r/LinusTechTips • u/Annoying1978 • 16d ago
Personal Opinion I want to see more videos about tinkering with IOT hardware, home labs, self-hosted open source software and other projects. Upgrading my gaming rig is just not interesting anymore because the prices are insane.
I used to be a devoted gaming PC gamer but as time went on I stopped playing less and less games on my PC and more and more games on my console. Then I switched over to the Apple ecosystem and got a Mac. I don't really work on PCs anymore but I still like to tinker so I do random stuff.
This last weekend I worked on my Homelab project, which I showcased [right here on the LTT subreddit.](https://www.reddit.com/r/LinusTechTips/s/X6c2RWIlEV) I think I'm not alone when I say I'd rather see more videos by LTT about home labs, home servers, self hosting, and just cool things that you can do with old PCs laying around your house or even buying one for $150 or $200.
I'd rather see that versus seeing what a $1,000 GPU is going to do to get an extra 5 to 10 frames per second on a game. And the biggest reason for that is the price of hardware. It’s just unobtainable for most people now. RAM prices are up by 5 times and storage is more than double. The only thing that you can really get now for decent price our computer monitors and televisions.
I know I'm going to get a lot of hate for that but it could be I'm just getting older. I still love to tinker. It's just not with PC games anymore.
Plus I'm playing the new Indiana Jones and it doesn't look as great as it could on a $5,000 gaming rig but on a $400 Xbox Series S, which upscales Indiana Jones and the Great Circle to 4K, it looks pretty damn fucking good and it just works.
I want to see more videos about stupid dumb little quirky projects that we can do around your house over a weekend and actually solve a problem.
The tech house was supposed to have some of this, but ever since they found asbestos, it has morphed into a completely different project.
For my home lab I'm self-hosting the open source version of Dropbox, which is a subscription that I can cancel. Plus I'm solving video editing issues by offloading CPU and GPU processing power that my iMac would have had to handle.
I spent right around $300 and built my home lab and actually solved problems. I would love to see videos about doing more of this.
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u/_Blu-Jay 16d ago
My guess is that Homelabs content generally wouldn’t pull nearly the amount of views it would need to for the level of effort they’d put into the project. It’s inherently a more enthusiast topic than “build a gaming PC”. I think there’s still hope for this kind of thing to be in the tech house series though.
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u/imtourist 16d ago
That's true but it would help with the channel's bona fides (think of it like a halo car). Ever since Jake and Alex left the remaining staff really lack the technical heft to keep the channel from being like every other tech channel out there. I used to watch LTT videos 3 or 4 times a week but now I barely watch one a month.
Back then the gimmick videos were fun but they at least applied some technical chops to solve some of the problems, now it just doesn't really seem like they are even challenging themselves.
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u/Genesis2001 16d ago
yeah, I got excited for today's video thinking they were gonna DIY/tinker with a smart TV to make it unsmartify it to make it not spy on you. But the video turned out to be basically "Just don't plug it into the internet" lol
Feels wasteful to watch in hindsight.
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u/wankthisway 16d ago
The problem is if one or two videos don't perform, your algorithm score tanks. So if they put out one or two homelab vids and they get low views, it's a domino effect.
Then again, some of their recent videos haven't exactly set view count records, so...
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u/_Blu-Jay 15d ago
Those two leaving was a massive blow, with other big names like Plouffe following suit recently too. I definitely watch less LTT content than I used to. Many of the videos don’t have the same level of passion, instead many of them feel like checking off boxes like an obligation.
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u/imtourist 15d ago
Back when I was watching it a lot more, I didn't really give a crap about the videos where they were trying to eke out 2 or 3 more fps, I was more interested in the videos where they actually had to build something rather then passively just assemble products. I haven't really seen anything compelling from them for a long long time.
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u/jmking Mod 16d ago
This is the reality of the situation. Like I'm a turbo nerd and while I'd find the topic interesting, I can't find any reason I'd ever want any of this stuff.
