You might want to consider that backups only protect very old data from ransomware.

Ransomware works by getting on a machine and sitting for several months before activating. During that time, your data is encrypted but you don’t know because when you open a file, your computer decrypts it and shows you what you expect to see. So your backups are working but are saving files that will be lost once the ransom ware activates.

The only solution is to frequently manually verify the backup from a known safe computer. Years ago I looked for something to automate this but didn’t find it. (Something like a raspberry pi with no Internet that can only see the PC it’s testing, compares a known file, then touches the file so it gets backed up again.)

I’d been hearing a lot about NixOS so I did a VM install. It wanted me to setup my own partitions manually without even giving preset sane defaults like I was back in 1994 installing Slackware.

Nope. My OS is a tool, not a lifestyle.

Instead of having to do an Operating system setup with a cloud provider, maybe another cloud backup service would work. Something like Backblaze can receive your Google files. Then you can download from Backblaze at your leisure.

https://help.goodsync.com/hc/en-us/articles/115003419711-Backblaze-B2

Or use the filters by date to limit the amount of takeout data that’s created? Then repeat with different filters for the next chunk.

Used servers/workstations are likely more reliable than new consumer.

They were very likely kept temperature controlled, have ECC, and are actually known working instead of something like Asus. If I remember correctly, PC mortality is very high the first 6 months, goes down to near zero for 5 years, then starts going back up.

Replace the SSD/hard drive and you are good. You might not even have to do that. I checked the stats on the SSD that came with my used Lenovo workstation and it had like 20 hours on it.

How small? How many drives? I bought several used Lenovo P330 E2276G for my servers.

The Intel CPU has great low power GPU for video encoding/decoding for video streaming.

The Xeon ECC ram gives long term reliability. It’s important if you leave your PC on 24/7 for years at a time.

Smaller doesn’t need to be more complex. 3.5" drives weren’t more complex than 5.25" drives.

A smaller head means a smaller drive actuator. Less mass and smaller size means it can compensate much quicker in response to vibration detection.

Back when full height 5.25" drives were the norm, you couldn’t pick up your PC while running without causing an error. Those tiny CF card sized drives failed but took extreme abuse compared to big drives.

Ssd for boot but not cost effective for nas. Nor do I trust their longevity.

Smaller stuff has smaller mass and therefore can be more reliable.

There were portable mp3 players with mechanical hard drives that were reliable despite extreme abuse.

I’ve read there is an id pin on Epyc cpus that differentiates them from Ryzen. Der8aur made it work by masking the pin on the socket.

The AsRock says ECC but not verified with Ryzen.

So you end up having to test it yourself like this guy and hope the version hasn’t changed between when he bought the motherboard and now.

https://sunshowers.io/posts/am5-ryzen-7000-ecc-ram/

Could be but finding a motherboard that has verified ECC is tricky. Most say works but not tested/supported so you’re on your own to figure out if ECC fully works.

Plex, Blue Iris, Minecraft mod servers for the kids. I’ll often use the server CPU for video filtering/encoding home videos off of VHS tapes because the nnedi3 filter takes a lot of CPU.

Years ago I lost data on a nas because the ram wasn’t ECC. So I won’t buy/build any PC without ECC unless it’s only going to be used for web browsing/gaming.

This is really nice for home servers. There has been a huge gap for years where the choice was a 16-64 core high watt monstrosity or use a 4 year old server CPU before every server went to high core counts.

8cores with ecc is perfect for my home use.

It’s really good on rust. I used it on some 50 year old tools and they came out of a 2 day soak looking new.

I have since learned about better rust removal chemicals from Adam Savage and Project Farm on YouTube but the citric acid has worked well for me.

Sorry, I got mine on Amazon.

An alternative to vinegar is citric acid. You can buy it as a tub of crystals so it’s much cheaper because you aren’t paying for water. It’s great because you can add more teaspoons to water to make it stronger than vinegar. Plus it doesn’t smell bad like vinegar.

ATM’s are a PC running an OS like Windows or Linux. They aren’t a type of OS.

Which you should always follow by running the command to show the active processes.

The beards were in honor of Dennis Ritchie and Ken Thompson.

It isn’t hard but it is tedious because each of the ad settings is in a different location. Like taskbar has its settings which aren’t configured in the Settings app where you can turn off the ads. Settings has places in search and another in privacy. Look at the OP image. It’s 9 different settings that need to be found and turned off.

A minor correction:

No code was ever shared between the three.

I remember the lawsuit threats back in the 90’s. Here’s an article from 1996:

“Last year, somone from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology apparently found whole chunks of Mica comment for comment, note for note still there in Windows NT.”

https://techmonitor.ai/technology/dec_forced_microsoft_into_alliance_with_legal_threat