Hacker News Reader

I have a thing for old worn stuff. Like to reuse my old trainers for walking some extra distance and such. With Linux, computers don't slow down with every update. I use an old Nettop as a Debian server. Unlike Raspberry it comes with an UPS of sorts.

View on HN

An older laptop makes a fine server. Even if the battery only runs for 30 minutes, it is ample time to gracefully shutdown. Running RPi's on a UPS negates the initial lower cost. When I use RPi as a microserver (without a UPS), I install Alpine Linux and make the root FS read-only. Seems to marginally improve reliability.

I have a 2015 Dell whose keyboard does phantom input and trackpad is dead. It has a sata ssd now. Can I trust it as a backup server?

I presume by "backup" you mean somewhere you'd backup your files from other systems. If so, I'd be more concerned about the SATA SSD, they do wear out. Probably not a sufficient reliable system to entrust with your critical files.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com