As everyone recommends something else, I will throw in yet another suggestion and maybe a way to put it in perspective.

hardware:

What ever you have right now is enough. I would recommend something that has more than one drive, but you can upgrade lager all the time. Watch out for power consumption.

OS

my recommendation is proxmox. You can run multiple OS on it, test things, make backups and restore them. It takes out the pressure. It is a bit more advanced but you can configure most things regarding VM creation via GUI. You can run Ubuntu, Debian, nixos, whatever. What I like about it, is that you can install home assistant as its own VM and it runs independent of your are stack or immich if you like.

the purist would probably suggest plain Debian or so. You can access it via ssh and install docker or whatever. You will learn a lot, just like with proxmox, but here you can’t do backups as easily as with proxmox. You can also install Debian or so directly in proxmox.

plug and play could be yunohost, CasaOS and things like that. It is an “server app store OS”, so you install things you want to run from their app store. Its mostly one click and it runs. Its nice if you don’t want to learn all that crap, but you are also limited in what you can do. You could install this on proxmox. Some don’t allow good storage management, best you’d o your own research if you are interested in this route.

the storage

If you want to store all you data and images on there, you propably want to go with 2 hdds mirrored, so you don’t loose your local data if one fails. I would go with no less than, 1tb, but data usage depends I guess. To run the os, definetly use ssd or nvme for their speed.

There is the 321 backup rule.

• 3 copies
• 2 different media (hdd, ssd, magnetic tape, whatever)
• 1 offsite storage.

I have a 4 1 1.5 set up:

• mirrored local storage
• 1 media (hdds)
• 1.5 offsite ad I have a mirrored offsite storage

321 is ideal but 211 would also be ok for a home lab. Some run 110 and hope for the best.

how to access it

There are multiple ways to get to your data.

The headache free one for me is a vpn mesh (tailscale, pangolin, netbird), so all your devices are in a mesh and you can access your stiff from everywhere. pro:

• very secure as it relies on the wireguard protocol and is not exposing anything. Its also pretty fast, the cap is you own internet connection. It uses smart routing, so if you are in the same network, it tries to find the fastest way. cons:
• you can’t share your story as easily without others having a vpn connection.

You can also use a wireguard connection to your home router and expose you complete home network to your vpn. Also secure, my router (Fritz! Box from avm) offers this natively, but I would argue the vpn mesh solution is easier.

There is the cloud flared tunnel which some recommend, I cant say anything about it, did not use it yet.

You could also do port forwarding on your network. That way you can expose a reverse proxy for example through your home router, and access it from the outside. That way you rely on the services you run to be secure, not have a zero day and to do the authentication well. For me the risk that I forgot to update a service and there being a security risk to my data is too high, so I use the vpn route.

services to run

What ever route you choose, here are suggestions I found nice:

• docker makes it easy and fun to start and stop stuff. I use compose files as they allow you to copy that config file as a backup.
• traefik as a reverse proxy. That way you can reach your services via a domain (like shoppinglist.hezaethos.lol or so). It allows to do port mapping as well, so you could run game severs as well. Its a nice trade off between ease of use and features. Caddy is easier but can’t do dns-01 certificate requests.
• immich for hosting you images. Has phone apps, is pretty much just google photos self hosted.
• paperless to uplaod all your PDFs. It does machine learning to sort your files. Its just a convenient way to store all you documdnts in one place. Its not a google drive Alternative
• nextcloud or truenas to store files

Have fun! Do what ever feels fun and don’t put your goals too high, it will burn you out :)

The AI buttle is deflating right now, CPUs are getting cheaper by about 20%, as well as ram and storage, as old boy Sammy can’t hold up his exaggerations and had to admit he can only spend half as much in the next 5 years. I really hope to get a gpu with 16-24g in the next 2 years, running AI locally will only get better

Edit: read comment below, I’m talking rubbish.

Isn’t ffmpeg from the MPEG group which is pretty huge and has a bunch of money from all bug tech that want to use it? Idk, just what I have heard :D

I think the only real arm laptop that runs Linux decently is a Mac. I have a m1 pro I repaired for cheap. I installed asahi on it, which went crazy smooth (after Mac-OS stopped messing around). It does not feel different or faster than my other laptop. The batterylife is quite long though.

Its nice for coding and web, but its missing stuff:

• flatpak, apt and the like need to offer arm versions of a package, not everything is available. (For example Signal is missing, video codecs are missing)
• can’t watch Netflix (video codecs missing)
• external monitors are not working yet (it should be close to a release)
• I had Linux force stop some apps because ram was full (I played factorio, and I think one time this happened as well with freecad or so?)

So in the end, you can get it working, for me its too much pain for too little change

I would recommend a Mac m1 air with 16gb ram and 500+ssd.

The asahi website shows what macs are supported, m1>m2>m3 etc

My frame work 13 has to me the best keyboard. Its really nice and clicky and has a nice long travel. Compared to some Lenovos and other devices i tried I like mine the best.

The touchpad is ok. Its not a Mac touchpad but its ok I guess

Herrjemine.

“Wir scannen trotzdem welter” “Für unsere Sicherheit” “-” “Für unsere Sicherheit, richtig?”

I don’t understand where this doffers from other single bit vectors used already for quite some time. Is it just that the algorithm is more precise to reduce the 32 bit into 1 bit, than other compression models?

