Hi, @goose 
Welcome to our community!
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Hello. I’m just an old developer that likes to play around with my OS. Looking at getting a different version of Linux. I just installed Bazzite for gaming and I love it but don’t like that it doesn’t like to dual boot with Windows easily. I’m thinking about installing Arch now because I like to tinker.
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Welcome to the forums! 
@ramanajan keep us posted on what you settle on and why.
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@goose Welcome Mary! Great intro, and don’t sell yourself short, your background and curiosity are exactly what makes a community good!
Post that distro list when you find it and we’ll happily share thoughts. For someone wanting minimal fuss and a familiar feel, Linux Mint or Zorin Linux is usually a safe bet, but let’s see what you come up with. 
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Hey everyone sorry I have been gone for a bit was dealing with some health issues, getting ready for finals and also working haha,
But I wanted to share a rundown of my current home lab setup. It’s been a massive ongoing project, but I finally have everything working exactly how I want it. I’m am now officially a second-year Computer Information Systems (CIS) student at, so my main goal has been building an environment that heavily aligns with my coursework (networking, security, and systems administration) to get real hands-on practice.
Here is a breakdown of the rig and the architecture:
The Hardware Base:
Server:Dell Precision T7910
Hardware: Dual Xeon E5-2699V4 22 core CPUs with 128GB of RAM
Storage:4x SSDs in a RAID for 500GB of fast main VM storage, plus 4x 4TB SAS drives in a RAID 10 for my media pool.
GPUs: A GTX 1650 dedicated to my Jellyfin container, and an NVIDIA Quadro P4000 that I use exclusively for local AI and LLM workloads.
Networking Architecture (The Tricky Part):
My ISP is sadly T-Mobile Home Internet, which forces me to use their modem/router and an unmanaged Netgear switch. To get proper network segmentation, I set up an OPNsense VM as my core router. I pass both physical ethernet ports on the Dell server directly into OPNsense (one for WAN, one for LAN).
Since my physical switch is unmanaged, I handle all my VLAN tagging directly at the hypervisor level through Proxmox virtual bridges. OPNsense handles the inter-VLAN routing and Kea DHCP perfectly. For remote access, I use Tailscale, with my CasaOS VM acting as a subnet router so I can securely manage everything whether I’m on my main CachyOS PC, my Manjaro laptop, or away from home.
VM Layout & Network Segments:
I’ve broken the network down into specific VLANs (10, 20, 30, 40) to mirror an enterprise environment:
- Windows Environment: I’m running Windows Server 2022 as my primary Domain Controller (managing DNS, DHCP scopes, and GPOs) alongside a Windows 11 client VM.
- Security Lab (DMZ - VLAN 40): I built out a proper penetration testing environment with a Kali Linux VM and a Metasploitable VM. I recently went through and fully locked down the OPNsense firewall rules for this DMZ (passing internal traffic, blocking access to my internal LAN, but allowing internet access) so I can practice safely.
- Monitoring & Web: I have an Ubuntu Desktop VM hosting Grafana and Prometheus for system monitoring, plus a dedicated webserver.
- Local AI (P4000 Passthrough): I have a dedicated 16-core, 32GB RAM VM running Ubuntu 24.04 where I pass through the Quadro P4000. I use this to run Ollama and OpenClaw (containerized for security) to experiment with local models.
- Media/Apps: CasaOS handles the lighter stuff such as my jellyfin server, my audiobook server and my Tailscale routing.
It’s taken a lot of troubleshooting—especially getting Kea DHCP properly broadcasting across the Proxmox VLAN tags and dialing in the firewall aliases—but it’s finally running like a dream. It gives me a perfect sandbox to practice everything from Active Directory certificate services to offensive security.
Just wanted to share the progress! Let me know what you guys think or if anyone has a similar unmanaged switch/hypervisor routing setup.
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Really nice lab setup!
I’d like to suggest that you create new topic(s) within appropriate sections to discuss more focused aspects of interest.
Regards!
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Hey guys! I’m new here and to Linux. Hoping to learn more and figure out if finally moving away from Windows is possible in my case. Thanks for having me.
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Hi, @shoebox.ford 
Welcome to the community!
Hello. I’m an old tinkerer, new to Linux. Just trying to learn as I go. I’ll probably have lots of questions and no answers. My playground consists of 4 Dell older desktops running Mint and three HP laptops running Windows 11. I’ll be a good source of ‘stupid’ questions and equally ‘stupid’ answers.
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We’ll look forward to it 
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Welcome, @Barclaymw thanks for joining us!
Hello! I’m currently a software engineering student and I have just been learning some basic linux commands and I was just curious about that
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Welcome, @ale nice to meet you!
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I’ve always taken the stance that there are NO ‘stupid’ questions! ONLY stupid answers, which more properly fall under the categories
- misinformed
- misguided
- poorly/lazily researched, or
- unverified via personal experience!
So … you got half of that right!
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I would like to suggest that you give serious consideration to learning a Prolog-based language, such as offered by
Neural-network based reasoning is statistically-oriented. While that is admittedly a large part of the neuron-driven consensus building underlying LLMs, it can only behave as a front-end filter to a more deterministic rule-based driven logic, which is what Prolog offers.
I offer that reflection as food for thought!
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Welcome to our community guys. Thanks for joining. Looking forward to hearing your feedback on topics and continuing to learn together.
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Thanks! I’m a complete newby, but ready to learn.
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(Note to self: I need to figure out a way to keep these references handy.)
You may wish to review my posts in another forum (now archived) as well as the conversations that those post were part of, to get some good advice and hints on how to approach this new and rewarding adventure that you have undertaken. Take it easy and don’t beat yourself up if things don’t go as planned at first attempt. Failed attempts are just lessons on how NOT to do things!
-
Absolute Beginner - #7 by ericmarceau - Support & Help Requests - Ubuntu MATE Community
-
Ubuntu MATE bugs - #10 by jaymo_chicago - Ubuntu MATE Community
I hope you find those helpful.
For any questions, feel free to ask the Community! You will find them more than eager to provide real help.
If you have a bit of programming experience, you may even wish to delve into customizing some aspect of your theme, possibly compiling the component directly from distribution source. In that case, this posting introduces you to what I did for a very limited customizing of a theme on UbuntuMATE. My purpose in attempting that was to deal with the “limited size of the edge-detection zone” at window edges for mouse “grabbing”.
I tried to be as explicit and explanatory as possible, to the point of embedding a “workflow” approach in the provided script. That might be helpful to get your head wrapped around what some of the Distros and Packages expect you to do when trying to custom-build.
Good luck with everything!
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I am retired. Getting lazy, but still getting out and about (walking in forest, lakes, etc.)
Linux, have been using for a while now and NEED to get off my … and learn more. I used to work in Sheet Metal (development of patterns) worked in Drawing Office then for myself in building, glass (stained and double glazing) lived in Mallorca for a few years also.
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Hi, @pere
Welcome to the community!
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