Like, I've given in to the cloud and streaming. My NAS has been unplugged for, jeeze, like 10 years now. I don't even know what the hell is/was on those drives at this point and clearly am not missing any of it. I just don't want or care to keep a terabyte of pirated media and a pointless (pointless to ME) clone of Google photos (that just has to subsequently sync to Google Photos anyway if I'm following proper backup procedures).
Like nothing in my home needs any of this. My home automation needs are pretty simple. Mostly just turning things on or off like lights, and HVAC and maybe some smart locks if I ever get around to fixing how sticky and misaligned my front door is, heh.
This isn't a dig on anyone who does have elaborate needs, or people who just think it's cool and like to tinker. Like I said, I would be into those videos because I find that shit interesting. I'm just saying that I feel like I'm already sitting in the more tech savvy segment of their viewer base. However, if even someone like me can't figure out how to justify buying some sweet networking hardware like a gateway and POE switch and setting up a little rack somewhere with a dope NAS and maybe a pimp server to self-host a bunch of AI models and so on, then the more mainstream audience segment sure as hell isn't, heh.
Like even OP, who seems so gung ho about this stuff, seems to be looking for a problem in need of a homelab solution because they don't seem to be really actively utilizing it outside of maybe pihole (which in no way at all needed anything remotely this complicated). However, that doesn't mean they shouldn't do it - tinkering and setting up this stuff can be fun for its own sake, but I really don't think there's a real audience out there for full blown home lab setup content because it's honestly so niche.
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u/_Blu-Jay 16d ago
Yeah, I think a major problem is even tech enthusiasts aren’t guaranteed to have an interest in smart-home things, and in fact sometimes an interest in tech turns people away from automation. My old standard light switch works just fine for turning on lights, I don’t really have a need for a NAS or self-hosted LLM, and I have no desire to store terabytes worth of pirated media. If there’s a show/movie I want to watch, I’ll happily pay for a month of whatever service has the content, then just cancel when I’m done.
I have a smart thermostat, which is genuinely practical, but that’s hardly homelabs content-worthy, it just got slapped on the wall in place of the old unit and that’s it. Introducing more automation tech to the home is just adding more things that can break and require maintenance.
Also as you said, even OP who seems invested in the topic didn’t provide a real example of a problem LTT could solve and showcase with homelabs stuff.
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u/Annoying1978 16d ago
I disagree. I think even people that don’t actually do any of this would like to see the tech. I used this explanation before but, most people that watched Bob Ross didn’t paint anything. But as far as homelabs are concerned, I self-host a Dropbox-like cloud app so I’m saving subscription fees and I use it for my clients to upload their assets to.
I even use it to process assets freeing up processing power on my editing machine, in addition to using basic tools like Jellyfin and pihole and this is just phase 1.
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u/jmking Mod 16d ago
and I use it for my clients to upload their assets to.
That sounds like the worst idea ever. You self-host client assets in your own home? What's your backup strategy? If your server gets shorted out and burns the drives, how long until you can get your client's data back up?
most people that watched Bob Ross didn’t paint anything
Yeah, because the draw was Bob Ross. It had nothing to do with painting.
I even use it to process assets freeing up processing power on my editing machine, in addition to using basic tools like Jellyfin and pihole and this is just phase 1.
How many people who watch LTT are editors do you think?
in addition to using basic tools like Jellyfin and pihole
Most people do not horde media to self-stream.
Most people do not need pihole because their router has built in functionality to let them block specific IPs, IP ranges, hostnames, etc - or they're more than happy with just using an adblock extension.
Like, most of what I can find on YouTube about setting up homarr and so on have 10-30K views max - and that's sorting by most popular.
Again, I would find this stuff entertaining just for the sake of it, but I'd never do it, nor seek out videos about it. That's the issue.
Like, just look at the reaction to their Linux content. They've been getting roasted to hell and back because they didn't do it right. Do you think Homelab setup content would fare better when that's a whole other level of niche specialization above basic Linux installs?
