Homelab

What is it? 

I hadn't heard (or noticed) the term homelab until now.  Google quickly gave me a sensible definition.  I feel it describes rather well what I do with my leisure time.  I might describe what I do in more general terms as "tinkering with tech to gain understanding or make it more useful to me".  Reading about tech is slightly interesting but trying out what I read and making it work is much more enjoyable and, if successful, satisfying.  In a few cases tech turns out to be geninely useful, ie more than just a gadget/plaything, and this is a bonus.

There is an element of beating, overcoming, controlling, mastering the target of my interests.  I have a desire to achieve, suceed, make something work or understand how it works.

There is an element of doing things that others cant, although this is largely illusory. I am reliant on tutorials, examples and explanations provided by people who know more and understand their subject a lot better than I will.

Hardware

Many homlab geeks seem to like buying routers, servers, switches and NAS, spending lots of money to impress.  Myself, I like to minimise purchases, reusing old stuff as much as possible.  Here is my list.

TP-Link router and switches, Raspberry PI (B, B+, 2, 3, 4, 5), ESP32, SSD (Samsung, WD), Risc V (Nezha, VisonFire2, Mango, M1S)

Software

I wasnt sure what to include for software, so I found a random reddit list with suitable ideas.

Home Assistant, OpenMedia Vault, Docker, Transmission, Jellyfin, pihole, navidrome, owncloud, purevpn, wireguard.

If I include IoT hardware and look at software I use regularly the list would be longer and not much more interesting.  I will add more ideas if become inspired.