solution.)
2) CD Playback capability
3) DVD/Video playback capability
4) MP3 playback capability (already taken care of by the Rio Car/empeg.)

and of course must "play nice" with the empeg. The rest is icing on the cake.

Hardware:
I currently have a Mac mini and can think of no better hardware suited for this application (especially now that the CNX-P1900 is available.)

I will need to acquire a touchscreen.

The issues I see are many:

Boot-up time. As far as the main music system in the vehicle goes - Anything that takes longer to boot than the empeg is unacceptable. For this reason I want to leave the empeg installed and use the carputer through its AUX inputs.

Peripherals. This may just be a personal thing but I feel that keyboards and mice have no place in a car. I would require a front-end software package that would allow all interaction via the touchscreen.

The vehicle I'll be installing this in is a Scion tC. There is no real room anywhere in the console for a screen and the empeg. Also, I believe that the airbag is too close to the top of the dash to allow mounting there. Some fabrication may be in order.

OS:
MacOS - The issues I see here are boot-up time: ~53 seconds from power on to use (is there a way to speed this up?) Also there is no 'good' GPS navigation software for the mac (Route66 is available but is not a true turn by turn solution and gets terrible reviews by people using it.) Would Windows navigation software run reliably in VirtualPC?

There are some front-end software packages that could satisfy my 'no keyboard/mouse' requirement.

Linux - I could install Linux on the mini. This would probably be the most flexible solution although I'm not in any rush to replace MacOS. I'm pretty sure that with some kernel and init script manipulation I could get the boot time to an acceptable level. There are some front-end packages but again there is little to no navigation software. I guess Wine is an option but this isn't ideal.

Windows is right out (nor shall thou count to 2 less thou proceedeth to 3.) I have my hardware platform in hand and would rather not build up another new PC.

Unless I'm missing something (and I probably am) it seems that things just aren't 'mature' enough to accomplish my list of requirements. I guess that another option is to buy a half-din DVD/CD player (that just happens to fit perfectly in the storage tray under the empeg) and to wait for things to get to the next level?

Any thoughts?