So, as 2025 approaches to an end and the local computing continues to increase in price. I decided to take the jump and have bought a refurbished HP EliteDesk 705 G5 Desktop Mini PC. Specifically the 32gb/512gb version. 32gb might shock you for once but its ddr4. For more storage I have a 1tb 2.5" hdd and an external 2tb 2.5" sata ssd.
So the plan is for the hdd to keep media, the Nvme to host proxmox instance on which i’ll have my debian/Arch VM (tbd) and containers. So the plan is to get started with self hosting and keep learning more about the world of self hostitng and homelabbing. My eventual goal is to also have a kubernetes instance and learn through working on the homelab. Networking is a subject which I have been procastinating on learning. This will finally force me to confront my discomfort and finally learn stuff. Having daily-driven Linux for the past year and a half, daily-driven Debian 12 and now 13, and containerized apps with Docker for side projects, I’ve been comfortable enough. But comfort breeds blind spots.
The wishlist of apps to selfhost has now bloomed to some 15+. Some of them will be the traditional Nextcloud, Tailscale, Vault warden and Rr media setup(Radarr+Sonarr+jellyfin) This will probably take me the first half of 2026 to achieve maybe beyond. Maintanence will be an everlong process.
Working on docker compose files for these services together, setting up the Tailscale VPN to tunnel into my system and access my files from anywhere will force me to confront my blindspots that I had created which included the Linux folklore(everyday stories for some) which I had heard of but never experienced i.e. on linux the network drivers specifically wifi and bluetooth were tough to handle and would break at random times. So I am going to be diving headfirst and learn along the way.
Why am I doing this? This becomes the core question for you my audience. This isn’t just about buying a PC and installing stuff. I am doing this because as a fresher in the market all I have done till now is the web dev and ML/AI till a begineer to intermediate level all that I learned from my work ex but now I want to know how the infrastructe on which we deploy everything works. How the networking that helps us to use all the services in the world how it interacts with realworld applications and scenarios. This homelab is how I’m learning to see infrastructure the way seasoned engineers do.
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