This is one of the things that has me so hesitant towards upgrading my "server". I've been using an old Thinkpad for a while now and it has served me well, but lately I've been using it for more intensive things (like JetBrains remote development and a Jellyfin server). It's become a regular occurrence that, while I'm trying to sleep, its fans spin up and sound like it's trying to take off because someone downstairs is watching a movie from it. I don't begrudge them for it since I set it up for that exact purpose, but it can make it difficult to sleep soundly.
The most obvious solution would be make a small PC: more powerful and bigger fans means less noise. I've been considering something like this (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jr5MjhgPz_c)... but then how am I supposed to use it? Yes, I can ssh into it, but what if it fails to start? Just last month my Thinkpad server failed to restart properly. This was a trivial fix but it being a laptop whose lid I can just open and use immediately made it an extremely easy fix, which would not be true for a PC.
Thing is, I know that dumb terminals exist, ie, a screen, keyboard, and trackpad that takes the form-factor of a laptop but has no actual internals, it's just a convenient interface when plugged into a server. I've seen them. I've tried searching for them but there doesn't seem to be an agreed-upon search category, and the ones I manage to find are more expensive than the PC itself and are usually designed as a server-rack drawer.
Genuinely, what do people do here? Do they just have their server setup somewhere like a desktop? Or are people keeping spare monitors, keyboards, and mice around that they then need to unpack, plug in, and use awkwardly before putting it all away again?
I have a tiny HDMI screen which I can power from a USB port which I can plug into a computer if for some reason it is unreachable over the network. (this one: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B1L935ZT ), and a tiny keyboard with built-in track pad (something like https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00B9996LA ).
They're stored together in a small box with all needed cables, so they're easy to take with me to whichever computer is having issues. In practice I only use them a few times per year.
SSH most of the time of course, and a management interface (iDRAC, iLO, etc) if you have an enterprise server; otherwise an old monitor and spare keyboard. Sometimes they'll support serial out that you can use over a cable to another computer instead of the whole monitor+keyboard combo. Or nowadays you can use a network KVM like a PiKVM, NanoKVM, or JetKVM
the thing about network KVM is, they require ... network. So if you already can't ssh into your machine, it maybe network issue, thus you can't use network kvm
I just keep a cheap screen and a cheap keyboard near my servers. No need for a mouse. For my garage and basement servers, the KV stays in place always, and the MIL's condo, the KV goes away when not in use... and the keyboard got moved at some point, so I have to remember to bring it over when it needs adjusting.
Around me, most days I can stop at goodwill and get a monitor and keyboard for $30 or less.
> I can stop at goodwill and get a monitor and keyboard for $30 or less.
The issue isn't cost in this case, it's the storage and effort of having to lug it out and put it back afterwards. Even if someone gave me an old screen and keyboard for free, I'm still not going to build that server PC. I've been looking into PiKVM as advised by another comment and they're pretty pricey at ~£200 but that's genuinely orders of magnitude more preferable. In another conversation on another platform, I was told about nexdock, which is more for docking phones but can be used as a dumb terminal, which is pretty enticing... though their website is pretty dubious, eg: the shop doesn't even tell me what version of the nexdock I'd be buying.
Since you're mentioning opening laptop's lid I assume you mean literally failing to start, as after power cycling. For that, wouldn't simple hitting the power button be enough? It certainly doesn't require keyboard. If you plan to place it somewhere not easily accessible, there is Wake on LAN, which most modern PC motherboards are going to support.
If some maintenance task cannot be done with ssh/tmux, you can always use remote desktop software, in local network even RDP will do. And if something went wrong enough for you to not be able to connect to the server remotely then there is indeed no way around bringing and connecting a spare keyboard and monitor, but events like that should be quite rare normally.
> The most obvious solution would be make a small PC: more powerful and bigger fans means less noise
In the performance window of "old Thinkpad", why not go fanless? Those lovely little Intel N150 mini-pc boxes are mostly fanless and completely silent - I have on my desk running Jellyfin/web server/etc, and it's inaudible under load.
> but what if it fails to start?
In ~15 years of running headless linux boxes, I've never had one crippled to the point it wouldn't boot as far as ssh.
My server sits next to my existing desktop, and I just move the keyboard cable from one to the other when I need to get at a local interface on the server. One of my monitors has two inputs, and so is always plugged into both, I can just change the input selected. Not the "cleanest" solution, but it works when I need to get at it, and the space it's in wasn't being used by anything else.
A lot of how I use AI is to assist me to build the software manually. I focus 1 function and ask it to fix or implement it. That's a good way to use AI. But if you mean using AI to improve existing systems, I also think that's being a done a lot. For instance, you know Krita the KDE drawing program? They naturally added a way to prompt image generation, based on your initial doodles, which makes a lot of sense.
I've been considering the multi-window approach, to leverage the system's taskbar, which is natural to use, but I don't know if I'd open more than 2-3 windows, since it would fill the space quickly (unless I use a taskbar that groups items).
I mostly use Firefox except for some cases where Chrome is better suited since it can be more compatible with media and intensive applications. Do you use terminal browsers for emergencies, like when you only have access to a TTY?
Well I would suggest implementing at least at the level of modern desktops, and make it easy to find and use it, not just alt+tab shortcut. Ideally it should be spawned and allow the user to filter to find tabs instead of having to hold and release a key. My point being, a simple forward/backward cycle is definitely on the lower side of effort when it comes to window management (tab management), which to be honest is not a problem to me personally, but I find the gap left there on purpose bizarre and makes me question it. I don't think browsers should consider themselves just rendering frames since it is the interface that users use, it's not a component, and it should be (very) ambitious when it comes to advanced features, especially with something as fundamental to them as tab switching.
Just to make sure you're aware, there's the Firefox View feature which lists Open and Recently Closed tabs, sorted by parent window, with a search box for filtering. Navigate this page with mouse or keyboard (Tab and arrow keys). It also lists History by date or domain.
There's also the List All Tabs feature, which has been available a long time. Either or both of these can be added to your toolbar from the Customize Toolbar page.
I guess anything more sophisticated could be done via add-ons.
Is there a browser you feel does a better job of tab switching?
I was aware of those tab listers, though I use my own addon. However the motivation to make this thread in the first place was because I was in fast-switch mode, going back and forth between tabs, to copy/paste stuff etc, and I kept feeling stuck, my mind was expecting something as intuitive as a taskbar icon, and the "alt+tab" available didn't even cross my mind tbh and a cycle is not that great, there's a reason an OS like windows doesn't just cycle without previews on alt+tab. I don't know what other browser does this better. I make my own tab manager, check out Grasshopper on the marketplace, I've been adding all the task switching features there. That moment was just that my brain was wired expecting something else and the browser felt incomplete.
And while we're at it, I want to focus the fact that browsers never evolved beyond maximized tabs instead of venturing into windows. At least the modern ones.
I agree with you. People is very smart. And Tik Tok is micro lessons, condensed varied knowledge (accelerationism) - It can be at least but short video formats also lead to treachery.
