I don’t know much about Home Assistant, but you could keep that separate on an R.Pi of its own. Or install it as a native app on Debian if you use a desktop OS on your server.

Tinkering is fun. Home server is one of the few projects that have gone through to full completion. Silksong will take up my time for now till I find a new project. Might just make a new macropad for work.

Let me know if you want any details of my setup. I basically used 2 weeks off in July to set this whole thing up. There are lots of great Docker apps once you learn to set it up. AI has made this much easier to get into now.

I’ve heard of Docker Desktop, but sounds like it was not well received.

Don’t know what this means. Docker is universally loved and works perfectly on desktop OSs.

I’m running Debian on my server mini PC. Docker will work on any installation of Windows, Linux, etc and work perfectly well. I played around with it initially by setting up a virtual machine with Debian on my gaming computer and seeing if I could get Docker apps working.

Fast forward to now, and I’m kinda sad that my server is all set up and stable and I have nothing to tinker with.

Don’t do it on a machine that holds valuable data or one that you need the machine to stay functional for work. I repeatedly fucked up my installation trying to get dual boot setup initially. Bootloader are easy to mess up. Even on a working installation, a Windows update would sometimes break the dual boot.

Its not difficult to set up a virtual machine inside your Linux installation. That way you don’t have to reboot and lose your other workflow to access your windows apps.

I started with a 2 bay Synology NAS (still have this as storage only and no computing) and added a 12the gen i5 mini PC I got on eBay for £230. That’s worked out great and I would highly recommend it. If you’re on a budget then look for some older hardware.

Docker is also not that difficult to get started with and worth messing around with to learn. I started on with Docker on my Synology and out grew that quickly and have been really happy with my mini PC.

Looks good. I’ve put it on my server.

This looks a lot more complicated that Watchtower. Is this something different or add other functionality?

The tool is good and I used to use it. But noobs be warned, you might cause hiccups or janky functionality and not understand which setting caused it.

Apparently Mullvad browser on desktop is good for anti-fingerprinting. I’ve been using that.

Does this undermine Googles plans to block side loading?

Its recent in being a month old now, but:

• set up a dedicated server mini PC that really let me expand my self hosting beyond my Synology
• switched from Plex to Jellyfin (including for music)
• found out I can hard link files with my Arr’s setup so I can seed without having to keep duplicate copies of files, so that’s a win for the network. The privacy aspect is that I’m happy to get rid of data mining services I was using before my Arr’s setup.
• started using Immich for photos. So far so good
• Self hosted notes (Joplin)
• got remote desktop working on my home server, so if I’m at work and need to do a personal task, then I can do it on my own PC rather than the work browser.
• I use a chat app to make groups in which I’m the only participant. This is for sharing things across devices (links, files, notes, etc). Even on locked down work PCs I can open the web chat app and access my self-shared content. I used Telegram for this before. Now I’m self hosting an Element server.
• I’ve got syncthing running on my Retroid Pocket 5 + PC with Switch emulation. So Now I can ditch my Nintendo Switch completely and keep control of my save files. Fuck you Nintendo.

E-ink is easier on the eyes, especially for extended reading. Same for the lack of backlight.

The screen is bigger than a phone.

The battery lasts much much longer. Reading doesn’t need to kill the phone battery when it is on it’s own device.

Reading can be done in places where phones are not permitted (I take my Kindle with me when I take my kids to the pool).

Readers can be cheap enough that it isn’t really a problem having both devices.

Sounds like normal UK freeview terrestrial TV. I think there are freeview streaming sites and apps if you search.

None of that logic matters man. Regulators don’t understand this shit. Do you think the UK’s online age restrictions make anyone safer? It’s all bullshit for their own purposes.

Did you see how difficult it was for “Stop Killing Games” to get momentum and be considered by regulators? And that was arguing for products you’ve already paid for.

Google will argue “security concerns” and point at Apple’s practices and easily get a free pass from regulators.

There needs to be an alternative to Android and Apple. Money may be better spent on funding non-Pixel hardware that can use Graphene.

I know. That’s why I’m saying it’s worth trying…for the improved UI.

Which distro should I use?

Them’s fightin words round here. Fuck [Distro 1] and its fanboys. [Distro 2] is clearly superior.

For real though:

Things for you to decide:

Which desktop environment do you want (KDE, Gnome, Cinnamon, cosmic, etc)

Do you want it to be super up to date all the time (quick updates, but may break something)? Or are you OK with slower updates for a more stable system?

Difficulty: How hard do you want things to be? Do you want things to be set up out-of-the-box and lots of solutions online? Or are you willing to dive deep, do stuff yourself and figure stuff out from wikis?

I wanted KDE (objectively the best desktop environment obviously) and started with OpenSUSE Tumbleweed and loved it. Highly recommended. I didn’t know about TuxedoOS at the time and that seems like a good place to start too. Now I know more and am on CachyOS and am super happy with it.

Try Kwrite. I’ve liked it a lot more than Kate.