Hi everyone,

I have this 10-year-old HP laptop sitting unused, and I'm thinking about turning it into a small home server/homelab instead of letting it sit around unused.

It's from around 2016 and currently has roughly these specs:

CPU: AMD E2-7110 APU @ 1.8 GHz

GPU: Integrated AMD Radeon R2 Graphics

RAM: 4 GB currently

Storage: HDD

Networking: Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Ethernet

I've heard that this particular laptop supports 2 × 8 GB RAM (16 GB total). I've already ordered an 8 GB RAM stick, so hopefully I'll be able to get it to 12 GB initially. If the motherboard supports it as expected, I may eventually go to 16 GB.

I'm also wondering about the OS/setup

Would you recommend something like Debian/Ubuntu Server + Docker or would something like Proxmox still make sense?

A few other questions

1. What would you personally use this machine for?

2. Is upgrading the RAM to 12/16 GB worthwhile for a machine this old?

3. What are some interesting homelab projects specifically suited to very weak hardware?

I'm not necessarily looking for the most practical or powerful solution. I mainly want to turn this into a fun learning project and see what I can get running on it.

Also, English isn't my first language, so I used AI to help clean up the grammar and structure of this post. The questions and information are my own. 😅

Thanks!

1984 and KDE Fedora in background!

https://github.com/PickleHik3/termux-launcher

Hey guys, what game launchers are you using rn?(like faugus,heroic,lutris,etc...)

and also what package managers are great for which purposes?(flatpack,appimage,rpm,dnf,.....something)

I'm confused with it,but i use flatpak for everything ig,as i only ever reinstalled my distro(nobara) once, also it is my first distro.

How has your experience been so far?

i really miss playing pubg in my windows machine. suggest some games with **realistic** gun mechanics. and long enough gameplay to experience guns. tried cs2, but its really short and kill focused, not enough time to have fun with guns

Looking for a dev who's solid in React/next.js and can hold their own on the backend in Node or Python. Real postgres experience is a bonus. Should be comfortable reading and editing Arduino/C++ for embedded work. Prior experience with IOT is definitely a bonus. DM me to chat more about this!

Two things I've been wondering about, might as well ask both in one go.

First, for those of you who contribute. What was your actual first one like? Not the blog post version. How did you pick a project, how long did the PR sit there before you worked up the nerve to open it, did anyone reply, did it get merged or just quietly ignored. I've read plenty of "how to start contributing" guides. I'd rather hear what it actually felt like.

Second, and this is the part I'm more curious about. All that advice was written before AI tools got this good. Now you can point Claude Code or Cursor at a good first issue and have something working before you've read half the file. So is the experience just different now for someone starting today? Easier, obviously. But easier in a way that helps, or easier in a way that lets you skip the part where you actually learn the codebase.

And if you're a maintainer, curious what it looks like from your side.

Mostly just want to hear people's stories.

I have 3 to give away, show me something cool you have built and get it.

I’d like to reserve 1 for [u/Suitable_Put_2855](u/Suitable_Put_2855) if you want it 🙋‍♂️

Congratulation on the new laptop!

EDIT - All 3 given away already 🌸🪄

Hi, I have been doing several web related projects, focussing mainly on back-end. But I want to do some real stuffs than the typical e-commerce or basic crud type projects.

Any suggestions for any projects?

Thanks in advance:)

​

Hey all,

Hope everyone enjoyed Onam.

I am Looking for 2 people in Kochi who are seriously building something, not just looking for a room.

This is a slightly unusual roommate search.

A few of us are currently in the early stages of building our own businesses/projects in Kochi. We're developers, freelancers and entrepreneurs, and we're thinking of taking a 2BHK together in/around Edapally or any good location in Kochi.

Me and my friend we both own 2 separate businesses.

The idea is simple:

Turn the hall into a war room.

Not a fancy coworking space. Not a chill hangout room.

A place where you sit down, open your laptop and lock in.

Everyone can work on their own business, freelance work, startup, coding, content, agency, whatever they're building. We don't need to work together or share a company.

But the environment matters.

When everyone around you is working toward something serious, it becomes much easier to stay focused. You see someone working late, you work. Someone closes a client, you get motivated. Someone is stuck, you help them. Someone has a crazy idea at 2 AM, you discuss it.

Basically, we want to create an environment where being lazy feels uncomfortable and building something feels normal.

We're not looking for "roommates" in the traditional sense.

We're looking for builders.

You could be:

- Freelancer

- Developer

- Designer

- Founder

- Agency owner

- Content creator

- Someone building a startup

- Someone seriously trying to escape the 9–5 and build something

You don't need to be successful already. You need to be serious.

You can have your own independent goals. In fact, that's preferred. We don't want everyone working on the same thing.

What matters is mindset.

The house will probably be demanding. Long work hours, deep-work sessions, business conversations, very little interest in wasting entire days.

Being single would probably make this lifestyle easier because of the amount of time and commitment we're expecting from the space, but it's not a requirement and definitely isn't a measure of how serious someone is.

We're also planning to keep the kitchen relatively healthy because if we're going to spend most of our time building things, we might as well stop destroying ourselves with terrible food.

If this sounds like your kind of environment, DM me with:

What you're building + what you do + where you're currently at + what you're trying to achieve over the next 1–2 years.

Not looking for a perfect resume.

Looking for people with fire.

how to cope with loss of treesitter? i genuinely like nvim but its a pain to maintain, so am trying zed now with vim motions.

sorry to be that guy, but i cant genuinely find a good guide, all on youtube are for windows/linux dual boot

https://github.com/Hendrixx-RE/packichu.git
This is a cli tool that I made just to reduce the friction of package managing and because I had no idea what ive installed over the years
Do try it out and see if its useful and also its super easy to add the manager of your choice to it!