when they asked permissions?

Immutable distro debian based with GNOME

Probably the fact that they have many ISOs tailored for each supported hardware configuration, and they point the user to the right ISO with a clear wizard in their download page.

Also basically it is an unbreakable gaming focused OS very close to SteamOS, that you don’t have to maintain, and it comes preconfigured with Steam and the right drivers for your setup. I’m not the target audience, but I see the appeal.

You should be fine. Linux and BSD systems have te ability to load microcode updates at boot even if you don’t update your BIOS.

I’d be more concerned about the noise and power consumption.

Also the number and the max speed of your NIC is a factor if you have a fast internet connection If you run OPNSense make sure your NIC is well supported (I had problems with realtek and paravirtualized cards). Otherwise you can always add more NICs with pcie cards.

I’ve just bought a few pack of these 8x8x500 sticks. And yes I tried some wood glue from the hardware store and they simply stuck very well to the PETG prints.

From the top:

• 3 Chinese 2.5Gbit managed switches branded Horaco
• 3 Chinese N100 “NAS” ITX boards (the cheaper green ones). They are in a Proxmox hyperconverged cluster (HCI)… aka Proxmox + Ceph.
  • Each one has a Pico PSU
  • a PCIE card (mounted on an right angle PCIE extender) with 2 additional 2.5Gb realtek NICs
  • 2 NVMe drives (mirrored boot drives)
  • a SATA SSD for Ceph
• an empty shelf for a ITX board (an AM4 with a bunch of NVMe drives I have yet to move from my previous rack)
• the last shelf can accomodate:
  • an automotive power distribution that feeds 12V to the switches and the N100 boards
  • a couple of 12V to USB PD boards, that I use to power the type c devices on the Rack shelves on the back
  • a (missing) TFX PSU that will power the AM4 board
  • a second TFX PSU that feeds 12V into the distribution blocks and powers basically anything else.

I also have some rack shelves on the back:

• a Pikvm based on a Pi2 I had laying around
• a wled controller for the fan lights + a esphome temperature based fan controller
• a Sonoff Dongle M
• a IEC C13/C14 power strip that distributes power to the PSUs

Needless to say I bought everything before the DRAM craze and I feel very sad for who has to work with the current market.

Everything is mounted on custom 2U or 3U 3D printed 10" rack shelves.