@ArpadLinks @greenpeace I think the latter ideas won't be implementable legally, but whyt you mean with the former already exists with many #AllInOnePCs, #ThinClients and #EmbeddedComputer|s:

• Low power, space-efficient computers that barely sip energy whilst being fully useable as Desktops.

Besides #surplus'd Hardware and frightingly-expensive for their computational power #Embedded systems there's @frameworkcomputer which sell you their #mainboards, #CoolerMaster sells a matching low-profile #case which allegedly has #VESA-Mounts, so you can easily screw that on the rear of a monitor and have a cheap #AiO #Desktop that is also #repairable.

• I hope that comes close to what you're looking for.

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

@Sirs0ri np.

I can recommend the "upcycling" & "reuse" route given #ThinClients offer decent performance for a mini server and more often than not are completely fanless, making them excellent at home.

• I do use an #hp t620 for that myself, and unlike the #ProBook|s it seems hp didn't do #DRM with the #RAM on their #ThinClient|s...

It's not that I don't say any other brand is bad, but those brands have been reliable to me and are known to use reliable & new components and not new-old-stock or "upcycled" chips ripped from older machines and sticks.

• And since you ain't looking for some "vintage" SD-RAM there's no need to dive into those.

@hzulla @thoralf und wer auf superengem Budget ist kann sich gebrauchte #ThinClients ansehen.

• Nen #hp #t620 zieht locker mit nem #Pi0W bzw. Mit GX-415GA - CPU locker mit nem #Pi4 gleich und ist für wenger Geld zu haben.

@k4m1 @stman yeah, according to the #RTL8139 #datasheet this is basically a very cheap 10/100M NIC designed #embedded systems and low-end/low-cost desktops, and for a device designed and sold in 2006 it made sense, given back then #Gigabit-#Ethernet and Cat.5 cabling was considered high-end.

• And unlike contemporary / successor chips by #Intel like the famous #i210 (which is still offered as #i219 but mostly succeeded by the #i225 as a 2,5GBase-T version) is way cheaper, which pre-#RoHS - NICs being sold for like € 10 retail & brand-new....

The few issues known only affect like #Virtualization setups, a market this thing was never designed for (most likely also never tested against).

• I'd not he surprised if a lot of cheap #ThinClients and other systems used these NICs because of the simplicity of integration, being a cheap 3,3V single-chip (+auxilliary electronics) solution and propably costling less than 10¢ on a reel of 10.000.

It's the reason why to this day we see #Realtek NICs being shipped instead of fanning-out & enabling #SoC-integrated NICs with a #MAC & #PHY instead: Because the auxilliary parts for those are more expensive than just getting a PCI(e lane) somewhere and plonking it down.

• Maybe there have even been some really cheap, low-end #Routers / #Firewalls aiming at #SoHo customers back in those days, cuz back then 16MBit/s #ADSL2 was considered fast, and Realtek's NICs up until recently only delivered like 60-75% of the max. speed advertised, so by the time someone would notice, that gearvwould've been EoL'd anyway and those who did notice right-away never were the target audience to begin with.

Most modern NICs are more complex and demand more configuration / driver support...

@daswarkeinhuhn besonders Gebraucht sind #ThinClients unschlagbar!

• Frag' @fuchsiii ...

TIL: Laptop Netzteile von #Fujitsu funktionieren auch für die #ThinClients von Fujitsu.

@duckyfella @MaliciousCarp Depends on the exact config and whether or not one just needs a stupid #dlna server (even the OG #RaspberryPi Model B can run minidlna fast enough to stream 1080p video with ease.

• There should also be some hardware transcoding stuff even on older #AMD Embedded SoCs with Radeon HD graphics.

As for other #Server tasks, the #fanless #ThinClients are perfect for offloading tasks like #Backups, #Filesharing and "#Homelab|bing" aka. doing some "#FuckAroundAndFindOut" - kind of #testing.

@derf @Lili wegen #Stromkosten nutz' ich alte #fanless #ThinClients wie #hp t520.

• Sind auch #AMD64.
• können problemlos bis zu 2x 4GB DDR3-SODIMMs fressen.
• ne 2240 M.2 B-Key SSD passt auch rein.
• USB 3.0 und GBit-NIC reivhen für 08/15-#NAS...
• Hat genug Luft als #Downloadknecht alla #ytdlp...

@foone I guess people mistake them for the #ThinClients that #Dell sells under the #WYSE brand to this day and think "Let's just charge people as much as they'd be willing to pay for those..."

• Personally I'd love to get my hands on a #VT525 because it's a #DEC #terminal with like #VGA & PS/2 and not some big #CRT...

Even tho I too would love some #amber & #green in my room and would love to test those against @OS1337...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RuZUPpmXfT0

@jakob_thoboell @DigitalWriter@bildung.social @jdohrmann EXAKT DAS Sehe ich genauso.

• #Microsoft's #Lobbyismus im #Bildungssystem, zusammen mit der Tatsache dass es (soweit ich weiß immernoch) möglich ist nen #Abitur ohne #Informatikunterricht zu erhalten ist erschreckend.

Zumal #Windows und #MicrosoftOffice nicht nur unbrauchbare #Govware & #Bloatware sind, sondern deren nicht-standardkonformes Verhalten problematisch ist!

