For 2 gig internet you will likely need something more powerful, especially if you plan on doing much with your router (like using cake qos). The other challenge is finding a network card that works with 2.5 gb Ethernet. It is relatively easy to find a network card that works at 1G or 10G, but the 2.5G Ethernet cards tend to have issues (I have not personally had issues but forums are full of people having issues with the intel nic cards, even though intel networking cards tend to be recommended generally).

What I ended up getting ( don’t have 2.5G internet speeds, just wanted to mess around with it) was a n100 mini pc from Aliexpress. Serve the home has pretty good recommendations for hardware, and I followed their advice. They also had recommendations for switches that support 2.5G.

Here are the links:

https://www.servethehome.com/the-ultimate-cheap-2-5gbe-switch-mega-round-up-buyers-guide-qnap-netgear-hasivo-mokerlink-trendnet-zyxel-tp-link/

https://www.servethehome.com/fanless-intel-n100-firewall-and-virtualization-appliance-review/

As a note, upgrading openwrt on a x86 systems such as a n100 mini pc can be annoying (but doable) especially when upgrading between major versions.

Also I highly recommend posting questions on the openwrt forums as the users there are super helpful, including to users asking questions about what hardware setups are good. It may be a good idea just to get some more perspectives/opinions. Link: https://forum.openwrt.org/

Something that hasn’t been mentioned yet is that open wrt works on cheap devices (check compatibility first) including in all in one router / ap combos. For home use, the most likely used feature will be cake qos which will make a difference even without crazy speeds. Though anything that gives security updates is an upgrade from generic consumer routers

Might not be a great place to start and not Arch Linux, but gentoo solved allowing for many possible configurations by giving each package several different installation options. This is possible because packages are compiled directly from source so the package can have several possible setting changed during compilation. The combinations of software that work are kept track of by a program (the package manager) which lets you know if any settings do not fit together.

On the other hand Linux distros like arch that use binary packages (already compiled) have to make a decision on what defaults or combinations of software to support. If installing packages seems straightforward, it’s because the package manager and the distro are designed well. Ideally, a distro has sane defaults and takes care of dependencies so you can focus on broad strokes (like choosing KDE vs Gnome).

You mentioned that this may be impossible to create for a single person and you would be correct. It took teams of people, years for the linux experience to be as it is (and constantly improving). And yes bugs do come up, which is why picking a well maintained distro is a good idea. Because people do fix bugs and hopefully the original developers of the software also improve their programs. That is one of the beautiful parts of open source software, that it brings together massive collaboration across projects. If for example, the maintainers of Debian find a bug in a package, than when they share it with the package developers and it is fixed, Arch Linux also gets the fix.

Though I have not done it myself, Linux from scratch is a way of seeing how much a distro puts into making a functioning system (as a fun side project). The Linux kernel might do a lot less than you are expecting.

When you install windows you expect a graphical interface, drivers pre installed, some basic apps like a web browser or text reader, and etc. on Linux someone had to put together those things. That’s why android and Arch Linux can both use the Linux kernel even if they look different.

There is a copy pasta about gnu/linux which makes fun of this, as well as endless debates about which user facing systems are better. It’s also why there are so many options to choose from on Linux. For example, Linux does not come with a desktop environment so you can pick which one you want (KDE and gnome as common examples).

Arch is not basically gentoo. Gentoo is about as close as you can get to vanilla Linux while still being a distro. Arch is pretty opinionated about what defaults should run, gentoo is explicitly flexible. Also the compiling on gentoo thing really needs to stop, there have been binary kernel packages for ages, even before the recent improvement to binary packages. The gentoo installation in someways is easier than the arch installation, as long as you use defaults and customize after first booting up, and if you really want to customize stuff, portage is an absolute beast.

With binary packages it’s actually doable on a laptop. Also newer laptops have tons of low power cores which are great for something highly parallel like compiling.

I wish gentoo was more explored, I felt the same way and then it finally scratched the itch of things working (perhaps even too many options). I actually ended up using gentoo because it was less of a headache to just get things to work in a way that does not feel hacky

May I introduce you to our lord and savior portage?

Have you found a generic remote, I hve been looking but the only one I found was the one Logitech discontinued

Just have to wait until cat 9 comes out with gravitational lensing

Yeah, and you need systemd to read the binary logs. Though I think there may be a setting to change to text logs, I am not sure because I avoid systemd when I can

Still boggles my mind that systemd being terrible is still a debate. Like of all things, wouldn’t text logs make sense?

I saw a post a while ago that made the point that wine might end up being the stable Linux abi, we might come full circle

Transferring the house early cannot be overstated. You may have to pay whatever tax, but, it may reduce so many headaches

For research studies you are unironically required to write consent forms so a middle schooler can understand them because that’s the average level of comprehension in the USA

Holy hell

On which server?

Is there a new community?

Tried to find it but could not. Also the level of commerce absolutely had to do with how rapidly England industrialized, even if it was not the only factor. The massive accumulation of wealth and concentration of productive forces in cities was made by and made possible the advent of industrialization. Also it would not be wrong to say that capitalism caused itself, it was a continuous development from feudalism to capitalism, until it wasn’t and had to be sorted out by capitalism overthrowing the previous social order. So even if the populations of each country were different, the core idea that capital shapes the social relations still holds true, regardless of what may have come before, capitalism at a certain point had to revolutionize social relations. Perhaps if you want to argue, you could say the French were more radical in resisting capitalism (the monarchy, then the working class), maybe. But the working class could only fight capitalism once capitalism had developed to the point of creating a working class.

Not entirely true, England just had a shit ton of trade from its colonies, and better trade led to more intense interconnection, and wealth which in the developing industrial method of production led to an explosion of capital. It was to the point the Rhodes (Rhodesia the British colony was named after him) called expansion an existential question for England, because the explosion of capital had to go somewhere. What’s nuts about capital is that it produces more capital using ever more advanced industries and methods of production. England with massive markets and capital available was able to do this to an insane degree. But still, France is something like the third wealthiest nation after US and England, so they did not do too bad for themselves, and their capital still had a field day in Africa. Highly recommend reading Marx or Lenin on imperialism, it’s legit the whole Marxist thesis how modern industry came about, and for Marx, he literally wrote Capital based on data in England. It’s absolutely fascinating how society and the economy entered a seismic shift with the advent of Captialism

Definitely would want to see more, this is great!