But the more I look into things, the less I understand all the information they're throwing at me. There's also like thousands of different acronyms. It's really intimidating but I'll try my best to learn things. Is anyone else here also new to this stuff?

>>81675345 (OP)
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you could talk to chatGPT about this
I'd use the installgentoo (/g/) wiki or search through /g/ archives for recommended software

>>81675372
>you could talk to chatGPT about this
I feel like ai would just feed me a bunch of garbage while trying to understand things. Is it really reliable?
>I'd use the installgentoo (/g/) wiki or search through /g/ archives for recommended software
I'm actually reading through it right now lol It's really good.

Glad I found this thread. I was like you once. I promise, it gets easier with time. I started as a relative noob with a strong interest in IT and now I run Linux and have several home servers. It's fun!

>>81675345 (OP)
I'm a software engineer by trade, so not new but happy to report that there is always more to learn even after years and years so you'll get accustomed to operating in a bubble of understanding.

>>81675395
Sorry, the very strange first reply made me think this thread was bait.
Things I did:
learn how to use regex (basically an advanced version of find and replace)
install a linux VM (using virtualbox and linux mint and later on, puppy linux)

>>81675461
I've been getting recommended some homelabbing videos recently and it looks really cool!
>>81675480
>happy to report that there is always more to learn even after years and years
Yeah, it seems like there's always something new coming out of the tech field in general. Since I use technology every single day I figured that I should at least understand what's going on instead of being ignorant forever.
>>81675534
>the very strange first reply made me think this thread was bait.
Yeah idk what that guy's deal is so I just hid the reply lol.
>puppy linux
I'm going to eventually look into linux but is there a specific reason why you're using this one? Are the different versions of linux incredibly different from each other or is it just a preference thing?

>>81675610
Homelabbing is a good way to dive deep into the world of servers, linux, backups, networks, etc. I love my little homelab. But I will say for a beginner that is approaching the middle to deep end of where I'd start.

>>81675610
Puppy linux is very small, so instead of using libreoffice, it uses abiword and gnumeric. You will learn about a lot of niche FOSS applications
The dog mascot and preinstalled games are cute. If you know how to setup a vm (get virtualbox and the puppy linux iso and click the next button, basically), trying it out is easy

>>81675684
Homelabbing might also give me a use for my super old laptop (if it still works) so yeah I'm all for it. How much money have you put into setting yours up so far? I don't really know the average price of buying the equipment required for things.
>>81675745
I've never used a virtual machine before but being able to mess around with things freely sounds really helpful.
>The dog mascot and preinstalled games are cute.
Are there any frog mascots? Not pepe the frog but other cute frogs.

>>81675978
>Homelabbing might also give me a use for my super old laptop (if it still works) so yeah I'm all for it.
Homelabbing is a great way to get life out of old hardware. My VERY FIRST home-built PC I made almost 13 years ago serves as my backup server.

>How much money have you put into setting yours up so far? I don't really know the average price of buying the equipment required for things.
Rule number 0 of homelabbing: don't ask the admin how much money he's spent on his lab

I kid. If I had to be honest I'd guess around $2k. Keep in mind (and I hate to admit this) but everything I do could be done cheaper or for free. I spent the money to invest in certain areas of my lab, but a lot of my nodes are secondhand and purchased from Ebay.

If you want to get into homelabbing, I have one question to ask that will help guide your learning:

>What are my goals with my home server, or, what do I want to do with this thing?

I can help guide from there perchance

>>81675978
I don't know of any frogs. The closest I can think of is opensuse which has a chameleon
the game supertuxkart has a bunch of foss software mascots as playable characters

>>81676018
And to add onto how much I spent:

$2k is relatively small in this world. AGAIN, you can do it all for cheap or free, but $2k is chump change. Go look up homelab porn (seriously). That shit is more like a home data center. My servers are in PC cases, not racks, on conventional hardware. It's good hardware, but it doesn't have to look like the servers you traditionally see.

>>81675345 (OP)
Yes I was in your position in 2015. The best advice I can give is to learn something for fun and do not leetcode grind or make projects in hopes you'll get a job. It's pretty unlikely these days.

If you're really serious you might want to try stimulants to boost how long you can learn for. The lower level the better for a an deeper understanding.

>>81676018
2k is a lot less than I was expecting to be honest lol.
>What are my goals with my home server, or, what do I want to do with this thing?
My main goal is to free myself from the google cloud stuff but also be able to have my own cloud so I can share stuff between devices. The main reason I use Google's services like Drive, Docs, and Keep is because it's very convenient but I don't really trust them to keep my stuff secure.