• Angesichts von @nextcloud / #Nextcloud und @CollaboraOffice / #CollaboraOffice gibt's IMHO umso weniger Gründe sich #WinSchrott anzutun, und umso meur Gründe #ThinClients mit #Browser auf #Linux-Basis einzusetzen, weil eh alles als #WebApp umsetzbar ist!

Because Iinstead of paying hundreds of $ for vintage hardware of limited use, why not #upcycle and #convert existing #COTS hardware like #ThinClients and turn them into something #secure that can still be used to some degree, even when they are too slow to run any decent #Desktop #Linux like @tails_live / @tails / #Tails or #BunsenLabs or whatever...

@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.

@nickmatavka @lightspill case in point:

Editors are a choice, like whether one wants to wear a red, green, blue or white shirt.

Whereas the base OS and security cofigurations are like a safety helmet, high-vis jacket, certified safety boots and standarized radio with trip-over detection on the belt of anyone working in an industrial or construction site:

• "You WILL wear these or security WILL remove you from the site instantly!"

Those things are just not debateable, because it's not even up for decision by the IT or even CTO & CEO but what regulators demand.

• Like proper #logging infrastructure that secures all the essential systems and records any changes done to them in realtime, protocols them and thus prevents malicious actors from being unnoticed.

Depending on the setup this ranges from "printing out every transaction in realtime in a locked room" (i.e. some smaller banks do) to "stashing away all syslogs with #graylog" in other cases...

• And not just complying but exceeding standards of arbitrary complexity is one of the reasons I started @OS1337: Because at worst it's an easy to update system for #SSH-#Terminals like #ThinClients and at best it's a solid foundation for my own #IoT / #Embedded projects...

I have one that that runs Ubuntu 22.04 LTS and runs as my UniFi Controller via a simple setup script.

If I had to do it all over again, I would have installed Proxmox and ran it in a container or VM so that I could back it up that way to my NAS.

You can spend a little bit more for the Extended version of the thin client, which gives you a low-profile PCIe expansion slot for an additional NIC, low power graphics card, or a low power HBA for external storage.

#HomeLab #Linux #FreeBSD #ThinClients #Computers

If you are considering getting some really cheap N100 computers or Raspberry Pi 5 boards to set up a relatively low power homelab, you may want to consider looking at Dell Wyse 5070 thin clients with a J4105 or J5005 processor.

They are passively cooled, use a laptop power brick, support up to 8 GB of RAM, and use an M.2 SATA drive (not NVMe) and can be stood vertically or sat horizontally.

Since companies are phasing them out, you can find lots of 5, 10, 25+ on eBay and other corporate off-lease auctions for around $30-45 each.

Getting FreeBSD, Debian, Fedora, NixOS, Arch or any other distribution on them is pretty darn easy. As such, Proxmox is also an option for lightweight containers.

There are some minor tweaks to the firmware settings to allow fwupdmgr to update the firmware version properly (otherwise, use a USB boot drive).

Sure, they are bigger than most N100 or Pi 5 with a case, but the thin clients are sturdy AF and you don't have to worry about fly-by-night sellers hawking N100 systems.

HP thin clients would also work, but I haven't used them before as a homelab server.

#HomeLab #Linux #FreeBSD #ThinClients #Computers

@lexi depends on what you want and need.

I got great mileage out of #amd64-based, #fanless #ThinClients so far but I also don't run a small business off them but merely basic stuff...

What are your limitations in terms of budget, space, power, cooling, noise and what are your must haves and nice to haves...

@neingeist @LambdaCalculus @adam @lunareclipse @armbian

Still, that doesn't change the fact that in terms of documentation and support they ain't even in the same league as @Raspberry_Pi and that really is a big problem, because that's what made the #RaspberryPi so successful.

• Because there are cheaper AND more powerful options on the market but they don't get traction due to lack of good #documentation and #mainline support by the #Linux #kernel.

Remember:

• Software makes Operating Systems &
• Operating Systems make Hardware.

That's why #Apple's #ARM64-v8.5A - based #SBCs are gamechangers and why #AMD64-based #PCs ain't dead like #ppc64 and #SPARCv9:

• Because at the end of the day, people don't give a damn about specs and stuff, all they care about is getting their "Compute Needs" fulfilled at a price- and painpoint they can accept...

Which is why I use #refurbished and #surplus'd and64-based #ThinClients instead of a #Pi5B for #Server work:

• They are cheap and they run basically all the stuff I care about.

OFC they won't replace big clusters at work but if your homelab has to run off German Energy Prices then you want a machine that barely sips power...

@warthog9 @kwf Granted, I doubt anyone's gonna #mirror OS/1337 anytime soon and I do want some fallback to enshure that if #GitHub were to ever pull a #DockerHub, nothing would impact the end-users...

But that's more of a hypothetical as of now.

Still I do find this insightful and yes, if I had the €€€€€ upfront to get it started I would've lilely offered people #upcycled #ThinClients and #MiniPC's as cheap #Servers long ago - it's just that #Colocation amd Hardware ain's free...

I'll keep that conversation in mind.
After all, any #netboot #infrastructure would require me to setup classic #mirrors anyway...
https://github.com/OS-1337/netboot