@csepp @fristi_ebooks I did deploy #ThinClients as #MiniServers on occasion simply because they deliver good performance and barely sip power.

@mvilain @dangillmor @pluralistic yeah...

The only reason I still have my DeskJet 6122 hooked up is because that lil shit refuses to die!

• Like its glycol ink refuses to clog and it's easy to refill and reset the cartridges...

• Otherwise I would've already replaced it with a WorkCentre multifunction laser...

Worse are their #ProBook line of #Laptops: They literally "Soft-#VendorLock" their #RAM to #HP-branded sticks, bricking #PXE-boot and requiring people to manually press F1 on the device keyboard EVERY SINGLE BOOTUP / REBOOT with #FUD messages.

• Unlike with like #WiFi and #WWAN chips where one can figleaf argue that those need allow-listing for "spectrum regulatory compliance", this doesn't apply to RAM!

On the flipside I use a bunch of #fanless hp #ThinClient|s as #MiniServers, but that's because in #Germany #electricity is absurdly expensive and for just doing #backups and #MediaSharing doesn't draw much power...

@kwf personally I love those #fanless #ThinClients as they make power-saving #MiniServers that are cheap to buy and keep online and since they have no moving parts, maintenance is minimal...

@saagar nodds in agreement Can confirm this with testing, as I use #ThinClients as #MiniServers as I want to let development tasks for @OS1337 run in the background, even if that means having a smol ramdisk and it taking a whole day to build a full image with the scripted pipeline.

@kwf well, I do plan to use #HTTP + #OpenPGP-#Signatures for @OS1337 packages and distribute OS/1337 release images via #BitTorrent exclusively...

But that's just because I have #Sysadmin experience with #narrowband comnectivity and acknowledge that a #SquidProxy on #ipFire is a way easier and more convenient option to #cache and #mirror than spinning up a custom #repo m-server to mirror distros...

Also #CA's can and will be more likely to provide #LEAs with #Certificates to duplicate than a #distro would...

Still, #upcycling #ThinClients as #MiniServers is nifty and I myself use several #t620's for such purposes like #backups, #downloads and #Torrenting #FLOSS #distros...

Not to mention that with the #scalping issues that #RaspberryPi / @Raspberry_Pi had, looking at repurposing #ThinClients really makes for good #MiniServers that nibble power and are quite versatile...

In fact I got like 3 hp ThinClients for less than € 75 and they work great - they run @ubuntu LTS #UbuntuServer and @tails_live just fine...

And I'd rather turn one into a OS/1337 #TUI-based #Desktop longterm...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thin_client
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Text-based_user_interface

#OS1337

@SirTapTap considering the amount of #scalping of @Raspberry_Pi #RaspberryPi's and the fact that the #Pi5B will lilely not be available at #MSRP until the #Pi6B or #CM5 or #Pi500 get released, I can recommend to take a look at #ThinClients, because they have regular #amd64 #CPU's, plenty of ports, are almost always #fanless and also barely sip power.

I do use some #hp #t520 as #MiniServers to do #backups and #torrent #linux distros and just be things I can offload building OS/1337 to...

@dashdsrdash @arichtman I can recommend those #ThinClients with a fresh SSD tho, since they're ideal and cheap platforms for #MiniServers if you have to deal with absurdly expensive electricity and/or don't want a rackmount and/or can't stand the noise of a "real server" and barely tolerate #Noctua|s...