This looks cool but only having 5 bays is a dealbreaker. I want a minimum of 6 for a Raid-Z2 setup.

Docker has been the deployment method of choice…

Nice 😎

I’m not attached to either, I’ve seen a lot of people recommend them. Debian has gotten more than a few recommendations in this thread, so I’m checking out PikaOS now.

The biggest problem you are going to have is the NVIDIA graphics card. As long as you overcome the hurdle of installing those drivers, any of the popular desktop OSs should be fine. Some people seem to get them going no problem but for others, it’s a show stopper. The OSs that have the option for installing the drivers during installation are nice for that reason.

As much as I didn’t want to, it’s really seeming like I’m going to need to pick a few a test them out…

Yeah. Unfortunately that’s going to be the best way to learn what you want from your OS. It’s equally frustrating and rewarding.

Is it common practice to use one FS across all drives? Or would ZFS work well enough on its own for the pool and use a different FS for the OS/storage drives?

Depends on the environment, really; there’s no wrong answer. ZFS will work fine for its own pool. I would say a FS with snapshotting and rollback capabilities are almost a requirement for Arch based/rolling release distros. You never know when an update might break something.

I’ve been testing out ZFS on my OS drive for my personal server and it’s probably overkill because all the important stuff is on the ZFS pool with backups. My OS drive could shit the bed at any moment and I could switch it out with anything else because of that pool.

It’s being used as a Jellyfin+arr stack, qbit, Immich

for those applications any distro that lets you use docker and docker compose. If you don’t know how to use them, do yourself a favor and learn. It makes self-hosting so much easier and makes the base OS almost irrelevant.

Is Bazzite going to be too tinker-proof, or is CachyOS just way too much work?

Since you seem set on these two, go with Bazzite. Between Distrobox and Docker, Bazzite being an immutable OS seems like a non-issue. After you play around with it, if you feel like you want something that could potentially require more of your time but gives you a little more control, go with CachyOS but ensure you are using ZFS, btrfs, or some other file system that allows rollbacks.

I’ve distro-hopped a lot over the years. Ubuntu (most flavors), Fedora, Debian, Arch, Solus, EndeavourOS, CentOS, Alma, more I’m forgetting, and even some BSDs. Out of all of them, I keep going back to Ubuntu for my servers. I like the release cycles, it’s never given me any issues that I didn’t cause myself, the packages are new enough, the installer lets you set up ZFS and 3rd party tools/software (like Nvidia drivers), and there is a ton of documentation. I want my server to be an appliance, not something I tinker with, and Ubuntu does that really well. If I do feel like tinkering, I do it in a VM or container.

You’re silly

I think your post breaks rule 4 for trolling but you’ve made a good point 🤷‍♂️

Agreed. Debian with docker, flatpak, and/or distrobox is solid

I think I see what you’re saying. My gripe is that if I want a laptop/tablet with a great ARM chip, with long battery life, my options all force me to use one of two operating systems that I’d prefer not to use for ideological reasons. If I’m forced to use one, because I want an ARM device, I might as well use the one that has the best hardware. M5s are right around the corner and the MacBook Airs are really competitive.

If I misinterpreted your question, then no, as far as I’m aware, none of the M series has FULL support. The M1s and M2s are pretty close though.

Let me know when these X elite chips have full Linux compatibility and then I’ll be interested. Until then, I’ll stick with Mac, it has the better hardware.

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Just to add to your comment; get a three phase inspection. Inspect the foundation before the walls go up, inspect right before the drywall goes up, and inspect after the drywall goes up before you start signing paperwork. If you wait to inspect after the drywall is up, you can miss a lot.

Do you have a list of items you’d be willing to share?

I’m currently using an iPhone and I had planned to go back to Android the next time I upgraded because I missed F-Droid, Obtainium, and the choice of different browser engines more than I expected. This kind of throws a wrench into that plan. If my choice is between walled garden and walled garden, why switch?

I’m currently looking into LineageOS to see if the cons of it are something I can tolerate. GrapheneOS seems cool but every pixel I’ve had has been unusable in the summer due to how it heats up and slows down to compensate. This sucks

I agree with you in principle. I just think, for the majority of people, it’s not worth the risk of getting fired and getting set back in life for public comments over a YouTuber’s death. I’m not saying there are no hills to die on, this just doesn’t seem like the one.

I said this in a reply to someone else but my issue here is risk assessment, not whether the comments are abhorrent or not. I’ve read enough accounts regarding different periods of history where citizens turned each other in. If I’m going to get fired, doxxed, turned in, etc., I would want it to be over something that means more than opinions shared of Charlie Kirk.

…should be cancelled?

No. I intended my comment to be more of a statement on risk assessment. Seemingly half the country is on the right. A non-insignificant portion of them would probably be empathetic to Charlie Kirk’s death.

If I’m reading the rest of your comment correctly, I’d say we are in agreement. I don’t condone the right getting people fired over this, I don’t think it’s fair, and I don’t think it’s right of them to do so. But I do think the right trying to get people fired was foreseeable and it surprises me just how many people have attached their names to their comments, especially if they aren’t set up financially to deal with any potential fallout.

I completely agree with you on principle. My problem is that I don’t make “fuck you” money and whether we like it or not, seemingly half the country disagrees with our views. I can’t be starting fights and setting myself back over a YouTuber’s death.

I’m going to get downvoted for this but we on the left get people fired too

No matter how you actually feel about Charlie Kirk’s death, no matter how deserving he was of these comments, posting them with your government name attached to it is a bad move

You’ll have to scroll down a bit and maybe view it in reader mode but NY Times is reporting differently

https://www.nytimes.com/live/2025/09/11/us/charlie-kirk-shooting-news/investigators-eye-a-hunting-rifle-for-clues-to-the-gunmans-identity-and-motive

Shapr3D has been pretty decent and for a hobbiest, $300/yr for their pro version has been tolerable

Edit: I see at least a few people don’t like Shapr3D so I’ll add to my description a little bit because I think it’s great for what I do. Shapr3D has a free tier, is cheaper than programs like Fusion360, Solidworks, Sketchup, etc., has apps for the iPad and desktop, recently added parametric features that OP requested, and is faster (on my machines) than Fusion360 and Sketchup. I haven’t gotten to the point where I’m designing complicated parts that move relative to one another (maybe it can’t do that, I don’t know). I usually just recreate single plastic parts that break around the house or designs for something I’m fabricating. It’s been great for those use cases. It’s also free for students with a school email.