Just a heads-up that Computer Science is a branch of mathematics, and some schools lean into that more than others. There’s a lot of theory in addition to the practicalities of writing programs. I’d assess how comfortable you are with math and abstraction, then try to figure out where the schools you’re looking at place their emphasis. Since you want work as a programmer, make sure the school offers some software engineering classes in addition to the theory.

Jesus christ, what is that name.

I went with Debian and I use Docker for containers. I considered Proxmox, but I didn’t end up trying it. PiHole is a good application for the Pi Zero (I have an early generation Pi dedicated to running PiHole), but you could also run it on the Beelink.

I strongly recommend you download Obsidian and keep hyperlinked notes on everything you do and links to every tutorial/resource you end up using.
Have a place to keep all the passwords your services will end up needing. A password manager is the best option. Make the password on your admin account on Debian (or whatever) easy to remember and enter, since you’ll need to sudo a lot.
If the Beelink comes with a copy of Windows installed, you can recover the key from within Linux with the following command:
sudo strings /sys/firmware/acpi/tables/MSDM
Then you have a spare Windows key should you ever need one.

Lol, I still check out slashdot too - although it’s usually a day late with news and the comments aren’t anything special. Force of habit I guess.

Wow, that takes me back. I used to prefer Anandtech to Ars Technica, Hot Hardware, Tom’s Hardware, etc.
But I haven’t visited any of them in like a decade, so I can see why they might be shutting down.

Masochism, paranoia.

Another vote for Debian, and I’ll suggest you go ahead and install Jellyfin directly rather than messing with Docker.
https://jellyfin.org/downloads/server
I’d been running JF under Docker on my NAS, but when I moved to a new server I decided to just install it directly and it hasn’t been any problem at all. You’ll get a notification when it needs to be updated and it’s just a few clicks to do so. You won’t have to fight with Docker to get hardware acceleration working - which isn’t to say it won’t be a PITA, but it’s one less layer of complication.

Looks cool. My RPi 1 is still rolling along running Pi Hole, but if I need to replace it, something like this running off PoE would be very tidy.

The 1% of China? I mean, I’m sure they have an elite, but the 1% thing is usually pointed out as a sore spot for capitalism.

A $3 Million Crypto Wallet… A $2 Million Crypto Wallet… A $5.5 Million Crypto Wallet…
(This joke probably doesn’t work anymore, but I still think it’s funny.)

I’m not using disk encryption. It’s a desktop and if it’s every stolen I’ve got bigger problems.
Also, I presume that disk encryption makes it so you can’t just pop the drive in an adapter and pull stuff off it, which I sometimes need to do with old, retired drives.

Rats. Leaving TPM off in the BIOS is how I’ve been avoiding it nagging me to upgrade from 10.

Interesting. As much as I’m a Foobar2000 fan, it’s not open source. Looks like I’ll be giving Winamp another spin soon.

So you’re suggesting that all scammers are skilled.

It’s a real dilemma.

Quick! Someone tell us why this isn’t a good thing because the government did it! Surely there’s some secret corruption at work!

It’s like a Sokal Hoax for STEM.

I’ve got a cable DVR and a Raspberry Pi running LibreElec plugged into it.
I’ve only experimented a little with gaming since I don’t own a console and my PC is in another room. I had the whatever the Steam software is installed on the Pi for awhile, so I could stream games from the PC.

‘splurging’ on a dumb tv

This might not be the best advice if money is an object, but some LG OLEDs can be rooted simply by visiting a website:
http://rootmy.tv
So you get a top-quality screen and complete control over the software.
Personally, I’ve never connected my LG OLED to the internet and it works just great.

Looks like a lot of info is shared through the manufacturer’s app which interacts with the car. Easy to avoid if you don’t install the app.
What we’re all here looking to avoid is the car itself uploading data. The article isn’t as clear about that, I guess since it depends so much on your exact model of vehicle.