Another idea I just had:

Create a plan that goes through the 3 corners that the 3 edges of the corner you want to change, connect to. Create a offset plane from that plane, until it reaches the depth you want to cut off the corner. Then cut it off and use a fillet to make the corner smooth

There is a very good episode by the Darknet diaries podcast about it. Highly recommend the show and episode

To add yet another advice:

• Get a Lenovo or dell slim client (not a nuc/mini pc but the bigger version with data ports. Roughly same power but more useful hardware)

• get 2*4 tb hdd for mass storage

• a 500gb ssd for the os. If you have the money, maybe even 2 of them and clone them

• the os is tricky. You can use proxmox, which is basically like Linux but as you have multiple vms in there you can have multiple Linux installed to take care of. Another choice would be something like truenas, casaOs, unraid etc. I can’t recommend one there, I use proxmox and its great if you like CLi/sah

• to make it accessible from not home, use tailscale. You can also use a domain/dns to not have to remember ips

• if you have the option, take a mother thin client or pc with same amount of storage to another location and install a backup system, like proxmox backup system. That way your data is safe. Take a look at encryption if you dong trust the other place.

• my backup server draws 15w idle and 40-50w when its working

• my home lab is drawing 30w idle and 60 under load

• its just another factor to be aware of

Have fun!

Paywall?

That id my main issue. The lack of transparency send me down a bug hunt for a few hours before I realized apt installed a snap package. Makes me angry for some reason, but now I know

Solche Trottel. Man geht ja nicht zu einem kleinen hosting Anbieter um dann doch seine Daten an ms ab zu geben. Ich checks nicht…

I am a bit confused. I see a lot of problems that the EU has. But it is so stupidly important to have a collective so we have a stance against other economy or military giants. Stuff like mandatory usb c, some environmental stuff, support of the Ukraine, having basically free trade and travel inside the EU, more wealthy countries supporting and helping economically weaker countries, GDPR (pain for devs, i know) and things like that come to my mind. I am aware there are a shit ton of problems in the EU, but I would not want to miss those above. The US would kick each country around like shit if we would not be united.

I sometimes feel like the left, which I count myself to, is just as populilistic as the far right. Its easy to bash on someone or a system that is flawed, but without the EU for example we would be fucked as well. Why not fight for a better EU? Why spend time and energy to divide again? Its not black and white as always I suppose

Its about 2 years with Linux on my laptop and about 1 year full time on all my devices, besides my work laptop with runs w11.

I run KDE neon on both. I distro hopped around from Ubuntu, fedora, mint, KDE, pop but ended up with KDE again. I feel like it does not matter anymore what de or distro I use. I need my browser and a terminal and my tools, then i can work.

Its nice having a reminder every time I am working with windows that I did the correct choice.

There are some bugs, but at least tgjey are mine now.

Only thing I miss, is ableton. I did not dabble in it with wine or winboat too much, but that’s the only thing I miss.

But worth it. I stand behind the idiology and got a few other people around me to switch

Das ist echt crazy, so viele machen da mit von denen ich echt was anderes erwartet hätte. Die scheinen richtig gut zu zahlen lol

There is a paywall

Ich hab gehört der ganze Apparat bis man eine Durchsuchung machen kann ist so langsam, dass Deutschland schon sicher ist und man bid dahin umziehen kann

CAD:

• FreeCAD (bit clunky at times, it forces you into one specific workflow. Its free, open source and what you create with it will always be yours. Its what I use. It feels like C in programming language terms)
• onshape (feels very similar to fusion. Its a smooth experience, runs in the browser and is a nice tool. I liked it and did some cool stuff with it. Only drawback: the free only allows to store files openly, so everyone can see your designs. Kind of open source if you want, but I think files can only be opened with oshape. Its by a team that worked for solidworks. It feels more like python.)
• open s cad (you code your 3d objects. Its rough to learn and build complex parts I guess? But a pretty cool idea. Worth a try!)

SLICERS (all open source) It does not really matter, just try and pick what you like. I used them for fdm only, idk about resin.

• cura (by ultimaker, one of the older brands. Slicer is quite nice, nothing special I guess, just works quite well.
• prusa slicer (by prusa. THE printer brand I think. A bit confusion interface compared to cura I think, works great tho)
• orca slicer (based on slic3r I think? Has supposedly one of the best slicing algorithms if I remember correcly and a lot of settings. The forbidden one (baboo lab slicer) is based on this)
• slic3r (the og slicer of sorts, never tried it)

OTHERS: To control your printer (remotely if it does not offer it out of the box. I tried none of them):

• octoprint (sends live g code to your printer. Offers camera stream. Runs on a raspberry pi)
• mainsail is (controls your printer, if it runs clipper. Supposed to be one for the best I think. Runs on a raspberry as well I think?)
• many new ones have remote controll stuff build in. Prusa offer remote management, same as bamboo, sovol, some enders and anycubic ad well I suppose. Some run in the browser.

To control your printer when fiddling with it, you can send gcode to the printer over serial, if you can connect to it via usb. Can’t name a CLI tool for that from the top of my head.

There are python tools to generate 3d meshes from 2d images. Look at huggingface how to install and use it. There are also tools in the browser. Pretty cool stuff!