{"id":303,"date":"2026-01-06T21:18:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-07T02:18:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/einsteinsaloon.com\/?p=303"},"modified":"2026-01-06T21:18:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-07T02:18:07","slug":"welcome-to-2026-building-breaking-and-learning-in-the-saloon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/einsteinsaloon.com\/index.php\/2026\/01\/06\/welcome-to-2026-building-breaking-and-learning-in-the-saloon\/","title":{"rendered":"Welcome to 2026: Building, Breaking, and Learning in the Saloon!"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1><a href=\"https:\/\/einsteinsaloon.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/2026-01-07_ES_Featured-Image.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-304 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/einsteinsaloon.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/2026-01-07_ES_Featured-Image-1024x683.png\" alt=\"2026 Einstein's Saloon Building a Proxmox Cluster\" width=\"525\" height=\"350\" srcset=\"https:\/\/einsteinsaloon.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/2026-01-07_ES_Featured-Image-1024x683.png 1024w, https:\/\/einsteinsaloon.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/2026-01-07_ES_Featured-Image-300x200.png 300w, https:\/\/einsteinsaloon.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/2026-01-07_ES_Featured-Image-768x512.png 768w, https:\/\/einsteinsaloon.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/2026-01-07_ES_Featured-Image.png 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 525px) 100vw, 525px\" \/><\/a><\/h1>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Welcome, 2026! This year I\u2019m going to get my hands a little dirtier by shifting from theory-heavy exploration into something more concrete: real hardware, real experiments, real mistakes\u2014and the lessons that come from all of it.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This year started with three <\/span><b>repurposed Lenovo 720q Tiny PCs<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. They&#8217;re not new; in fact, they\u2019re e-waste from my job, since they\u2019re too old to upgrade to Windows 11. But they are more than capable of becoming something useful!\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">So I did what any Linux enthusiast with curiosity and a desire to set up a home lab would do. I turned them into a <\/span><b>Proxmox cluster<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>Why a Proxmox Cluster?<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I\u2019ve written about Linux systems from the perspective of a daily driver: desktops, workflows, tools, and configuration. But increasingly, my curiosity has shifted more towards <\/span><b>infrastructure<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u2014how systems run <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">behind the scenes<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Proxmox sits at an interesting intersection:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Linux-based<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Open source<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Widely used in homelabs and<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Powerful enough to do real work<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Rather than reading about Proxmox in the abstract, I wanted to <\/span><b>learn it the only way that really sticks<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: by building something real and seeing what breaks.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>The Cluster: Small Machines, Big Lessons<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The cluster itself is modest:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Three Lenovo 720q Tiny PCs<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Repurposed hardware instead of new purchases<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Low-power draw<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Quiet enough to live outside a data center<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Just complex enough to be educational<\/span>&nbsp;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I plan to write about<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Initial setup and configuration decisions<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Storage choices and mistakes<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Networking confusion<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Clustering quirks<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Backup strategies<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Updates that go smoothly\u2014and the ones that don\u2019t<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Things I wish I\u2019d known earlier<\/span>&nbsp;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This won\u2019t be a polished \u201chow-to guide from an expert.\u201d<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> It will be a <\/span><b>learning journal<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u2014documenting what works, what doesn\u2019t, and why.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>Learning Proxmox the Honest Way<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There\u2019s a lot of Proxmox content online. Much of it assumes:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Prior virtualization experience<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Comfort with enterprise terminology<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A willingness to gloss over mistakes<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">That\u2019s not how I learn, and it\u2019s not how I want to write.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This year at Einstein\u2019s Saloon, you\u2019ll see:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Incremental progress<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Honest missteps<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Configuration experiments<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Rebuilds<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Revisions<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cI broke this, and here\u2019s what I learned\u201d posts.<\/span>&nbsp;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If you\u2019re curious about Proxmox but intimidated by it, this series is for you.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>Expanding the Scope: 3D Printing Joins the Saloon<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Alongside virtualization, another hands-on tool has become a bigger part of my daily tech life: <\/span><b>3D printing<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">While it may not look like traditional Linux territory at first glance, 3D printing fits naturally into the same mindset:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Open-source software<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Tinkering and iteration<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Hardware meets software<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Learning by doing<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Solving real problems with tools you control<\/span>&nbsp;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In 2026, I\u2019ll be writing about:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">How I\u2019m using my 3D printers<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Practical projects<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Lessons learned from failed prints<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Workflow tweaks<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">3D modeling<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">How open-source tools fit into the process<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Why 3D printing isn\u2019t just a novelty<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I won\u2019t be writing about flashy figurines, but about <\/span><b>useful, repeatable outcomes<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u2014the same philosophy that drives everything else here.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>What Einstein\u2019s Saloon Will Be in 2026<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This year, the site will lean into:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Real systems, not hypotheticals<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Learning in public<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Repurposing hardware<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Open-source infrastructure<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Practical experimentation<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Honest documentation<\/span>&nbsp;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Less \u201cperfect setups\u201d and more \u201chere\u2019s what actually happened.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Einstein\u2019s Saloon remains the <\/span><b>genius bar for the free and open-source community<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, but in 2026, the genius will look a little messier.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>Looking Ahead<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If you\u2019re interested in<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Proxmox without the enterprise gloss<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Building useful systems from leftover hardware<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Watching someone learn infrastructure from the ground up<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Practical Linux-adjacent projects<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">3D printing with purpose<\/span>&nbsp;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Then you\u2019re in the right place.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Pull up a stool; let\u2019s build, break, and learn together in 2026!<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Welcome, 2026! This year I\u2019m going to get my hands a little dirtier by shifting from theory-heavy exploration into something more concrete: real hardware, real experiments, real mistakes\u2014and the lessons that come from all of it. This year started with three repurposed Lenovo 720q Tiny PCs. They&#8217;re not new; in fact, they\u2019re e-waste from my &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/einsteinsaloon.com\/index.php\/2026\/01\/06\/welcome-to-2026-building-breaking-and-learning-in-the-saloon\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Welcome to 2026: Building, Breaking, and Learning in the Saloon!&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[83,81,3,45,84,82],"tags":[102,98,100,101,78,88,87,97,95,94,90,99,92,85,86,93,91,96,89],"class_list":["post-303","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hardware","category-homelab","category-linux","category-news","category-open-source","category-virtualization","tag-2026-goals","tag-3d-printing","tag-diy-tech","tag-einsteins-saloon","tag-foss","tag-home-lab","tag-homelab","tag-infrastructure-as-learning","tag-learning-in-public","tag-lenovo-tiny-pcs","tag-linux-infrastructure","tag-maker-hardware","tag-open-source-software","tag-proxmox","tag-proxmox-cluster","tag-repurposed-hardware","tag-self-hosting","tag-sysadmin-journey","tag-virtualization"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/einsteinsaloon.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/303","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/einsteinsaloon.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/einsteinsaloon.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/einsteinsaloon.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/einsteinsaloon.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=303"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/einsteinsaloon.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/303\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":306,"href":"https:\/\/einsteinsaloon.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/303\/revisions\/306"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/einsteinsaloon.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=303"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/einsteinsaloon.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=303"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/einsteinsaloon.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=303"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}