On Wed, May 25, 2016 at 10:49 AM, Duncan <1i5t5.dun...@cox.net> wrote: > > Ultimately I want to put together an amd64-based router, as I said, in > ordered to be able to put gentoo on it, and build at least base packages > for it and my main machine at the same time. The problem I'm hoping to > solve is that openwrt is great, but it's different than my main machine > and single purpose, so I really don't have time to learn how to master it > properly. Similarly, when I had an x86 netbook, I had a 32-bit chroot > image on the main machine to build its packages, but I found it was lucky > to get upgrades once a year, which made them always a major pain. So I > decided making everything amd64 based and building most packages only > once, was definitely the way to go. > > But $50-70 for temporary solution of a few months, and as a fallback when > I do get the amd64-based router, isn't bad and can be considered a minor > expense associated with the temporary, especially given that I'll not be > having to worry about rent or utilities. I /may/ not even worry about > reflashing it to openwrt, but I definitely want to keep the option open, > so want an openwrt compatible device.
I used to think about doing this myself, and there's some good reasons to do it security wise, but in the end I decided it was just a bunch of work with more than incremental electricity costs. The cost of running a full blown machine adds up over the course of a year or two. There's noise, heat and the risk of downtime due to some hardware failure. There's backups to consider so that I don't have to reinstall and build from scratch after a big failure. Anyway, I think the cost difference is bigger than $50-$70 by the time you're a couple of years into it, but from a project POV I always thought it sounded like fun and I'd learn something to boot. Now, from a selfish POV I'm lobbying that you do not watch TV and read books for 3 months as we depend on you here Duncan! Cheers, Mark
