Documentation & comments… the most underated part of any system

LOL

Be brave enough to test my backups

I can recommend pfSense.

It uses a single config file and upgrades are painless.

If you need to restore the system (I had a drive failure once), just boot up the installer, supply your config file (ie on the same stick) and it will re-install everything just as it was.

Checkout openmediavault they develop on some sbcs so the forum should be helpful

Maybe it’s a regional thing… cal defaults to starting on a Monday for me

I think 90% of the comments here are “write your own notes“ - which is possibly over simplistic.

Everyone’s different but IMHO:

The brain is better for imagination than long term storage. So if you’re stuck trying to remember some obscure command(s), it’s just better to use something else to store that on.

But when the brain understands the core concepts well enough, the details come together as habits (where repetition comes in).

So, if you’re unable to recall something, take some time to think / remind yourself about the underlying concepts and why that’s the command - next time it’ll be easier, eventually it’ll be effortless.

I had to learn some strange concepts for work during a deep technical troubleshooting session on a client’s system and the commands were like just facemashing the keyboard… I’ve no idea what those commands are now (written down), but I can recall what / why I was doing them and that was the key… for me.

(Using computers since '80s)

I’ve gotta agree here that passwords - (and encryption) - should be optional.

Xfce4-terminal has the quake style drop down mode?

(rushes off to try it)

Ooh didn’t know that…

(rushes off to try it)

Well, I’m definitely not using any delivery service - we live ~25 mins drive from the nearest town, so it’s just not an option.

I’ve lived most of my life in the countryside and just think that getting someone else to go get my food is a weird concept anyway… I’d go as far as saying that I’m no-one special, so why ask someone else to get my food - just get it myself (lazy, etc.)

Plus, I like driving, so I’m happy to get out of the house for a while (and drive like a delivery driver to get the food home whilst it’s still hot)

Kinda not really answering your question but Arch’s AUR often needs to compile something from source - so the benefit for me is: just having the absolute latest version running, so if there’s a bug I can report it and help the package become better.

And in 5 years time it might be in Debian stable… /s

IMHO, separate duties… have a NAS for storage and a separate device for “stuff”

And again, IMHO, don’t buy proprietary.

I built my own (Arch linux based) NAS based on an ASRockRack mobo so it has IPMI for remote management and I can power it on /off from Home Assistant.

I’ve setup my NAS to power up in the morning and off later in the day if it’s not in use (based on CPU, I/O, network, etc). It has multiple syncthing daemons running for each person to sync their files from phones and laptops and also has SMB (v3) shares. All on btrfs.

I have a completely separate, low power passively cooled device for Home Assistant, UptimeKuma, Smokeping, Ansible, etc - currently as Proxmox VMs, but I’m considering moving away from that.

Yeah agreed. I know everyone has different issues, but I do think there’s a presumption that because you don’t have to pay anything then that means you just don’t pay…

Please contribute however you can people 👍🏻

You make some good points, but may I say from a single viewpoint.

I can’t physically charge a car at home.

I work from home and travel to customers - most are hours away and I (usually) can’t charge at their office.

Hence, I don’t have an electric car and my next purchase will probably be a self-charging hybrid because I need to recharge / refuel on the journey - hence quickly.

So, in my case, the only way I can go full-electric is with a short charge (/ battery swap) at the places that currently sell fossil fuel, which are becoming battery charging stations (they already have AC mains, so no new infrastructure required).

Including cars.

Drive in, swap non-proprietary batteries with an autoloader, drive out. Done.

+1 for logseq & syncthing. I use it across Windows, Linux and Android to my NAS.

synthing has versioning so I don’t lose edits - kinda like OneNote

Sorry for the confusion there, trying to be too concise in a short reply.

I get the points you’re making; I’ve been there, done the root space recovery thing (the default can be a massive amount of space with modern drives, so I’ve changed it on several systems). I’ve setup lvm across drives, used btrfs (& sunvolumes), etc, so I know where you’re coming from. Never seen quotas actually used out in the wild of (generally) single user domestic settings.

But, moving /home to a separate partition, drive(s), etc. provides flexibility - in this case, the OP’s point of distrohopping.

Good Parent 👍🏻

Yeah, I like /var to be in it’s own partition so I can keep my system(s) under close control, and a separate /boot seems to be necessary these *EFI days