Pretty much this. Combined with how easy it is to install VaultWarden (docker ftw), it was a no brainer for me.

Also, my little home server is a WAY less juicy target for someone looking to steal and sell a bunch of passwords.

Been running it for probably about 2 years now. No ISP outages but a couple self-inflicted ones. Didn’t even notice the outages in the BitWarden app/extension.

Try to replicate software/apps you use everyday. Not to improve them, but to figure out how they work. In addition to learning how they work, you’ll learn the problems the original devs had to solve, and one way to solve them.

Check out used tiny/mini/micro desktops on eBay. Loads of info here: https://www.servethehome.com/introducing-project-tinyminimicro-home-lab-revolution/

Only downside is going to be no GPU for the AI workload. Maybe some of the later AMD APUs could cut it. If not, all three major manufacturers have SFF variants that are pretty much the same hardware in a little bigger case. Those will accept smaller off the shelf GPUs.

2nd this. Cheap, upgrade-able, more powerful than the pi, and not limited to ARM. Only thing the Pi has on this is power consumption and GPIO.

Vaultwarden is pretty game changing. No more reusing passwords and they aren’t in the cloud.