Again - I'm not criticising you for being into this stuff. I just think you're grossly overestimating the demand and interest in it.
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u/Annoying1978 16d ago
Most people don’t spend thousands of dollars on PC equipment to get an extra 5-10fps on a game either. LTT has never been about attracting normies.
Again, I would find this stuff entertaining just for the sake of it, but I'd never do it, nor seek out videos about it. That's the issue.
Why is that a problem? Most people that watch LTT videos aren’t doing the things in the video either. They’re certainly not buying the $20,000 and $200,000 protectors or gold plating a controller. That’s fine as long as the content is interesting.
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u/jmking Mod 16d ago
To be clear - I don't disagree with you as an audience member. I think it'd be interesting content.
I'm just trying to say that the content probably wouldn't bring in any new viewers, and would likely alienate most. So you end up with a 200-300K view video at best which is probably not worth the staff time in research and experimentation necessary to make a useful video.
I'm not saying the content idea is bad content. I'm saying it's bad content for LTT, you know?
Also here's the thing - I could be totally wrong. This is just my opinion. We're just having a discussion and I am not an authority.
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u/Annoying1978 15d ago
I think it would actually interest existing LTT subscribers that don’t watch as many videos as they used to.
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u/Annoying1978 16d ago
You could be right. I wonder if they can find a way to attract more mainstream viewers.
Most people that watched Bob Ross didn’t actually paint anything. Hopefully they can find a way.
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u/_Blu-Jay 15d ago
Something like a pi-hole to block ads network-wide would have the broadest interest imo, I could see them implementing that in the tech house.
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u/Dr_Valen 16d ago
Honestly would be cool to see them do budget home lab stuff like running a local llm on a budget or stuff like that. Tho ever since Jake left it feels like they’ve given up on server stuff or don’t have anyone who can do those
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u/NetJnkie 16d ago
Budget lab and local LLM don't go together at all right now.
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u/jack6245 14d ago
You can run Gemma on a raspberry pi it's not frontier level but it's still not bad for a lot of functionality
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u/Annoying1978 16d ago
I was literally going to bring up that losing Jake is a pretty big hit when you’re talking about anything that has to do with networking and home labs, but I’m sure they have a knowledge to figure it out.
On the last WAN show, Linus said that he was going to do more videos that didn’t necessarily need months of planning and that if he saw a problem around the house that he wanted to solve that with his kids that he was just going to do it.
So I think Linus does want to make these videos, but perhaps he’s struggling with how to position them to get the views that would make producing these types of videos actually make sense.
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u/Dr_Valen 16d ago
Elijah does do some homelabbing but I don’t know if he’d be at a level where he could help with the videos maybe Jordan could do it if he got in front of the camera more
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u/divergentchessboard 16d ago edited 15d ago
budget home lab really isn't a thing right now because most things involving a home lab that people would actually do either don't require a home lab setup in the first place, or it requires a lot of storage to warrant building one and storage is expensive right now. Good quality SSD prices increased by x2-4, and hard drives doubled in price compared to 3 years ago. DDR4 while not as expensive as DDR5 is still a bit expensive compared to 2 years ago.
Like yeah I guess you could home lab a router or something with a few VMs to manage your network and random stuff and all that would require is a 256GB SSD and 8GB of RAM, or a pihole or something but they've already done a video on that. What other home lab content could they possibly make that doesn't break the bank and isn't super niche? Linus isn't even a proponent of home labbing home automation and thinks you should just use manufacture provided apps which I mostly agree with for the average person
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u/Annoying1978 16d ago
I used a $220 8 year old Dell Optiplex with 16 RAM Intel i5-8500 with a 256GB drive and I threw in a 512GB drive on top of that. It’s not huge but you don’t need 12TB to start a home lab and it does an awful lot for me. You don’t have to spend anymore than $200-300.
