Coming Home to Self‑Hosted Fun | Linux Out Loud 124

Matt is back in the driver’s seat, and it feels like coming home to a homelab with a few extra blinking lights. In this episode of Linux Out Loud, he, Wendy, and Nate catch up on VDO.Ninja recording experiments, robotics‑world travel plans, and why old Surface hardware is happier running openSUSE than “almost‑retired” Windows. Nate walks through upgrading Home Assistant from an overworked Raspberry Pi 3 to a Lenovo ThinkCentre with over 115 devices, plus his plans for fully local smart‑home control and a Star Trek‑style “red alert” scene. Matt dives into CasaOS for easy containerized media hosting, GameVault as a self‑hosted Steam‑like library for GOG and DRM‑free games, and Pegasus Frontend for building your own living‑room console UI—then talks about reviving Game Sphere with a focus on digital ownership and realistic budget gaming.

Show Links:
VDO.Ninja – browser‑based P2P video rooms – https://vdo.ninja/
FIRST Tech Challenge World Championship venue – George R. Brown Convention Center – https://www.grbhouston.com/
openSUSE Tumbleweed – rolling release Linux – https://get.opensuse.org/tumbleweed/
Home Assistant – open‑source home automation – https://www.home-assistant.io/
HACS – Home Assistant Community Store – https://hacs.xyz/
Tasmota – open‑source firmware for smart devices – https://tasmota.github.io/docs/
Framework founder Nirav Patel compares Apple “Neo” vs Framework Laptop 12 – https://youtu.be/uvYt1GgcsUI
Framework Laptop 12 – modular, repairable laptop – https://frame.work/laptop12
iFixit Surface Pro 7 battery replacement guide (right‑to‑repair context) – https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Microsoft+Surface+Pro+7+Battery+Replacement/144417
CasaOS – simple home cloud / container UI – https://www.casaos.io/
GameVault – self‑hosted game library / launcher – https://github.com/Phalcode/gamevault
Pegasus Frontend – cross‑platform game frontend – https://pegasus-frontend.org/
GOG.com – DRM‑free games (source for Matt’s library) – https://www.gog.com/
Steam – PC game platform (and the piracy vs preservation discussion) – https://store.steampowered.com/

Connect with the Hosts on Discord:
Matt – @Dark1ltg
Wendy – @Wendy.sh
Nate – CubicleNate.com @CubicleNate