In case someone doesn’t know it yet:

If you update your Arch Linux system with a kernel upgrade, the kernel modules will NOT be loaded again automatically by default and things like FUSE (used in AppImages for example or other FUSE based mounts) will not work without intervention

simple rebooting is the foolproof way or setting up kernel module reload hooks: https://archlinux.org/packages/extra/any/kernel-modules-hook/

they waited until the first minor version which fixed already some bugs as expected
pretty nice release

sorry that was a blunder on my part, I wanted to say “Debian and Fedora” but autocorrect gotten a hold on me it seems

People who deeply care about this typically use a distro which has a strong stance on FLOSS software like Debian or Fedora
Arch Linux is more free on this as long as the user gets a more conveniant way to install everything (even proprietary software)

the Arch Linux way however is also reading every PKGBUILD (where the license is stated) before installing and if you need to have an easier way to search through licenses just programatically solve this yourself i.e. by using https://github.com/archlinux/aur and going through all branches with a script

My Arch Linux Homeserver and VPS which ran since years are like: “huh?”

this task is easy on gentoo but hard anywhere else
in the past I checked package updates via nvchecker, grabed the latest PKGBUILD via ABS, applied the patch, compiled the package and sent it to my custom repository
if you add the repository higher in your pacman.conf it will grab it from that first

but this a huge pita, even going through the route of maintaining an AUR package is simpler

.zip is already a thing
https://www.malwarebytes.com/blog/news/2023/05/zip-domains

I’m using Caddy (sometimes in a container or most of the as system package) as reverse proxy mostly for containers
I try to minimize non-container services but they work well with Caddy too

Traefik is a tad more complex (still nowhere near Apache2 levels though) but scales more easily espcially if you only run containers and start/stop them programatically

if you are open to learn something new: Caddy webserver has a dead simple config, fetches tls certs by default for you and works with crowdsec too

for someones who values security above everything else thats totally fine
but for someone who wants to reduce e-waste by prolonging the life of a phone with at least some updates this might be not the best solution

CalyxOS supports Pixel devices far longer than GrapheneOS does (they drop them once Google drops support too)

it was announced few weeks ago in the mailing list: https://lists.archlinux.org/archives/list/[email protected]/thread/3SIPCGQZHUWIC36Z25UGKQMQXDVKLIUS/

the amount of plugins are also amazing
convert non-lossy files automatically to aacmp3|ogg? fetch lyrics? push updates to mpd/sonos/jellyfin?

Espresso should be fun!

Gatekeeping Espresso into more expensive Grinders is kinda the opposite though?

the “keep it simple stupid” for Arch Linux has been always on the packaging and system maintenance site and not on the end user site
probably the reason why so many Arch Linux forks exist which simply add the more end user attractable parts like a fancy website and/or hyper stylized themes out of the box (i.e. Garuda)

On Dreame robot vacuums you can actually flash your own firmware like Valetudo which is also quite popular in Home Assistant peers since it no longer phones home

there is live kernel patching, most distros (like Arch Linux) however don’t set this up by default
there is also the possibility that one live patch don’t work properly
the only reliable way currently to load the full new kernel is via reboot

the real way for server however is to not rely on one single server but have a redundant amount which you can reboot one at a time

if your goal is to automate your home (or lab, or work place) I also would highly recommend Home Assistant but I hesitated to recommend it anyone since OP didn’t really explained what they actually want to with it

i.e. if your goal is automate rss feeds and notifications than Home Assistant ist just completely overkill for this task

you can automate some parts of that away or can be combined
most AUR helper will basically invoke pacman -Syu internally before actually upgrading any AUR package (as otherwise this can lead to issues)
yay in particular can just be called via yay (no arguments) which is an alias of yay -Syu

Point 3: reflector.timer comes with reflector now and runs weekly by default, you need to configure and enable it though
https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Reflector#systemd_timer

Point 4: you can restrict the journal size to much smaller than it is by default (10% of the partition size OR maximum 4 GB): https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Systemd/Journal#Journal_size_limit
or alternativly set MaxRetentionSec to 2419200 seconds (4 weeks)

Point 5: can be done via pacman hook automatically after every upgrade
example: https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/pacman-cleanup-hook

there are also many other useful pacman hooks which tell you if there are any orphans or if AUR packages need to be rebuild or there is a hook which reload kernel modules after a kernel upgrade (which otherwise would warrant a reboot unless you are ready for the issues of many unloaded kernel modules)

Node-Red is probably your best bet
it’s functional with a lot of plugins available as well as relatively easy due to the “flow” workflow

one other command mentioned Home Assistant but even among the Home Assistant community there are quite some people using Node-Red together with Home Assistant to achieve their goals