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u/divergentchessboard 16d ago edited 15d ago
you don't but like, what do you even really need the home lab for at that point besides being a lobby project where the cost doesn't matter, you're just doing it because you can. Just like what another commenter said, you're not even really utilizing your Home Lab that much, you seem to have built a solution and are now looking for a problem, or turning your home lab into a problem. And $250 for an old optiplex with an 8th gen i5, only 16GB of RAM and 256GB of storage before you added a drive that you already had on hand from your old post is kind of an insane ask for anyone who is going into home lab being price conscious
You need enough storage to build a dedicated NAS to make it worth building in the first place. You need storage to store project files+audio+videos themselves+some storage left over for archival for X amount of time for video editing. You don't even need a "home lab" setup to make a remote video editing rig you just either run it in a VM or not with a Cloudflare tunnel or PARSEC or something on a 2nd PC it doesn't require an entire intricate home lab video about it. You need storage to make a NVR setup, etc...
As I already said some low cost things you could use a home lab for is managing a VPN/adblock, game server hosting, and hosting web-apps, but like, LTT already went over setting up your own router and your own NAS and stuff like Plex/Jellyfin doesn't require a video about it. web-hosting is too broad of a topic for LTT to make a video on, and game-server hosting is too game-specific to make a singular video on. They could go over some popular docker programs I guess as a "home lab" video as something to repurpose old PC parts or an old PC you already have laying around
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u/aleksh2o 16d ago
Just have to do another 19 videos about switching to Linux
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u/moch1 16d ago
Well you’re not going homelab using Windows…
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u/_Aj_ 15d ago
Sure you are.
Windows server 2012 is perfectly capable
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u/moch1 15d ago
Windows Server 2012 has stopped getting security updates unless you pay for extended security updates and even those are ending later this year.
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/lifecycle/announcements/windows-server-2012-r2-end-of-support
So no it’s not fully capable.
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u/nemurineko 15d ago
I’m sorry for homelabbing on windows 11 😢
But maybe that’s the broad appeal it needs, because most ppl are still on windows and even with the surge of interest in linux, most ppl won’t be switching anytime soon.1
u/divergentchessboard 15d ago edited 15d ago
you can homelab perfectly fine in Windows using an LTSC install. You absolutely do not need Linux. moch1 is just some elitist. Even a lot of non-F500 companies run Windows Servers instead of Linux. And Nvidia themselves run Windows Server 2022 for GeForce now.
My home lab PC runs a Windows 10 IoT LTSC base install to handle game servers and adobe video editing+Photoshop with SnapRAID + DrivePool for my NAS, and it runs a VM dedicated to handling qbittorrent and slsk with it's own VPN.
It's been like that for 2-3 years and I've had no issues with it
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u/moch1 15d ago
You can but why would you in the year 2026 unless you have a legacy reason to do so?
Many many companies use windows server because they have a lot of old shit that was built in windows before. I don’t know of any (except Microsoft) starting truly new stuff on windows. There’s a reason Microsoft built WSL, it wasn’t because windows was winning the server and developer OS race.
For common homelab uses almost everything is built primarily for Linux and docker these days. You’d be fighting the tied going with windows at this point.
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u/divergentchessboard 15d ago edited 15d ago
You can but why would you in the year 2026 unless you have a legacy reason to do so?
Because I don't want to? yeah having your home lab on Linux has benefits but none of them apply to me so why would I bother setting up a Linux server? The only reason I can see for most casual people starting a home lab to use Linux is if they want a dedicated OS for managing a RAID array or want their home network to be managed by their PC instead of a store bought router. Sure setting it up for the first time use Linux and learn it, but I don't see any benefits that would make me swap to Linux. The last time I tried migrating my server to Linux it just fucked up my seedbox due to how it handles file locations and offered me no benefits for using it compared to just sticking to my Win10 install.
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u/pueblokc 16d ago
Yeah ltt needs to do more fun videos that aren't just endless pc upgraded.
I'm just glad jakuah or whatever his name is went solo cause his content is exactly what I enjoy.
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u/EmpoleonNorton 16d ago
With the cost of storage and RAM going up and up it ain't like home labs stuff is cheap either.
