Good point. I think it’s super important to make this decision early on. Whether you want to invest time and do self hosting, or not and you’ll want to use managed services or regular non-free platforms. Doing things by yourself certainly teaches a lot. I do it. And I gain knowledge, independence and I think it’s important to understand the tools I use on a regular basis and not let Apple/Google take care of my life. And since I do a lot of things with computers, I can make good use of the gained knowledge. However I can also feel how someone wouldn’t want to do that. They might have other hobbies, a stressful job or a family and it’s quite some time that I spend digging through configuration files, reading documentation and maintaining stuff. It has to be worth it in some way, or it becomes a liability. And I think that’s not super obvious when starting the journey. I’m glad we have managed services which give independence without spending too much time. But I also prefer going all the way and learning lots of stuff.

Sure. I usually do the same thing. The laptop on which I’m typing right now is a refurbished Dell one and I really prefer a bit older enterprise hardware to new consumer hardware. Nice build quality, no nonsense and Linux runs great on that device. And it cost me a fraction of a new machine. However… with the intended use-case of a media center I’m not sure. Intel always adds hardware acceleration in their iGPUs and the modern codecs are quite demanding. I wouldn’t buy an older generation that doesn’t really support AV1. I’m not sure if hardware from 2 years ago can do that. And if someone buys a new TV set which supports HDR or something and then the recently bought, refurbished media center is out of date again… that also doesn’t help. Maybe I’d buy a new one in this case and just use it for the next 10 years. That’s also sustainable. But yeah, you have to pay attention to the details if you’re buying off-brand. But that also applies to most computer hardware, regardless. It’s a bit more of a lottery with cheap and off-brand devices.

Add some googly eyes if it “lives” in the living room. They fit right above the switch which would then become the nose.

Yeah back when I needed storage (quite some years ago) the mini pcs were less capable and more pricey, so I ended up building a NAS myself. It’s a regular, yet very power efficient PC. But due to size, it doesn’t fit next to the TV. If I’d do the same thing today, I’d certainly consider a machine like this. And $200 doesn’t sound much for a 2-bay NAS.

Uuhh, that’s a cute little trash can. Now fit that with the maximum of RAM it supports and two 12TB harddrives… And it’ll do more media center and NAS than the average person needs.

Someone linked a list of Mini-PCs here: https://lemmy.world/post/19837516

I think the N100 sounds good. But I can’t comment on buying a cheap chinesium one versus a refurbished Fujitsu/Lenovo or an Intel NUC.

Those videos don’t make it to my filter bubble. But I agree.

Aside from Lemmy and getting random news via social media… I have a set of news sites and computer magazines I like. I think we have several good ones. I visit them manually when I’m in the mood.

It comes with a load of different perspectives and emotions. I agree with the person pointing out it has a lot to do with victimhood and blaming other people, if used as a self-description. I wouldn’t use it that way. And using it on another person I think it’s derogatory. So I also wouldn’t use it unless I wanted to hurt someone.

yeah, you don’t listen. i’d say complaining is fine, generally in most circumstances. but it won’t get you anywhere in this case.

Yeah, I don’t think I agree with you at all. Software development and operation are vastly different jobs. Packaging is yet a different story. Maintainers need different things than developers. Handling dependencies is a chore, and you need lots of them if your product speaks dozens of protocols and can interconnect with thousands of devices, each with their own quirks… All the people have something in mind. They already pay attention to deployment and support several methods. Sure it’s not the method you have in mind. But the world doesn’t specifically revolve around you. There are other factors at play. And sure. It’d be awesome if we solved software packaging, dependency hell, the supply chain of larger projects and everything. It’s just not easy. And reality has quite some limitations. It’s just… fighting reality doesn’t get you anywhere. Sometimes we have to make ends meet with imperfect solutions. Or you just live without a smart home. Or use a different software stack. I mean there is FHEM and some other projects.

And with that said, there is some merit to what you’re saying. Software should be designed with usage in mind. It’s just not easy and there are contradicting requirements. Either someone puts in all the effort to cater for your specific use-case… Or they don’t.

Ah thx, I think I read that back then… Pretty annoying.

Do you have some links to read up on that? I saw the Nix stuff. And the Home Assistant devs seem pretty alright to me. Sometimes they make decisions which I don’t understand. But I’d like to know what kind of internet drama surrounds this…

A lot of software isn’t packaged for Debian. Especially complex ones and webapplications tend to be Docker containers or something like that. Home Assistant has a lot of Python dependencies which are a chore to maintain the Debian way. Same probably applies to some other distros. I mean it can be done, as Arch and NixOS show…

And you have Docker, you can install HA core in a Python virtual environment on any distro, or install Supervised, or the appliance (OS).

So there are many ways to install it. And I have the same complaint for other software. For example I’d like Nextcloud and a few other collaboration services to be available as distro packages. Sadly they aren’t available like that.

Sure. I’d say the price is alright if they manage everything for you. There is some labor involved in designing such a platform, packaging the applications, maintaining the infrastructure, preparing updates etc and offering support of an application level. If they do that, it’s probably worth the additional bucks. I maintain some services myself and get away way cheaper. But there is a substancial investment in time to learn webhosting and maintaining stuff.

Not sure. The website looks alright. I always have a look at the contact details and see if it’s a proper company. It says K&T is a brand name of “Operation Enterprise” which doesn’t give any results when googling it. So I’d be wary. But check for yourself.

You can just pay for a month and see what happens? But I’d add: $11.25 USD isn’t very cheap for a VPS with that specifications. For that price you could also pick lots of other hosting providers. You’d just have to set up Lemmy yourself.

I don’t have any personal experience. But finding other people who you can talk to is a good idea. Maybe the internet can connect you. A quick google yielded the following result: https://www.lupus.org/resources/find-support-near-you
And maybe a local support group can offer something of value. And it seems to be one of the diseases with symptoms that vary widely in how severe they are.

Maybe some early pranks. Most of what they do seems legit, fighting oppression and calling out bigots and disgusting people.

Does anyone happen to know if there is a N100 model that supports HDMI-CEC so I can make my old TV set smart with a recent Kodi and maybe some retro-games? But I’d rather not let it consume 9W or whatever such a machine needs all day long. So it’d need to start and shut down on its own. Preferably without manual additional steps involved, hence the CEC…

Sure. I’m not against people buying it. Including for novelty or be an early adopter. I’ve had a look at all the foldable phones in the store and I didn’t really like them. I mean it’s a nice idea, and I can see how I’d get some good use out of that large screen. But at least the Samsung one had a pretty noticable fold in the middle. And I can get a rusty used car for that kind of money. Or a mid-range gaming PC new. Maybe I’m just not the target audience. I never got why people buy expensive phones. My $350 one can do pretty much the same tasks in everyday life and also the camera and everything is decent enough. And I spent the extra money that’d get me to $2.000 on a laptop and other things. Yeah, but I know different people make different decisions and that’s fine. I’d be in for something like a Nokia N950 if we want to change the form factor (and operating system for more diversity). But that’s not happening. Or just a regular uninspiring Pixel with the price point of the 4a, just with the current (extended) update timeframe. That’s something they don’t do very often. Probably because of the smaller profit margin. But I also consider it an achievement and challenge to design and sell a device close to high-end specs, just for a fraction of the price.

It’s too darn expensive for what it does. I’ll stick with my $350 phone and a laptop or tablet for now.