I have been using goofcord, its functional. I am moving to matrix after the enshittification of discord though.

Puffin Rock is the shit

Emby is a good option if you don’t want to hop to jellyfin. I have been pleased with it so far. I found the media tag/idenifier to work better/quicker than plex’s.

Up: My unraid server with media library, emby and my kids Down: the fiber internet line into the house that the contractor working on our siding snapped. No one is upset so the system is working.

I have been really happy with hosting my stuff via Emby even with my friend’s library on Plex. I have found the media recognition and identification system in Emby to be much better/easier to use.

While the music player in Emby is nowhere near as good as plexamp. I mostly store a local copy of my music on my phone anyways so it is not really an issue. I am going to start playing with navidrome when I get time but a one directional sync with syncthing fromy server to my phone would also work for my needs.

The Emby app on android tv is decent but not flashy and does not have streaming content by default, it is fully functional as a media player for library files.

They still exist for now.

My server that I host emby on is an unraid setup and using the “automated ripping machine” docker has been super handy for transferring my physical discs into digital form for proper preservation.

Completely unrelated, but did you know that most local libraries have music on cds and movies on dvd/blu rays that you can checkout for free with a linrary card?

I have been really happy with Emby. The setup was easy, library tags updated more reliably than plex, and remote access was simple to get setup with a user account. I am not using a vpn to access it, just give it the server details and user credentials and it works. I did opt for the paid lifetime version though.

I spun up a win10 vm in bazzite to run my CAD and Windows specific stuff and have basically not used it in months now. The libre office suite has gotten much better over the years and most of my normal usage just didn’t end up being OS specific. Its been a great and easy transition for me.

The only game I have not been able to get running via steam/proton has been pubg.

Bazzite has been awesome as a recent windows expat. 100% recommended and the only game I have not gotten working via the built in steam compatibility tools has been pubg.

I named my old white bitfenix prodigy m “Baymax” because it was white and had rounded edges.

I did multi monitors for years and switched to a single 34" 3440*1440 ultrawide both at work and at home and I have never considered going back. I use a curved msi at home and a flat samsung at work. I would go larger size or higher resolution eventually but ultrawide is really nice for cad work so you still get a good work area without the sidebar eating into your view/modeling space. For normal use, I just do window snapping so I still get the function of two work areas.

The Emby mobile music player is awful. For whatever reason it will play and show your history on the desktop/server side but it doesn’t keep track on the mobile app.

Yeah I keep trying to move to the woods but my wife wants to be around people for some reason lol

My tolerance of noise and light pollution has gone way the hell down as I have gotten older. I want to live in the woods at this point.

Lowest score so far…

I am using Bazzite with Gnome as a first linux distro after windows and its been a pretty seamless transition. I did run into some trouble with the bazzite packaged installer so I installed fedora, then rebased to bazzite but since then its been great as a dd.

I don’t have a recommendation but I have been looking for similar products. I am considering an esata setup to add my secondary array or a hotswap housing for switching backup drives. There are some pcie to esata adapters, you then just need power. Keeping it sata helps mitigate the risks of usb DAS connections with respect to corruption allegedly.

I don’t have a recommendation but I have been looking for similar products. I am considering an esata setup to add my secondary array. There are some pcie to esata adapters, you then just need power. Keeping it sata helps mitigate the risks of usb DAS connections with respect to corruption allegedly.