Pi is a good option because of it’s low power draw.

However I find used mini pc’s and Small Form Factor desktops to be a better value and their idle power is similar to the latest Pi (while costing about the same as a new Pi).

You’ve been corrected on this before: chav doesn’t mean poor.

So take your strawman elsewhere.

Chav - Etymology, Origin & Meaning https://www.etymonline.com/word/chav

Origin and history of chav chav(n.) “antisocial youth,” British slang, by 2004, apparently from earlier charver “loutish young person wearing designer-style sportswear,” Northern British slang (1997) of uncertain origin. Earlier it was a verb in homosexual slang for “have sex.” Perhaps ultimately from Romany (Gypsy).

I wouldn’t expect those to be upgrading to 11

Every desktop/laptop will upgrade to 11 - no business will accept the risk of maintaining an OS that’s out of support (with some exceptions). So you don’t have a choice.

I couldn’t have written it better.

The only disagreement I’d have is that Win2k was the major turning point when NT architecture hit mainstream. Suddenly we had NT core with a UI that users understood and dynamic events (PnP).

Though for us in IT, NT4 was the major turning point - a solid OS that you could actually use in business.

XP brought a lot more user functionality (plus better performance), and Windows 7 brought the current version of 64-bit architecture.

Your point about working in the enterprise nails it - you simply can’t pivot just because “this is a better way”. Does the current shovel still dig a ditch? Then replacing all the shovels with this fancy new one that weighs 6oz less isn’t a useful way to expend resources (time/money/management overhead/etc).

There’s no value in switching to ARM, basically.

Why are you on social media when studies have shown it’s bad for your mental health?

I’d you just call it YADA without it being an acronym…

Hahahahahaha

LibreOffice won’t do tables, ever.

Just uninstall any apps you don’t use/want.

Bloat removing pretty much went away with NT-based Windows since it’s much harder to hide garbage.

About the only utility I consider trustworthy for adjusting Windows is Winaero Tweaker. It’s not for uninstalling apps, but for adjusting how Windows works - UI settings and a few system settings.

Uhh, do you still believe in Santa or the Tooth Fairy?

There’s no “end game” - the world’s in constant flux.

There’s a million stories, a million agendas, a million players (8 billion?)

Every day there’s a change in circumstance, so every day each agenda/story shifts to accommodate, as the players take new approaches to achieve whatever goals they have today.

Nothing is ever as simple as “end game”.

AFAIK, when you save to CSV with Excel it doesn’t add anything.

But you won’t have a Table either, as that requires saving to an Excel format.

As for the rest just format your columns as “text” in Excel.

You could create the Table, do your sorting, and still save as CSV - it’ll retain the sort but won’t save the Table settings so you’d have to recreate the Table next time you open it.

Edit: just remembered Excel adds quotes around text - I’ve always just removed them with a text editor like Notepad+ and Find/Replace.

RustDesk is a great option too for just Remote Access. Though I find it’s performance a bit slow, and with VPN I can use any tool I need same as on the LAN (my workflow is unchanged).

I do use RustDesk for the adhoc situations (friend needs help/new machine, etc). It’s faster to setup for ad-hoc support vs adding a Tailscale client.

You’ll need port forwarding to expose RDP yo the internet

No. Do NOT do this. RDP isn’t designed for the internet, it’s a security hole, even more so in a small business where they aren’t going to use advanced security (2FA, certs, etc).

Remote access should always be over a secure connection, such as a VPN.

Never port-forward RDP - you’re just begging to get owned.

Ooh, I’d forgotten about Netbird!

Thanks for the reminder to test it as an alternative to Tailscale.

It sounds like what you really need is a mesh VPN not really KVM.

Install Tailscale on all the machines and you’re set.

Alternatively Hamachi.

Edit: You could also install Tailscale on a single dedicated device on your destination network (such as a Raspberry Pi or mini PC) and configure it as a Tailscale router. This would enable you to access any IP-based device on the network without that device having Tailscale installed on it.

With any of this you could access machines just like on the local network, using VNC or RDP.

Others have mentioned power - you may want to do some math on drive cost vs power consumption. There’ll be a drive size point that is worth the cost because you’ll use fewer drives which consume less power than more drives.

Having built a number of systems, I’m a LOT more conscious of power draw today for things that will run 24/7. Like my ancient NAS draws about 15 watts at idle with 5 drives (It will spin down drives).

More drives will always mean more power, so maybe fewer but larger drives makes sense. You may pay more up front, but monthly power costs never go away.

Also, I’ve built a 10 drive n NAS like this (because I had the drives and the case, mono and ram). It can produce a lot if heat while doing anything, and it was a significant power hog - like 200w when running. And it really didn’t idle very well (I’ve run it with UnRaid, TruNAS and Proxmox).

And while more drives means more failure opportunity, it also means when a failed drive is replaced, it’s likely of a different manufacture period.

I have a 5-drive NAS that I’ve been upgrading single drives every 6 months. This has the benefit of slowly increasing capacity while also ensuring drives are of different ages so less likely to fail simultaneously. (Now I’m waiting for prices to come back down, dammit).

I’ve never run into issues running desktop hardware without ECC as servers - since the 90’s.

I just don’t think the extra cost is worthwhile - I’m not running systems/services that will have catastrophic failures without ECC (or have weird bitflips that would corrupt some transaction).