How-To Geek

Red Hat gutted CentOS in 2020, and after CentOS 7 reached its final EOL in June 2024, countless servers lost their free, stable foundation. Three distributions, depending on who you ask, are filling that gap right now, each with a slightly different philosophy. Here is how CentOS Stream, Rocky Linux, and AlmaLinux compare, and what each means for administrators today.

Keeping on top of NFL scores can feel like a full-time job. If you're in a fantasy league, it can be hard to know how well you're doing without constantly checking your phone. I decided to build a scoreboard using a cheap ESP32 board to keep me informed while I'm at my desk.

Nothing ruins a long drive like losing 30% of your battery before you reach your destination.

A portable power station, like the Anker Solix S2000, can be a lifesaver if you get caught without power during a winter storm. Your food will stay fresh in your fridge, and you can charge your devices to stay in touch with your loved ones.

The Steam Deck was the first truly successful handheld gaming PC, but the market had multiple competitors well before Valve opened the floodgates and ushered in a new era of handheld gaming. The granddaddy of them all was the OpenPandora, which came out back in 2010. In 2016, GPD released the GPD Win, the first proper handheld gaming PC that ran Windows and was powered by an x86 CPU.

Netflix has a few award-winning movies that make for easy streaming on your weekends. From a Christmas romcom full of overlapping love stories to a high-speed action sequel and a fashion-world comedy-drama, these three films offer something different for everyone.

If your work constantly takes you on the go with your laptop, but you're used to working with two monitors, simple tasks on one screen can feel a little crammed. A portable monitor is the best thing you can invest in, allowing you to take a second screen with you, and one of the best you can get right now is the Asus ZenScreen in its 15.6-inch size. The ZenScreen is already at a generally reasonable price, but right now it's even sweeter, as you can grab one from Amazon for under $100.

Jellyfin is one of the best free, open-source media servers out there. It allows you to stream your movies, shows, and audiobooks without requiring a subscription.

Samsung and Google make some of the best Android phones you can buy. And even though most flagship phones are nearly the same these days, with huge screens and countless cameras on the back, there are important differences. More than ever, those come in the form of software, and here are a few things my Galaxy S26 can do that my Pixel 11 Pro XL can't.

Proxmox has become the go-to distro among the self-hosting community because it is easy to use, feature-rich, and reliable.

You might recognize the GEEKOM name from the mini PCs the brand makes. But, did you know that GEEKOM also makes laptops? I've spent the past few months with the GEEKOM GeekBook M16 and I have to say—I'm impressed.

What do you get when you combine an ear-biting champion, a deadpan comedian, and the rarest hip-hop album ever made? One hell of a weekend of documentaries on Netflix, that's what.

There's a button on Excel's ribbon that you should think about twice before clicking: Merge & Center. It's familiar and convenient, but it has a habit of making life harder for spreadsheet users down the line. I've avoided it for years, and Microsoft has finally made the better option easier to access.

I've never been a fan of smart home dashboards; my idea of the perfect smart home is one that needs as little manual control as possible, with the majority of things happening automatically. However, I've always been impressed with the 3D interactive floorplans that people have built. There are some projects that can help you create your own Home Assistant floorplan dashboard.

Streaming sticks are supposed to get better with updates, not break things that already worked. When Amazon pushed its redesigned Fire TV interface with its updates, some people seemed to have a new issue that came with it. It's not obvious what causes it, and Amazon doesn't mention the fix in the update notes. Luckily, you can fix this issue easily.

Tech companies are infamous for making promises they eventually break, and Microsoft is no exception. Its most popular product, Windows, has borne the brunt of many of those broken promises.

Anyone who knows me also knows that I'm very much pro-desktop PC. If you want to make me happy, I don't ask for much. Give me a huge chassis, give me a ginormous GPU, fill up my cart with all the other components, and leave me alone so I can build the monster PC of my dreams.

If you have an old computer (even a laptop) sitting around doing nothing, you could put it to use for local AI instead. I have two old PCs running various AI tasks all the time: one old HP laptop and a retired gaming PC with a Ryzen 1600X, 24GB of VRAM, and an RTX 3060.

Google Pixel phones sit alongside Samsung Galaxy phones and iPhones on store shelves, but no matter how much money you spend on one, Google’s phones will not be as fast as the competition — except in one area, and that's software updates.

You wouldn’t download a car, 3D print it at home, and then assemble the pieces into a life-size replica… right? That’s the idea behind Print Your Vehicle, a project with lofty ambitions of making life-sized 3D-printed car models a reality.