I don’t mint or cinnamon. Never cared for it.
If I need a gui I (yes still) do Ubuntu budgie. Install with minimal install then remove the few bloats. Ubuntu will give you 5 machines per email for their staged updates bullshit, and since I have a few boxes running it with the gui I just added them to that free update shit. I do disable all telemetry (ai can help with that). On all of the buddies I use LTS so the arch is longer for support.
For servers I use devaun (no system d), it is as usable as Debian. I don’t honestly see a benefit if Debian over most others (outside of no kiked update cycle). I used to run Debian on some things but if I am going headless I’ll do it without system d.
And then proxmox for virtualization. But that’s just for testing and temp shit. I run all my boxes bare metal because I just can.
All my shit is internal, non public facing, so my threat profile is different.
I have been using Lenovo m73’s in tiny form factor for space and power. I just max them at 16gb and load my services I need up to about 8gb of headroom. They i5 4590t is a 4core/4thread and that’s is good enough for home assistant, piehole, other automation shit, internal word press for personal notes and tech setup journal. Also Wordpress for recipes (yes fucking pies).
All that’s not running on one box. I have 7 or 8 of these and all are light loaded, so if one shits the bed I can just spawn another on bare metal. I even run my proxmox on one, but that’s a hacked together thing with an additional ssd in the WiFi slot with a converter, and splitter on the onboard ssd power. Then I just mirror those drives. It’s still fast enough for testing on proxmox.
The redundancy of multiple hardware boxes is nice, and when ssd’s were cheap for 2 tb I’d just use those.
Run a nas for music and one for installation apps/iso storage/archive is shit installers I’ll never use again.
I mostly use Deja dupe which uses time shift to backup the local instances and that restoration is easy if needed.
I don’t cloud anything even backups (used to encrypt and send to backblaze) but I’ve moved on.
A static backup (on ssd) of the important stuff, docs, family photos, goes into the fire save and off site.
It’s not the most automated setup nor the most bleeding edge, but it works. Data is physically in a protected location.
Just some shit to consider.
INteresting: You don't like cinnamon, but like Budgie? Can you expand on that?
Daily driver is Mac. Budgie is more like it, rounder not as squared off I guess. When I tested a few years ago. So I stayed there. The dock center bottom I like, status bar up top, Mac ish.
Side note I don’t usually use any gui app for installs. Only APT. Corn it to update. Use snap for like one app (guess I lied but here is like one) update snap with same corn script.
Budgie out of the box like 4 versions back just has everything setup like I liked. I dconfig to backup settings then deploy to every box so they are standard how I have them.
I also run webmin as a habit and for a backup access point to do things if say breaks or the gui does. Then I can edit files there if need.
Booted Firefox, built a script to “debloat” even budgie minimal, run that first, disable telemetry, photo home, et al, remove firefuck then install the basics. Standardized on librewolf, and there is t much other gui shit. Outside of a gui to move files drag drop (yes I’m lazy) or to spawn ai to work through issues, install testing, so I can copy paste commands.
I used to spend hours writing scripts to do shit, now I spend minutes on ai get a script about 98% done then fine tune it. Ai saves me hours reading forum posts on shit like disabling telemetry and the fucking minutia of shit.
It’s all to the point now on my setups 1) install minimal budgie or devaun 2) say to box and run specific script for flavor of #1 That does everything, names the machine via prompt, patches initially, removes any bloat, adds the apps I use. Only thing I haven’t done is automate connecting to Ubuntu for the patches. I have scripts for every resource I would need installed. Wordpress, home assistant, cups, etc etc. Script mounts nas, goes and gets what config shit I need and bounces. I was gonna setup network boot but with only 4-5 machines in operation and 4 avaliable for hardware failures it’s not needed. And I could run everything on a single box in reality, then have the proxmox for testing. But coming from redundant world of past, I have the metal running for stuff as needed.
Every service has a host name (different than the host name of the box) so I can move services and repoint Cname as needed (again internally)
It was all fun to setup but now it’s all just working so it’s more of a utility than fun to tinker anymore.
I use Wordpress as a journal for many things. Dream journal, tech journal, document the Linux scripts, location of shit in the shop, nuggets of info for all things like tractor fuel filter, weed eater carb model, and such so I can have a single search point for shit. Search for “air filter” get back on for the truck the suv, the house hvac. Search for inspect spray, get back a list of shit for house, what I carry in Rv, where and how I use.
I’ll document “spray wide around house, 4-6 feet from slab outward, and 2-3 feet up” “use only pemethium sp? Inside) “mix rarios”
As we get older we can’t remember everything, so this is my internal wiki. 1000’s of notes on everything.
“Socket wrench sizes for (suv type) front end” “torque specs for pickup”
Then I use categories to group all of entries for say the well house and water delivery, the pickup, the suv, saw board sizes, all kinds of shit.
Then I am like I need to use the radial arm saw, so I have a new blade? Search saw balde: returns 10” radial arm saw, 3 new, 2 finish and course blades bought in 2023, amazon link. In tub labeled saw blades.
It keeps me from having to dig for shit or remember useless details which would take 20-30 min to re-discover.
I ain’t forgetting shit yet, but it’s gonna happen.
And with the dead internet, when they don’t list how many ft lbs to torque a strut tower bolt, and I don’t have a full manual I’ll just be stripping it and backing off a half.
Do I have a list of everything I’ve ever owned from radio shack. Fuck yes. With photos. Of course.
Part of it was just fun shit to do.
Other stuff is just good to have “how many oz of bleach to 2500 gal tank to kill iron bacteria?” Or gallons needed per sq ft for bird poop soup/first flush for rain water collection.
That also doesn’t include the 120 GB of survival pdf’s that I have.
I keep wanting to print the most important ones….
Anyway I’m rbing but that’s some of the shit I do to make life easy.
Should have marked that nsfw but don’t see how on mobile.
Now fuck off im going to sleep.