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So like, how does Lemmy work?

When I click on a post, let's say Lemmy.World, that server sends me the page over the Internet. I get that part. But how does it do comments? Does it tell my phone to go ask lemm.ee and blahaj servers, etc, and fetch the comments?

And why does a post on lemmy.world have have a blahaj URL when I look at it? Is my server making a copy?

I'm ready to graduate from my Raspberry Pi era of selfhosting and buy hardware specifically for use as a server.

I've been recommended in the past to look for used Lenovo Thinkstations and/or Dell Optiplex, but it has been so many years since I've shopped for a computer, I don't know what kind of specs to look for. What are the types of specs I should look for to get the best value for money?

I'm hoping to spend around $300-400, get something that can be upgraded in the future to last 10+ years, and do the following things:

• YUNoHost / reverse proxy
• Nextcloud with a custom domain for email addresses, cloud drive, photos
• Music Streaming with something like Navidrome
• Serve static websites
• pi-Hole
• Maybe pi-VPN

And someday maybe:

• Host game servers like minecraft
• Jellyfin for videos
• Kodi and output to TV?

So far based on my selfhosted journey, I expect to want the following:

• Room for 3+ Hard Drives
• External UPS (probably will go with the cheap APC at Microcenter that's always on sale).
• Solid Power Supply / Cooling
• probably 1000 gigabit Networking (?)

The types of questions I have for Thinkstations / Optiplex:

• How is the Power Supply / Cooling?
• Processor? Do I need i5? i7? Generations? AMD? Clock Speed? I'm completely lost here.
• How much RAM do I need?
• Do I need a discrete graphics card? Can Thinkstations / Optiplex have a graphics card added to them later?
• Anything else I'm missing?

Thanks!

Isn't it supposed to be ice creams and milkshakes and stuff?

My first PC ever built is sort of unusable in its current state, and there are a few things I could do:

• Update necessary parts and keep it as a retro-media-compatible PC/nas/server. I love how it has a floppy drive!
• Get rid of it and save money

If I wanted to replace it, I would need to get at minimum:

• motherboard
• ram
• CPU

I'm hoping I can keep using the following parts, some of which have been updated over the years:

• pcie 2.0 graphics card
• 500 W power supply
• monitor / peripherals
• optical / floppy drives
• SSD / HDD
• ATX case (the original case and motherboard PCI slots never lined up quite correctly...) Cooler Master centurion (?)

I've never done anything like this, and last time I built a PC was in 2006. I lack a lot of knowledge...

1. Is my case likely to be compatible with a modern motherboard?
2. Can I buy a modern motherboard/CPU that will be compatible with this other stuff?
3. Would it be less expensive to buy another used PC and use its motherboard/CPU ?

Inspired by that other thread about backing in to parking spaces.

Can someone remind me why we stopped using Firefox a while back? There was some piece of news that broke everyone's trust, but I can't remember what Mozilla did. Was it a change in their user agreement?

I am typing this post on a modern "Thinkpad" from 2020 where the hardware volume keys could never change the volume on Linux. But everything works more or less correctly in Windows 11, unfortunately.

What are my options for getting computer hardware, desktop or laptop (etc.), where the hardware is specifically supported under linux?

Let's say I am wanting to plot a graph with "Usefulness" on the Y axis and "Cost" on the X axis. Then I could plot each computer on the graph, and make a decision about how much money to save up and spend for the best value that satisfied minimum requirements.

In my initial searching, I have uncovered these vendors as supporting Linux, albeit at a (usually) premium, niche price point:

• System76
• Framework
• Dell
• IBM/Lenovo Thinkpad

However I don't yet have a good intuition for when this is true (for example my thinkpad having incompatible hardware) or where these belong on the hypothetical usefulness vs. cost plot.

Also, as I understand it, linux distros are not in the habit of "supporting" specific hardware as "works on our distro." However in the past some have attempted to keep track of what works better than other things. I am hoping for a legitimate guarantee that the hardware I buy will not have hardware problems with the distro it supports. At least for some time.

My personal "minimum" requirements would be: feels "snappy" loading the OS and webpages/videos/media. The touchpad and keyboard are fully usable. All the hardware works correctly, and DPI/screen resolution doesn't cause scaling issues (or said another way, fractional scaling doesn't cause problems. Maybe this is unrealistic if I want to use arbitrary software like hexchat which is GTK2).

Let me know if I'm thinking about this in the right way or missing something.

EDIT: thank you everyone for your suggestions!

Ok, so. Earlier today I was watching the Technology Connections video about how Power is energy over time. In the video he shows a picture of an Anker Solix powerbank to illustrate the concept of energy storage. I've never seen or heard of this product before.

An hour later I'm reading an article on Lemmy, and there is an ad for that same powerbank.

What explains this? Some explanations I can think of:

1. Random chance.
2. Google scans YouTube videos for information about what products appear in them, and knows that I watched the video, and that I'm the same person now reading the article. It then gives this information to everyone in the ad-selling marketplace, so the Anker ad company can bid high to show me an ad.
3. Google is observing what appears on my screen in order to sell this info to advertisers.

I think 2 is most likely given Occam's Razor, but I didn't think Google scanned yt videos like this.

Is there something I'm missing?

I was watching on an Android phone, on Tubular. My browser is IronFox. I'm surprised that Google can follow my activity from one app to the other... this is probably based on IP address, but I wonder what other device fingerprinting tubular and IronFox expose...

I just heard Money for Nothing for the first time in awhile and it sounded really similar; I wonder if it does to you all also

I brushed my teeth and then dissolved a zinc tablet in my mouth.

Afterwards I wondered, would the F- ion in the toothpaste combine with the Zn2+ ion in the tablet, which is not very soluble in water, and would neutralize both the teeth hardening and cold-fighting properties?

It says on the zinc bottle not to drink citrus juices but I cannot find any reliable information online that explains why.