Jaypg
The BTRFS thing is cutting the power or losing the disks in the middle of a write which corrupts your data. If you don’t think that will be a problem then BTRFS is fine. I recommend ZFS personally, but it sounds like you want to use mdadm instead so basically anything will work.
If you might need to shrink your filesystem later then avoid XFS. EXT4 is relatively featureless but ol’ reliable. ZFS is good for long term data integrity and protection. BTRFS is similar to ZFS. BcacheFS is new but like a swirl of EXT4 and BTRFS. Just pick the one with the features you want.
I’m not the only one seeing a little Weiner dog with a cape jumping into a hand in the Nokia thumbnail, right?
Give webtop a try? Granted I haven’t tried anything heavy on it, but it’s been performant enough for me. Here’s a compose file if it stays formatted correctly:
services:
webtop:
image: lscr.io/linuxserver/webtop:latest # alpine - xfce
# other tags with different bases and desktops: https://github.com/linuxserver/docker-webtop
container_name: webtop
#security_opt:
# - seccomp:unconfined #optional
environment:
- PUID=1000
- PGID=1000
- TZ=America/Los_Angeles
- TITLE=my_desktop #optional
volumes:
- config:/config
#- /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock #optional
ports:
- 3000:3000
- 3001:3001
restart: unless-stopped
volumes:
config: {}
networks: {}
Proxmox is sort of the gold standard for homelab server operating systems. Runs containers and VMs.
If you’re not into Proxmox, look into Fedora Server with Cockpit. Web UI for server management. Fedora CoreOS is an immutable variant of Server that would make more sense for a hypervisor, IMO.
First and foremost, backups. Back up everything and back up often. Immutability can’t do anything for critical hardware failure.
Issues happening on something only running container workloads isn’t common but I think it’s worth the extra little effort to reduce the risk even further. Fedora CoreOS or Flatcar is ideal since its declarative nature makes it easily reproducible. Fedora IOT can get you there too, but it doesn’t use ignition so you’ll be setting the server up manually.
Immutability is good. Declarative configuration is good. Manage cattle, not a pet.
Yes, it’s trivial because it doesn’t impact workflow or productivity. I don’t run out of RAM but if I did it would just page old data out to disk. It could be improved but it’s not something that needs fixing so I don’t care (and FYI if you have less physical memory Windows will just use less. I remember testing Windows 10 with 2G of RAM on a Core2Duo years ago because I was curious.) Wasting literally any amount of my productivity time because something doesn’t follow industry standards is irritating. And for clarity I’m not simply talking about the panel/bar.
Computers are tools. When I use a computer it’s because I want to do something specific, not do something and also deal with the operating system at the same time. I want it to work as a tool should. Intuitively. Like, I love Bazzite which is technically a desktop Linux distribution if you’re loose with the definition of desktop. When I sit down on the couch and want to play a video game for an hour, Bazzite just works. Windows would work just as well there but I won’t fault Bazzite for that. The tool does the job and does it intuitively. Different is fine as long as it’s intuitive and/or improves the user experience. When I look at Gnome for example I just can’t see it improving anything. It’s doing its own thing and its own thing isn’t very good.
Frankly, yes. You’re half-right. To list out every problem I have with every Linux desktop I’ve used over the last 20 years I would have to sit down and use them all again and re-frustrate myself all over again. I don’t spend my free time reminiscing of bad software design. When I have shitty experiences with something I don’t continue with it. I remember some problems with Ubuntu in the Unity days was the left panel and something to do with the screen being mostly taken up by something that I can’t remember when you clicked the launcher, but I remember it was translucent. I also remember hardware support sucked on the older kernels Ubuntu used but I think I’m dating myself there. As some other commenter pointed out, the Samba credential caching is a PITA. Gnome 3 needs additional tweaks or terminal commands to change anything to be more like what you’d expect to find on 9 out of 10 computers around the world. Some distros or DE’s put the window controls on the wrong side like macOS (yes, I hate that macOS puts window controls on the unintuitive side). This may have changed at some point, I don’t know, but historically installing some applications will invariably use some other UI kit and look completely out of place. I feel like I shouldn’t have brought that up and opened that can of worms either, but Linux desktops are generally ugly. KDE is fine. Gnome is so-so. Budgie has potential. If you count Steam’s TV mode, it’s both intuitive and aesthetically pleasing. Everything else I’ve used is just ugly regardless of its ease of use.
Anyway, I’m finished. Think what you want about Linux desktops. I’ll think what I want. Both of us have better things to do than this.
To me, every Windows gripe you just listed is trivial to work around. What I’m saying, perhaps poorly, is why should I have to work around them. Why aren’t the defaults sane and just work? KDE has the most sane defaults to me for a Linux DE that follow written and unwritten industry standards, but generally speaking it’s the exception and not the rule and I’d still prefer using something else. Using Linux as a desktop is irritating. Just a lot of “why is it like that? That’s dumb.” It’s not that it’s just sooooo impossible to use a desktop with a launcher in another position. It’s that I think it’s a stupid decision and have to spend time researching if and how that mistake can be fixed when I shouldn’t have to. It’s ok to stand on the shoulders of giants and do what everybody has been doing and expecting for the last 40+ years.
Why does macOS stick the toolbar along the top? Apple thinks it’s better UX design to have a unified area for that UI element regardless of window position. Makes sense. Passes the sniff test. Gnome sticking the bar on the left edge enhances the user experience and makes the environment easier to use? No, doesn’t pass the sniff test. But I agree, macOS does toolbars different. I would prefer if Windows adopted that design too. But if something deviates from a standard and you have no reasoning to how it improves anything or enhances the UX, hipster design. Different for the sake of being different.