Linux

PiKVM turns a Raspberry Pi into a full KVM-over-IP device. It gives you IPMI-like remote access to any computer’s BIOS, boot loader, and OS through a web browser. You wire the Pi to the target machine’s HDMI output and USB port. Then you open the PiKVM web page from anywhere on your network. You get live video of the screen, keyboard and mouse control, virtual media mounting, and ATX power control. A DIY build runs under $100 in parts. Even the top PiKVM V4 Plus at about $385 costs far less than IPMI modules from HPE or Dell.

Gatus is a single-binary monitoring tool that probes your services and shows a public status page at a URL you control. You define every check in one YAML file. So your whole setup can live in Git next to the rest of your stack. There is no need for a database, no web UI to click through, and no per-monitor pricing. If you self-host a blog, a Gitea instance , a Home Assistant server, or a mail relay, Gatus gives you a simple way to know when something breaks.

A Raspberry Pi 5 running RetroPie or Batocera turns a $80 single-board computer into a retro gaming console that handles everything from NES and SNES through PlayStation 1, N64, Dreamcast, and even some PSP titles. The Pi 5’s quad-core 2.4 GHz Cortex-A76 CPU and VideoCore VII GPU deliver roughly 3x the single-core performance and 2.8x the GPU throughput compared to the Pi 4, making previously choppy N64 and Dreamcast games run at full speed for the first time on Pi hardware. With Bluetooth controller support, CRT shaders, and a polished menu system, the result rivals commercial retro consoles like the Analogue Pocket or Retroid Pocket at a fraction of the cost.

To benchmark your SSD on Linux, use fio for full sequential and random I/O tests, hdparm for a quick sequential read check, and GNOME Disks for a visual one-click run. A healthy Gen5 NVMe drive (a Crucial T705, Samsung 990 EVO Plus Gen5, or WD Black SN8100) should hit 12,000-14,000 MB/s sequential reads and over 1,200,000 random 4K read IOPS. Gen4 drives top out near 7,000 MB/s sequential and 800,000-1,000,000 IOPS. If your numbers fall well short, there is usually a clear reason: heat throttling, a PCIe slot at the wrong generation, or a bad I/O scheduler setting.

Every DNS query your devices make tells a story. When your home network sends those queries to Google (8.8.8.8), Cloudflare (1.1.1.1), or your ISP’s resolver, that provider builds a record of every domain every device visits. Your phone, your laptop, your smart TV, your thermostat: all of it. You can fix this. Run Pi-hole as a DNS sinkhole to block ads and trackers across the whole network. Then pair it with Unbound , a local recursive resolver, so your queries go straight to the DNS root servers instead of a third-party middleman.

You can revive a 2012-2015 MacBook Pro by swapping the HDD for an SSD and installing a light Linux distro. A machine that felt slow and unsupported under macOS turns into a snappy computer for web, writing, and dev work. The swap keeps working hardware out of landfill and gives you a secure, up-to-date machine for years.

Which MacBook Models Are Worth Restoring in 2026?

Not all old MacBooks make good Linux candidates. The key factor is hardware upgradability. Apple’s shift from user-serviceable to sealed hardware draws a hard line.