pfSense and OPNsense are open-source firewall and router operating systems that share a common lineage but have diverged in philosophy and development over the years. pfSense originated as a fork of the m0n0wall project in 2004 (first release in 2006), and gained popularity as a powerful FreeBSD-based firewall platform with a web interface that allowed anyone to essentially build their own router with an advanced firewall if they wanted. OPNsense, on the other hand, was created as a fork of pfSense in January 2015 by Dutch company Deciso, and this fork coincided with the end-of-life of m0n0wall, whose creator, Manuel Kasper, actually recommended users migrate to OPNsense rather than pfSense. Both projects provide similar core features, yet their communities and trajectories have diverged to become significantly more distinct over the years.

I’ve spent the last couple of months testing self-hosted apps. During this journey, I’ve encountered everything from must-have utilities that improved my quality of life to weird tools that are fairly useful despite their quirkiness. Code-Server falls in the first category, and it’s essentially a self-hosted VS Code instance that’s designed to run inside a browser.

Macs have a reputation for being pricey, especially compared to many Windows laptops with similar hardware. That initial sticker shock can make some buyers second-guess the value they're getting. But part of what sets macOS apart is the ecosystem of thoughtfully designed, high-performance software that runs on it. Some of the most powerful Mac apps are entirely free, helping to close the value gap right away. With these tools installed, you can do more from day one without paying extra for third-party software or subscriptions.

The struggle is always real when you manage a growing number of self-hosted services. After all, keeping track of every IP address, subnet, VLAN, and piece of hardware can quickly become a mess. Besides, creating a spreadsheet for it is not a viable solution in the long run. But what if there was a better way? That’s where phpIPAM comes into play. This isn’t just another IP address management tool; it’s a robust and intuitive way to bring order to my self-hosted chaos.

As gamers, we love trying out new games and discovering new genres. A sale rolls around, and we go shopping through our wishlists of games we have never heard of but are willing to try. However, in the midst of it all, in an age where we have more games than ever before, there's still something comforting about certain studios. You see their name on a trailer and immediately exhale, because chances are you're in for something truly special.

M.2 SSDs are the only way to go if you're looking for storage with great performance. Unfortunately, you can't just stick any M.2 SSD into a PC gaming handheld, and will instead need to rely on a specific model to make it work. Luckily, M.2 2230 SSDs have been coming down in price over the past year or so, and we're now seeing a good deal on this 2TB chip that's just $141.

The Asus ROG Ally and ROG Ally X are both fantastic gaming handhelds and managed to hold their own in the industry against giants like the Steam Deck and Nintendo Switch. Now it's Xbox’s turn to enter the market.

I think one of my biggest pet peeves when getting into Windows 10 and 11 is how it always uses Edge, even when you have another browser set up as the default. These days, it's a lot easier to change that, but in the early days, it was a huge problem for me.

Notion is an incredibly versatile and powerful workspace that helps you organize virtually anything, from personal notes and complex research projects to personal goals and daily to-do lists. Its flexible, block-based editor and interconnected pages make it a favorite for students looking to centralize their entire academic lives. However, building the perfect system from scratch consumes valuable time that simply no one has. While numerous productive Notion templates exist, here are the best ones that I can rely on to manage my studies, organize assignments, and truly dominate the academics.

Video game storytelling has evolved significantly in recent years, thanks to the development of deeper and more intricate narratives. There are fantastic adventure games with great narratives, along with indie games breaking the mold of what has come before. Even so, video games still feel narratively behind other mediums, like movies and books, but the gap has been shrinking. As more storytelling techniques from traditional forms of narratives become more common in games, there are a few techniques that I want to see more of in video games. These are techniques that either feel difficult to pull off in video games, or just something that isn't as common as it should be.

If you listen to big chipmakers like Intel, you'll constantly hear that they all want you to have an AI PC on your desk. They differ slightly in how they want AI to infuse your computer, but the NPU (a dedicated processor for specific AI workloads) is the driving force. Windows, macOS, and the apps that run on them all add AI-powered tools and features to use this new pint-sized powerhouse.

Heads up, RTX 40-series owners: Your warranty is about to expire. Or, at least, warranties for RTX 40-series GPUs will start expiring in a few months. Most major GPU brands offer a three-year warranty on their GPUs, and we're quickly coming up on the third anniversary of the RTX 4090 — a GPU notorious for its 12VHPWR connector abruptly melting and going up in a puff of smoke.