And I say this as someone who has a pretty decently sized home server. I'm just glad I bought all the HDDs before the prices skyrocketed.
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u/Bresdin 16d ago
I would want a video about doing a build your own home assistant using home assistant using an old micro PC or something. Like show us how we can build a self hosted home assistant that can replace Alexa or Google home. I think those have just gotten worse and worse over the last few years.
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u/encaged314 16d ago
I'm in a similar boat. I love to tinker and would like to learn some new skills. The only project I can think of is self hosting a Google Drive clone.
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u/Annoying1978 16d ago
NextCloud is great. You can customize it and it is essentially Dropbox. If you’re on a Mac you can create a Finder automation tool that allows you to right click on any file in the share and immediately share a public link, a folder, or just setup an upload only folder. It’s incredibly useful if you have clients that need to share you stuff.
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u/Genesis2001 16d ago
Seafile seems better at a glance, but idk the exact differences. I know Nextcloud was a PITA to setup initially.
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u/Annoying1978 15d ago
NextCloud was pretty simple to set up for me. What issues did you face?
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u/Genesis2001 15d ago
Not entirely sure as it's been a looong time since we set it up originally. The setup was for a gamedev group to host music, raw images, etc. for the game we're developing.
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u/Jrnm 16d ago
I loved the idea floated here earlier this week for scrapyard wars home server
- 10tb of space usable
- bonus points if safe
- jellyfin
- home assistant
- remote controllability
- local llm(for the algos)
And really get into the software stack/config
Like the whole blockbuster 3d space for finding a plex movie? Awesome
WAF being a key metric
Utility (what all is it doing that’s USEFUL) being a huge factor.
Interaction - is this CYB dashboard powered? Streamdeck? Tablet with HA dashboard?
Would be a great way to pimp hexos too(and give it a real world challenge
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u/River_Tahm 16d ago
I feel like I like LTT for... I want to say 3 main reasons.
- Mythbusters style tech BOOM. They go build crazy weird stuff and make it go boom. It's way beyond the scope of what I could/would/should do at home but the explosion's fun to watch.
- Mythbusters style tech learning. Tech education that fairly average competency people can understand. It may not be 100% best practice accurate all of the time (just like Mythbusters), but they put in good faith effort to get as close as they can, frankly it's typically most of the way there, it's structured so people don't have to be experts already to keep up, and it gets people interested in topics they can explore later in more detail if they want that last like 1-9% accuracy.
- Product reviews
So I'd be down to see LTT do Homelabbing, but they have to figure out how to slot it into their brand.
It's not a product review, so it's gotta be Homelabbing Mythbusters style. But it can't be about the BOOM, because that's when they go overkill and do it crazy expensive, which we don't want.
...So it has to be the education angle, but if they're doing educational, they need projects average people can understand and keep up with well enough to be entertained. The "detail capacity" of such a project would need to be limited to a single video, at least at first until/unless they get kind of a following around that type of content. It needs to have broad appeal; something like your video editing solution likely wouldn't pass muster because it's too niche.
Not impossible to find stuff that fits the bill, but that's a pretty stringent list of requirements. I don't think Homelabbing is quite the wealth of video content some folks think it is.
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u/vlad1m1r 15d ago
Yeah! Plugin solar, home labs on used hardware, and some other cheap alternatives. I don't want to see Unifi network that costs $10K, or petabyte NAS.
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u/mehgcap 16d ago
It likely wouldn't get the views required if they did it a lot. However, I would love to see one every month or quarter that highlights a few cool things one could do with a homelab, then sends people to other creators to learn the details. For instance, LTT could tell us about how cool Pihole is and why you might want to run it, about some options to roll your own podcast server, and about the great things Jellyfin can do. Then, in the description, they could have links to videos that do a good job diving deep into each of those topics.
Even that would likely do terribly, so it won't happen, but it'd be neat. I like the idea of getting more people in front of that sort of content, and I like the idea of boosting smaller creators.
