I use Fedora with GNOME for my parents and other family members. Some have used Windows prior, some have not used computers at all really, only iPads. They all get along very well on GNOME!

I have started using Silverblue the last year, which simplify things even further. Combined with the excellent remote controll functionality, it has been a really pleasant experience both for me and them.

If you can find a secound hand Fujitsu R727, they are great linux tablets! But they are not as common, in my experience.

It has RSS built-in, but since it is a static site generator, it does not support ActivityPub out of the box. But I do think I have seen implementations with some custom JavaScript.

I have been running this for a year on my old HP EliteDesk 800 SFF (G2) with 64GB RAM, and it performes great on the smallest models (up til 8B) only on CPU. I run Ollama and OpenWebUI in containers/LXC in Proxmox. It’s not as smart as ChatGPT, but it can be suprisingly capable for everyday tasks!

OtterWiki looks awesome! The combination of markdown, git and a web interface is powerful.

Nice! It can also connect to a remote instance of ollama 👍

I use Navidrome, it’s a single binary and gives you your own Spotify, kinda. It can be use with many other apps, in addition to the web interface, as it supports the subsonic protocol.

Fedora has been my default choice for non-techies in my family the last couple of years and it has been glorious!

All they need is a browser with uBlock, maybe an email reader and LibreOffice. With Silverblue, eveything updates automatically, and upgrades between major versions is a one-click operation. Easy rollback gives me peace of mind.

All they need to know is where the Super key is located on the keyboard. When pressed, it shows the dock with all apps they use and all open windows. Double-tap the Super key and you see all apps, but that is usually not necessary.

I also use the built in remote desktop feature (RDP) in conjunction with a Wireguard connection to my home network. So nice and a joy to never have to fight teamviewer again 😝

Check out Anytype! It is a local-first cross-platform app with Notion-like features, and it has a Kanban view. It is SUPER customisable, I have set it up with a PARA workflow that fits my needs.

Does it support Podman yet?

I have a couple of these (only the G2 and G3 SFF) and they consume between 6-10w when not under load, and they max out at 35w (or 65w depending on CPU). I run proxmox with 64gb ram and they are surprisingly efficient.

I never notice any update times, as the default in Fedora is to auto-update (I think?). Everything is just always up to date.

Edit: coming from ten years of Arch, this has significantly reduced my time fixing things related to an update 😆

It does share dependencies, but in a different way than a regular package manager. You share runtimes and base apps: https://docs.flatpak.org/en/latest/dependencies.html

If it’s a personal server for yourself and maybe some friends and family, I would rather use GoToSocial, as it is much more lightweight and is less complex to set up and maintain.

Nice, support for Android apps is just casually mention almost as a side note 😎

Proxmox does VMs and containers (LXC). You can run any docker / podman manager you want in a container.

Benefits of having Proxmox as the base is ZFS / snapshoting and easy setup of multiple boot drives, which is really nice when one drive inevitably fails 😏

In that case, I can recommend minicomputer’s like HP EliteDesk G2 800 Mini. You can get them with a variety of intel CPUs, they can take up to 32GB RAM, they have slot for M.2 disks and a regular 2.5" SSD – and they hardly use any power when idle, between 5 to 10 watts, depending on the CPU and CPU governor settings. They are sold used for ~€50 and if you buy newer generations you’ll get even more umpfh for a bit more cash.

In other words, very competetive with the Pi’s, only more available, cheaper and about the same power consumption!

Fedora updates flatpaks automatically, system updates too, but you need to reboot. Which Fedora version do you use?