I'm in a weird transition phase right now because I deprecated my big boi server when I moved into my new studio. I have a dumb Lenovo NAS with a mini pc that acts as the "brains" of the setup. (I actually need to do a reinstall of my OS because I've been having issues with my Debian setup.) This serves my Jellyfin instance and handles the brunt of my data hoarding activities. I also run a Nextcloud instance, but that's currently running on my cloud seed box while I wait to build a new home server.
My biggest goal for this year is to get my new server built. It's going to be the do-everything server for me. On top of NAS functionality, I also want it to serve a KobaldCPP instance. The biggest challenge there is going to be hardware selection, particularly trying to find a graphics card that has ludicrous amounts of VRAM without bankrupting myself in the process. I was considering doing some home networking stuff, but I really don't need anything more than my ISP's router for what I'm doing right now, and I'm pretty space-constrained since I live in a studio. We'll see, though!
I love working on servers. My home lab is the one thing that I can sit down and actually work on for hours on end. I never really got into software development, probably in-part because my brain is mush, but deploying and maintaining systems is something that I love and am grateful to be able to do as a hobby and a career.
I also enjoy reading and writing, but recently I've had a lot of trouble staying still long enough to get anything done in that department. (I'm jealous of Alyaza's incredible ability to churn through reading material.)
The most important of these is undoubtedly the studio founder Swen Vincke, who still heads Larian to this day - but not only as managing director, Swen also makes creative decisions. Because Swen also owns the majority of the studio - the Chinese publisher Tencent holds only a minority of the shares - Larian is immune to the waves on the stock exchange, to which CD Projekt, for example, is exposed. (Translated from German to English using Vivaldi.)
In our case, there are a bunch of benefits and reasons:
Active Directory (plus certificate services, but I don't personally touch those at all)
A lot of our software here in healthcare is legacy stuff that works on Windows and only on Windows
My boss is used to Windows and is far too busy and old to want to learn something different
Windows Server is generally okay and comes with some handy management features built-in
We do have some systems that are on Linux (Photon OS for VMware stuff, a couple of vendor-implemented Ubuntu systems). We don't really have much to do with these system, though. I'm the only one here who's familiar with *nix stuff, and while I've tried implementing stuff like our Intranet server on Ubuntu Server, I eventually moved over to Windows Server with IIS because it was just easier for my coworkers to access and use.
As for containerization, we have so many servers that do one thing and only one thing. Docker would be awesome, but it's sadly just really not a thing in our slice of the healthcare and IT sector. We do plan to start moving to a hybrid cloud model with Azure, but that probably won't be for a few years.
I mean, I can narrate about the 20 Windows Server 2008 machines that I'm going to have to bump up to Server 2019. But, depending on how it all goes, I might just spoil the mood even more. :D
Florida continuing to ensure that I'll never be giving them either my business nor my professional skills. Not that I'd want to anyways, on account of the weather and bugs wanting me just as dead as the politicians.
Nonono, thank you for the hard work in keeping things going. Hopefully the next platform, when we move, is a more graceful uptake - for all of our sakes. ;)
If you figure it out, make sure to share notes. I'm in bumfuck nowhere Washington and it feels like my only bet for meeting other LGBT folk would be to clone myself.
If you happen to have a Nextcloud instance, there is a decently robust Notes app that can be used from either the web browser or from a standalone app on Android (available on f-droid and Google Play).
I'm waiting for the conclusions to things that are completely out of my control, but that will also have a heavy bearing on my future happiness. I won't know how these things will turn out for months, but that certainly isn't stopping them from impacting my ability to enjoy life today.
Perhaps. Tencent's chief strategy seems to be to own 30% of every tech company on Earth, so honestly I wasn't too surprised in this case. ;D