currently do level 2 tech support at a company that uses a 100%

>>56237060
>at a company that uses a 100% linux environment
where can I find a company like that
literally every place I've seen is MS windows with some Macs grafted on

bumpadoodle
w2c decent secondhand server hardware for linux shenanigans

>>56237083
I work at a POS equipment company
I SSH into sites and fix network issues all day basically
not sure where you should look, it's weird... im stuck in tech support but have learned shitloads about linux and want to start breaking out into kernel development
I got lucky I think
I got contacted by a recruiter, I put that I had linux exp on my resume even tho I only knew desktop stuff (literally from installing gentoo a bunch of times) and I guess that predisposed me to working in an environment that was linux heavy

>>56237084
>w2c decent secondhand server hardware for linux shenanigans
eBay.

>>56237216
what should I be looking out for
is there an up to date guide somewhere that has good options for different price points?
it would be nice to be able to put a gpu in something

>>56237246
>what should I be looking out for
Don't buy shit that has DDR2.
Try to avoid buying shit with Nehalem, go for Westmere stuff at least by this point.
Avoid HP G6 era servers, go for G7 to get ILO3.
Pretty much any 2U server and above will support a GPU, tower servers all should.

>I need to get a network set up at home, but dont want a giant stack of towers on top of each other- ideally I have a uniform rack that I can put devices into as necessary
>ideally last-gen server hardware or something like that.
This is bitching expensive. Are you sure this is worth it for a simple testing setup? A couple of old junkyard computers and a switch will probably satisfy your needs just fine and save you a zero and a half in your pricetag.

>>56237260
dont think a tower server is right for me
maybe a rack that I can shove a bunch of uniform cheap nodes in, all networked to a switch on the rack, then I can splurge on one node and use that as a pc?
>>56237301
space is a problem, I need small stuff
I would use a bunch of NUCs but they always end up being too expensive, raspis are too weak to do anything meaningful with

>>56237326
>space is a problem, I need small stuff
Yet you want to buy a rack? Racks are not small. Racks use space efficiently, but only at large scales; for lesser amounts of hardware, they're quite inefficient even in terms of space.

>>56237417
are racks always huge necessarily tho? I am basically looking for a way to avoid having to stack towers all over the place

>>56237483
Well, the height varies, but the floor surface is pretty fixed. And pretty significant.

>>56237533
yeah i just looked it up looks like the smallest one can go is 19 wide by 36 deep which is too much, apartment too tiny
any other alternatives that it might be worth looking into

>>56237576
Yeah, just get a handful of crappy old desktop and stick them in a closet somewhere.

Also, you are aware that rackmount servers are loud as unholy lawn mowers, right? Not fun to have in your apartment, let me assure you.

>>56237060
What exactly do you want to do that a raspi isn't strong enough for?

>>56237765
And also, is there a reason you're not just emulating with software?