The average Linux VM I run is around 50-100MB of RAM usage. Not actually that much more than an LXC container.

There are some use cases for a VM over a container, sometimes you want better isolation (my public facing webserver runs in one), or a different OS for some reason (I run an OSX VM because its the only way to test a site in Safari).

Ok that is a very low usage. Alpine or so?

But yeah I just restrict my webserver in an unprivileged container. Though my site is static and accepts no input whatsoever.

Just a basic Debian install.

Containers also have some advantages for device passthrough, I have my Intel iGPU added into one for Immich and Frigate, can't do that with a VM unless you detach the whole GPU from the system.

Good backup software deduplicates on storage. Proxmox backup server for example.

Run a lightweight Linux distro on older hardware maybe?

Exclusively using a ever dwindling stock of old hardware is not really a practical solution to preserving hardware rights in the long term

The future is ragged shoeless and grimy humans fighting over the last few 1990's pocket calculators.

This is it. Buy used Dell and HP hardware with 32 GB of RAM and swap the pcie ssd for 4 TB.

No, this is not it. It only worked when there were a small number of buyers for used hardware, who were largely enthusiasts. The moment it becomes mainstream you're going to face the same scarcity in the used/refurbished market as well.

There are lots of such computers to be repurposed. It'll relieve price pressure and avoid e-waste.

I've been on the same PSU for I think 13 years now, its currently running my Ryzen 7 3700x and RTX4070 desktop. I suppose if its not a great quality PSU or its already suspected of causing issues then replacing is a good idea.

If places aren't setting up renewals for SSL it makes me worry about what else they're not paying attention to, like security updates.

I feel like SBC stuff hasn't been worth it over x86 boxes like that for awhile now. Other than the GPIO being useful in certain use cases.

N100 boxes are cheap and use so little power, while having normal OS support and boot setup.

This looks very handy to have around!

Thank you.

It's also useful if you use public wifi. Makes sure all your traffic is encrypted, and stops your IP changing constantly which can log you out of some services.

I'd say rent a VPS or Dedicated server, you can get some serious hardware on a dedi box for $100-200 a month. And there's no 'overages' just because something uses more CPU or RAM.

Cloud stuff is a complete waste of money unless you really specifically need the scaling it offers and have wads of cash.

I wonder if a crypto miner like this was a person doing the work, or just an automated thing someone wrote to scan IPs for known vulnerabilities and exploit them automatically.