Hey! My home server is an HP T630 with a GX-420 GI as well, but only 4 GB of RAM. I upgraded from a Raspberry Pi 3 and it's been awesome. I'm currently running 18 Docker containers on it without issue. I use Jellyfin on my primary workstation that has my media instead if this server, but I run things like Paperless, Nextcloud, Vaultwarden, Gitea, Wallabag, Pi-hole, NocoDB, and many more. It's been great, I think thin clients are a great low-cost, low-power solution to x86 home servers.

I paid around $40 or $50 USD for mine, so $10 sounds great!

Let me know what questions you have. I can try throwing Jellyfin on it to see how it performs too.

I don't like Notepad++ as a text editor for code, but my god is it amazing for taking quick notes. I've been searching for a Linux equivalent but haven't found it yet. My favorite Notepad++ features:

• Opens immediately.
• Never loses data, and I mean never - unsaved files are restored after crashes, reboots, power outage, you name it.

For jotting down quick meeting notes in a hurry, it's great. The settings are messy and hard to configure though, so I use Vim/Helix for writing code (hobbyist, not professional).

For this reason, I use kebab case for directories. But because I agree underscores show spaces better, I use snake case for files.

I agree and use Arch as well, but of course I wouldn't recommend it for everyone. For me, having the same distribution on both server and desktop makes it easier to maintain. I run almost everything using containers on the server and install minimal packages, minimizing my upgrade risk. I haven't had an issue yet, but if I did I have btrfs snapshots and backups to resolve.

Mostly, yes, X vs Wayland. Hyprland also has a lot more eye candy in the way of window animations for snapping, dragging, etc. I find the Hyprland config file simpler too, but that's just me.

Thin clients! I "upgraded" from a RPi3 to an HP T630 that I got new off of eBay for $65, including power supply (and case). I was able to upgrade the M.2 storage easily. I use mine as a home server running over a dozen Docker containers. It's x86 instead of ARM too.

The only bad part was installing Linux. It took a while for me to figure out where the UEFI expected the boot files and documentation isn't great.

Definitely check this summary out: https://meichthys.github.io/foss_photo_libraries/. Everyone's use case and priorities will be a little different, but I'd vote for Immich as a Google Photos replacement that looks nice and is very easy to use. I was awestruck by the facial and object recognition, which wasn't even a feature I particularly cared about.

Can you try pressing ctrl+shift+f2 from within Kitty and then adding font_size 20.0? That will make sure you are editing the same config file Kitty is using.

If that doesn't work, I'd try deleting the config and then try again. Kitty should automatically create a new config.

https://sw.kovidgoyal.net/kitty/conf/

Nice list. Another, similar repo, also quite opinionated: https://github.com/DoTheEvo/selfhosted-apps-docker. I'm not the author, I've just found it really helpful at times.

In the screenshots of people setups, there are always fancy terminals.

Ha, they're just showing off their hacker side for the screenshot, plus terminals resize nicely. Tiling window managers work well for most apps. The only GUI issues I've had are some pop-up windows being tiled instead of floating, but that's an easy fix. They're not for everyone, but they work great with GUI apps.

Run your web browser from RAM for faster browsing.

https://github.com/graysky2/profile-sync-daemon

I think you can use Arch for university, but I have a few suggestions:

• Don't update packages unless you have time to fix issues. Rare, but it happens, although usually minor.
• Never mess with greeters, kernel modifications, bootloaders, or anything else before login. Fixing issues may require a live USB and take some time. Avoid the temptation! (Ask how I know...)
• Use Flatpak where you can for increased stability by way of fewer packages to update.

Of course, you could also use a non-rolling release distro. Nothing wrong with that.