221: Old Hardware, New Penguins: Installing Linux on All the Things | Linux Out Loud 123

About this episode

The hosts explore installing Linux on older hardware and discuss various tools and experiences in their homelabs.

In this spring‑cleaned episode of Linux Out Loud, Wendy, Bill, and Nate dust off their homelabs and see just how far Linux can push “retired” hardware. Bill talks about guiding a Linux‑first startup, Fyra Stack, as they build a colo and VPS business in downtown Chicago, wiring it all together with Proxmox, PostgreSQL, Snipe‑IT, and osTicket—plus a few cursed Zigbee light bulbs along the way. Nate dives into one of his favorite pastimes: installing openSUSE Tumbleweed on everything from a 2007 white MacBook to a 2015 MacBook Air and a pair of well‑worn Surface Pros, comparing battery life, sleep quirks, and how “modern” Plasma feels on ancient gear. Wendy rounds things out with creative test‑taking workarounds using ChromeOS Flex and a quick look at VDO.Ninja for remote recording, before the trio wraps up the cleaning spree. Show Links: Fyra Stack – Linux‑focused startup (colo and VPS) – https://fyrastack.com/ Proxmox VE – virtual environment and homelab hypervisor – https://www.proxmox.com/en/proxmox-ve PostgreSQL – open‑source relational database – https://www.postgresql.org/ Snipe‑IT – open‑source IT asset management – https://snipeitapp.com/ osTicket – open‑source support…

People in this episode

Hosts: Wendy, Bill, Nate

Topics covered

• Linux installation
• old hardware
• homelabs
• open-source software
• remote recording
• technology

Keywords

• Linux
• openSUSE Tumbleweed
• Proxmox
• homelab
• Fyra Stack
• ChromeOS Flex
• VPS
• old hardware
• remote recording

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Fyra Stack, Proxmox, PostgreSQL, Snipe-IT, osTicket, openSUSE Tumbleweed, MX Linux, Arch Linux, ChromeOS Flex

Places: Chicago

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