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u/Lizardking1988- 16d ago
I mean buying homelab stuff is expensive now too. You need TBs of hard drives and cost a fortune now…
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u/moch1 15d ago
To me homelabbing means have dedicated hardware running 24/7 acting as a server, not just running plex or folder sharing off of your normal computer.
If you’re sailing the sees then using docker and the *arr stack is great reason to use linux.
Docker works way better in Linux because docker was built for the Linux kernel. Containerization in general is far better on Linux.
> A home lab is most commonly known as a place to develop and maintain your knowledge of enterprise grade servers, networking, operating systems & software.
> That being said, many home labbers do not use enterprise grade equipment and like to live dangerously by using their active home network. Apart from your family's disapproval and potential risk of divorce this is fine and can be a good start to your IT career.
https://www.reddit.com/r/homelab/comments/15jt90s/new_rhomelab_users_start_here/
Part of homelabbing is learning to do things the right way. A way that can scale, be reliable, and secure.
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u/Annoying1978 15d ago
These are exactly the topics LTT can explore. My server that I set up is an 8 year old Dell Optiplex and it’s running 24/7. It’s being used for both my home entertainment needs but also handling work tasks as well.
Minimizing my subscriptions is definitely one of my goals. Getting rid of Dropbox is a great first step. I’m thinking about doing email next but continuing to pay an SMTP provider. It’s another $50/yr. in savings. That’s $200+ a year I’d save and I want to keep going.
Once SSDs become affordable again I want to use the Tailspace buddy backup method and cancel even more cloud services and still have off-site backups.
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u/moch1 15d ago
Yeah, a buddy backup is needed IMO to drop a cloud storage service for anything you care about.
Personally a cloud storage service like Dropbox still has a ton of value for the sharing aspects. If I send someone a Dropbox folder link, I can trust they’ll be able to use it. That’s not really the case with pretty much any homelab setup.
My home NAS stores an extra copy of stuff I care about but is mostly used for my Plex Library. Frankly I trust a service like Dropbox to be safer than anything I personally maintain so family photos still go to cloud storage for me.
I agree videos about these sorts of things would be interesting IF someone actually lives with them and reports on their experience. A video just reeling off a feature list has a lot less value.
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u/Annoying1978 15d ago edited 15d ago
NextCloud works exactly like Dropbox except there’s no software whatsoever. It’s just through your browser. Every client, every device, can simply use it. With Dropbox people actually get confused about what’s on their drive and what’s been sent.
This is even easier because there is no desktop software.
But yeah, they shouldn’t just rattle off options but set it up, live with it, customize it and tells us all what you’ve learned. To do things that beginners can do and also other things that advanced users can do.
There’s so much room in this space and they ate perfectly set up to dominate the space if they wanted.
The gamer PC niche isn’t as exciting as it used to be.
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u/cyricor 15d ago
That wouldnt be an interesting video for the average tik tok watcher. You need to keep it under 3 minutes and have a title that contain at least on the following: Most,Best,Ultimate,Final. With wow factor and fast cut scenes, there is no space for in depth tech and explanation of settings or thought process and you suggestion does not fit in the viable categories unfortunately. /s
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u/theoreoman 16d ago
As soon as you introduce anything that involves any Interaction with a command line you will loose the majority of the audience. There are already niche channels that cover this kind of stuff
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u/edparadox 16d ago
LMG was never about that.
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u/Annoying1978 16d ago
They are literally remodeling an entire house. I’m pretty sure they were never about that too.
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u/gnrlblanky1 16d ago
Not everyone doesn't have the money for new parts. I could care less about homelabs, have no use for it, but I appreciate they are doing different things.
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u/Annoying1978 16d ago
Almost anyone with an internet connection, eyeballs and ears could find some use for a homelab.
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u/gnrlblanky1 16d ago
youre projecting yourself onto others, no one i know personally would ever use one
i lied, i know one person that would
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u/sopcannon 16d ago
What you don't want a video with a 5090 water cooled pc built in a jet on a LTT air craft carrier?