I recently got a used Lenovo M720q (i5 8th gen, 8GB RAM, 256GB NVMe) and figured this would be a good excuse to finally build my first proper homelab.

I'm new to homelabbing specifically, but I'm not completely new to this stuff. I'm comfortable with Linux, the terminal, basic networking, and generally tinkering with tech, so I'm looking for something where I can actually get my hands dirty and understand what's happening rather than just clicking through a web UI.

My main goal is to learn networking, selfhosting, security, and server administration by actually building and breaking things.

What I'd like to run

My rough idea so far:

Router/firewall: plug it into dorm/hotel Ethernet and create my own network

Pi-hole: DNS/ad blocking

Syncthing: sync files between my laptop, phone, etc

Hugo website: I have a personal website that I wanna selfhost

Gitea: private Git server

Minecraft server ofc

Maybe PhotoPrism: if the hardware/storage can handle it

Maybe Remote access: securely access my stuff when I'm away

Hardware

• Lenovo M720q
• i5 8th gen
• 8GB RAM
• 256GB NVMe
• PCIe Ethernet card (no pcie riser yet)
• USB Wi-Fi adapter (I'll get the missing wifi antenna later)

This is going to be portable, too. I'll be moving it between my dorm and home every semester, so I'm trying to design things in a way that doesn't depend too heavily on one specific network.

What am I missing?

Since this is my first homelab, what are some services/tools/concepts you'd recommend learning?

I'm particularly interested in: Networking - DNS/DHCP - Firewalls - Linux/BSD - Self-hosting - Backups - Monitoring - Remote access - security

I'm not really interested in installing 30 containers just because I can. I'd rather have a smaller setup that I actually understand and can troubleshoot.

Storage

The 256GB NVMe seems pretty small once I start thinking about photos, Minecraft, Git repos, backups, etc.

Should I get an external USB SSD now, or just start with the NVMe and add storage when I actually need it?

OS / setup

I'm currently considering FreeBSD, partly because I want to learn something new and understand what's happening under the hood.

I'm also open to other approaches. I've seen people recommend Proxmox, Debian, OPNsense, etc., but I'm not sure what makes the most sense for what I'm trying to learn.

If this were your first homelab with this hardware, what would you build?

And if you've done something similar, what do you wish you'd known before starting?

Hey everyone,

This might be kind of a dumb question, but I'm about to install Asahi Linux on my M1 MacBook Pro, and I'm torn between Arch Asahi and Fedora Asahi Remix.

I'm fairly comfortable with Linux, but this will be my first time daily driving Asahi. Arch is really appealing because of its user centric, minimalist approach. On the other hand, I've heard Fedora Asahi is the more stable option.

My workflow is pretty minimal:

Emacs for writing

Neovim for coding

tmux

Karabiner

Zen Browser

Zotero for storing academic papers

And way too many CLI and TUI tools, both useful and completely unnecessary

I'm thinking of splitting the drive about 50/50 between macOS and Asahi. The only reason I'll keep a larger macOS partition is for my filmmaking and graphic design job I can't really escape Adobe yet 😅. Everything else coding, writing, reading, and general productivity I want to do on Linux.

What I'm mainly looking for is stability, good battery life, and a machine that's reliable enough to use every day without constantly fixing things.

For those of you who have daily driven Asahi, which would you choose today, and why?

What are the best ways to actually make use of it in 2026?

Peak iPhone design

Hey everyone,

I’m trying to pick a longterm personal domain and wanted some outside opinions

I want something I can use for email, homelab/selfhosted stuff, portfolio, blog/website and just as a longterm identity (basically one domain for everything)

Right now

firstname.com taken

lastname.com is expired (the site says it might be in Dyna dot auction but I couldn't find it)

so I’m looking at stuff like lastname.net, lastname.org, or FirstnameLastname.com

I’m not trying to go for anything trendy or startup/AI/cringe vibes just something clean timeless and that won’t feel weird in a few years

What would you suggest?

Hey, engineering student here building my first homelab and slowly trying to move off big tech while learning along the way

Right now I’m still pretty tied into Gmail, Google Drive/Photos, Apple Keychain, GitHub, AWS/GCP. I’m starting to move away for that by setting up a small homelab on old hardwares as a way to learn

Long term my goal is a fully self owned, self hosted stack and shift toward open source tools not just for privacy but mainly to understand systems

I’m looking for advice on how to structure this properly and to learn deeply this stuff. I’m trying to go as deep as possible with this, not just running services less