This is a bit unrelated but I also want to make my own stuff someday because that sounds more fun and enjoyable than using things somebody else created.
>>81676026
>Chameleon
Close enough lol. Maybe one day I'll make my own Frog version. You were right though that game does look really cute!

>>81676074
>learn something for fun and do not leetcode grind or make projects in hopes you'll get a job. It's pretty unlikely these days.
Yeah I'm mainly doing this out of my own interest anyway. That advice also applies to things like doing YouTube to get money and or views. I've watched multiple YouTube creators get incredibly frustrated, depressed, and give up or almost give up because something went wrong with their views or they weren't growing. (It's not the same thing as learning for money but I think you get it) I don't really want to take simulants though I think I'll just go at whatever pace my brain feels is ok. Thank you for the advice though I appreciate it!

>>81676162
>My main goal is to free myself from the google cloud stuff but also be able to have my own cloud so I can share stuff between devices.
Good, that's what I wanted to do. My journey started with wanting to stream Macroblank everywhere I wanted because he's not on Spotify.

Here's what I do
>Google Drive replacement = Nextcloud
>"Cloud" features = a VPS with Racknerd running Pangolin for reverse proxy
>Docs replacement = Nextcloud / Libreoffice Cloud

What you're asking for is probably easy to medium difficulty for a beginner. If you want Nextcloud on LAN only (think just your house's network) you can do this with that old laptop and a good internet connection.

To have a cloud everywhere you go, like I do, requires a bit of complexity to setup, but it's truly nothing a technologically inclined person couldn't do with some guides.

The only cost (for the way I'd do it) is a VPS (Virtual Private Server). It's a virtualized little operating system on a remote server that you pay for. They are EXTREMELY cheap. A good one is like $6-8 a month, but you can do it cheeeap. I use Racknerd but Hetzner is a popular VPS provider.

Anyway, your cloud everywhere idea, in a nutshell, works like this

>Connect your Nextcloud server (old laptop) to your internet at home
>Buy a cheap domain from a registrar (I used Porkbun)
>Point DNS records on registrar to IP of VPS, so that when they hit anon.com, they actually go to your VPS
>Install a reverse proxy (familiarize yourself with this) on the VPS. I use Pangolin but there are a TON of these out there to research
>Expose the resource (Nextcloud) on the VPS, so there's a tunnel from subdomain.domain.tld to your VPS to your house.

You can also use Cloudflare Tunnels for free (if you trust them)

>This is a bit unrelated but I also want to make my own stuff someday because that sounds more fun and enjoyable than using things somebody else created.
Than you've come to the right hobby. This space is EXTREMELY DIY

>>81676291
>>81676162
Also want to add a few things since I drank too much coffee:

Having a VPS and reverse proxy to expose services is a game changer. I can go to watch.mydomain.com and hit my Jellyfin server and watch all my movies, shows, anime, etc. I can go to stash.mydomain.com and fap with Stashapp. I can request media, I can do anything I want. There's a HUGE ecosystem of little docker servers and containers you can (mostly) safely expose with a reverse proxy.

I have like 10 people who use my services (free of charge) to watch and request shows or other things I've exposed. I'm setting up a gameserver too. It's really fun, but when you start hosting for others you gotta start learning a lot more about security. That's where I am.

>>81676291
>>81676315
Thank you so much for the overview bro I really appreciate this. I'm going to sleep now but I will save these posts for future reference when I get everything going. This also gives me a good idea on where to start as well.

Good night guys and thanks for all the replies!

>>81676450
gnight lad! Off to bed as well.

>>81675345 (OP)
>There's also like thousands of different acronyms. It's really intimidating but I'll try my best to learn things.
You will never be able to understand everything there is to know about computers, no one person even knows how to fully build a computer from scratch, so just learn at your own pace and have fun with it. If something is too complex then skip it and move on to learning something else. The worst thing you can do is take a hobby too seriously and burn out on it.

Here are some videos you can binge watch if you ever feel like it:
https://www.youtube.com/@ThisDoesNotCompute/videos
https://www.youtube.com/@northwestrepair/videos
https://www.youtube.com/@DisplacedGamers/videos
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ue-1JoJQaEg&t=110s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_vpfBJZ7JI&list=PLfABUWdDse7YTMY-iEOyHSp8K-6PDSsAs

I don't know why I'm wasting my time posting all this on the dead internet but I hope a real person sees it and has fun with it.