My step-up from Pi was to ebay HP 800 G1 minis then G2’s. They are really well made, there’s full repair manuals available, and they are just a pleasure to swap bits in and out. I’ve heard good things about, and expect similar build quality from the 1 liter Lenovos.

I agree that RAM is a likely constraint rather than processor for self-hosting workloads. Particularly in my case as I’m on Proxmox and run all my docker containers in separate LXCs. I run 32GB in the G2’s which was a straightforward upgrade (they take laptop like memory). One some of them I’ve upgraded the SSDs, or if not, I’ve added M.2 NVME drives (that the G2’s have a slot for).

I love this idea (of just picking something I’m loving each month), it would help me overcome my decision paralysis about who to support.

Yes, a few. Signal (daily use), LetsEncrypt & Certbot (EFF). It’s not enough.

One day I decided I’d spend $x every January (when I do all my other donations) on open source stuff I depend on, and roughly in the proportions I depend on them. It quickly became impossible - I can’t just fund Debian (which I use a lot of in VMs), I’d need to think of all their dependencies, same with NGINX, Node etc etc. The mind boggles.

I need something like a Spotify subscription for open source to assuage my guilt of the great value I extract for my personal use of open source.

The Debian thong made me laugh. Who is buying this? For themselves, their partners? I’m imagining Christmas morning when I’m trying to explain the value of this gift you’ve just opened.

I’m on iOS. I’ve been testing a beta of Jello that looks really promising, but as a beta has a bit of distance to go. I’ll check out Feishin though - thanks for the recommendation.

I’d love Jellyfin to turn out to be the solution, but I suspect it’s not, at least yet.

I’ve got three of these little 1L HP’s, one for production, a spare, and one for development. But really, it’s a small load - that list would happily run on an old nuc. The constraint is really memory which I’ve mostly addressed by moving from VMs to LXCs. And I could be even more efficient by just running all the docker containers on one host if I had to.

Storage for media and backups is a Synology NAS.

Infrastructure:

• Proxmox VE - everything’s virtualised on Debian, mostly in docker inside LXC’s for neat backup/restore and moving between nodes
• NGINX Proxy Manager - in front of most of my homelab services so they have https certificates
• Tailscale - access everything, everywhere, including on phone, securely
• Uptime Kuma - monitoring, with ntfy notifications
• apt cacher NG - unnecessary caching of apt updates

Apps:

• AudioBookShelf - Audio books (download them from here into BookPlayer (iOS) to listen in the car)
• Kavita - eBooks.
• BOINC - curing childhood cancer
• Forgejo - git repository. I do a bit of dev, but everyday self-hosters should probably still learn git to manage their configs
• Jellyfin - TV/Movies
• Syncthing - I replaced dropbox with Syncthing and FileBrowser, and Evernote with Syncthing and SilverBullet

Currently in testing on the dev server:

• neko - virtualised browser. Been experimenting with this in a container with a VPN for really simple secure browsing - ie launch it, do your online banking and then destroy the container.
• Dashy - I go through periods of wanting a pretty home page with all my services, set it all up, then fail to actually use it and eventually delete it, then hear about another cool one…
• Sharry - securish file sharing. I don’t love just emailing my accounts off to the accountant.
• LimeSurvey - survey software (like Survey Monkey) - just something I’m testing for work
• Omada controller - I’ve got a TP-Link switch and WAP that don’t really need centrally controlled, but you know, can be.
• A couple of development environment LXCs I use VS Code in

I still have not landed on a music system. I’ve put some of my library on Jellyfin, and tried a couple of apps with, but haven’t hit on a good combination yet. [edit:formatting}

This, or two turnbuckles joined at the top point with a couple of links of chain.

I read somewhere that GoPros and other action cameras are one of the least used purchases, so I figured “that should mean there’s plenty on eBay”. So grabbed up second hand bargain, played around with it for a couple of weeks, bought some extra batteries and other accessories, and since then it’s sat in the cupboard except for a single occasion.

Turns out you don’t need an action cam if you’re not getting any action.

Or SyncThing + Filebrowser

Agreed. video link

Absolutely Tailscale - I use it for this exact situation of Syncthing from my NAS. Simple to set up, and secure.

Bare metal servers, VPSs, or VM’s you host? If it’s for VM’s you host, then consider Proxmox as hypervisor and use VM templates. I’m sure old school sysops could to the same with QEMU and Virtmanager or something. But basically, I just set up a VM exactly how I like it, then convert it to a template and cookie cutter it out.

I can sense the Nix guys shaking their heads - it’s on my list to try :- )

It has a practical element (Hello Jellyfin, Kavita, AudioBookshelf & Syncthing), but for the rest of it, it’s about 60% hobby and 20% learning stuff that could be potentially career enhancing.

Gnu/Linux absolutely annihilating server operating systems means that I can run the same stack, and use the same tools, that giant companies are based on. All for free. In my spare room. 1L x86 computers cost less than two packs of cigarettes! Little SSD’s are ridiculously cheap. And you don’t even need that stuff - that old laptop in your cupboard will do. Even if you kick in to donate for your software (and I recommend you do if you can) it’s a cheap hobby compared to golf or skating or whatever. Anything you need to learn there’s blog posts and videos available.

We live in an amazing time in this hobby. I know there’s companies that would like to take it away from us, but Open Source just keeps kicking goals. Thank you FOSS developers, Gnu, Linus, FSM, Cthulhu and the other forces in the universe that make this possible.

My Dad gets confused trying to make a call on his phone, but he can say “Alexa, call Third Breakfast”.

We have an emergency button to go around his neck, with an monthly phone plan, which seems to permanently live on the kitchen bench…

This is a genuinely fresh and intriguing idea, but you’ve sort of answered your own question (as have most of the commenters) by noting it would immediately be abused. So I think you are going to have to be the one deciding how your compute cycles and bandwidth are being used.

BOINC/World Community Grid is the obvious choice since they are set up for exactly this use case. There’s also things like Sheepit - a render farm. Maybe you could run a Tor node .

I’d had a bit of Linux server experience, but no desktop Linux. I tried Pop!_OS on an old macbook and everything just worked. I could figure out what was going on without any drama.

Instructions for avoiding sign in, and side-loading etc

Lol, I was more thinking Nano is a hufflepuff who’s just really easy to be around. Who needs rock climbing when you can just lie in on Sunday mornings scrolling your phone and showing each other memes.