New Journey: My First Home Server

I've finally pulled the trigger and bought my first home server. 🖥️

I went down to Gigacomputer, grabbed a cheap machine, installed Linux on it, and now it's quietly humming away right next to me — already running some of my automations.

It feels like the start of something fun.

Why now?

For a while I've been running everything in the cloud — n8n workflows, small services, side projects.

It works, but I wanted to actually own a piece of my infrastructure. Have something physical I can tinker with, break, fix, and learn from.

Plus, there's something satisfying about hearing the little fan spin up next to your desk and knowing:

That's mine.

The setup so far

Nothing fancy yet — just a budget box from Gigacomputer running Linux.

But the goal isn't to build the perfect rig on day one. It's to start, learn, and iterate.

I'm looking forward to:

• Diving deeper into homelabbing as a hobby
• Actually learning hardware properly, not just specs on a page
• Exploring what's possible when you have your own always-on machine

Accessing it from anywhere

Right now I've got Tailscale and Windows Remote Desktop set up, which lets me connect to the server from any of my devices — laptop, phone, or iPad.

On the phone it's a bit clunky because of the small screen and fiddly inputs, but on the iPad it actually feels great.

Pair it with a keyboard and you've got a surprisingly capable travel setup — full access to your home server from anywhere in the world, with almost nothing in your bag.

What's next?

Honestly? I don't have a fixed roadmap, and I think that's the fun part.

I'll experiment, move some workloads off the cloud, try self-hosting things I currently pay for, and see where it takes me.

If you're running a home server too, I'd love to hear what you're using it for — drop me a message.

Onwards. 🚀