Curiosity, with a working system behind it.
iCommish Labs brings together self-hosted services, operating systems, network boundaries, local AI and creative projects. The aim is to understand how the pieces connect: what runs where, what a workload needs, and what happens when something breaks.
The underwater command center gives that work a visual home. Behind it, the useful questions are practical. Is a container available for this processor? Where does the data live? Does a network boundary do what it is meant to do? Can a backup actually restore the service?
The lab’s areas of interest include Windows and Ubuntu, Docker services, OPNsense and VLAN isolation, Pi-hole, Omarchy, Ollama, LM Studio, Codex and the tools around them. Mentioning a tool here describes the scope of the work. It does not promise that every service is online, hosted on the same machine, or connected exactly as a visual diagram suggests.
Three doors into the same lab.
The main site
The facility homepage introduces the systems and their connections. The guides turn a decision or setup question into something you can work through: a comparison, a compatibility checklist or a concrete planning exercise.
The Gear Room
The Gear Room collects hardware and creator tools with notes about workload fit, limitations and buying checks. It is a place to examine a candidate, rather than treat a product name as a recommendation for every build.
Reviews and creative work
The reviews site provides a separate place for product evaluation. Each page should make its evidence level clear. Framecraft is the creative-tools side of the work.
A clear boundary around every claim.
- Research notes interpret manufacturer specifications and software documentation. They can help narrow a choice without claiming the product was tested in the lab.
- A buying checklist identifies what to verify before a purchase or installation. A completed-looking diagram is not a hardware compatibility certificate.
- Documented testing needs an exact configuration, a method, a date, results and supporting evidence. Unmeasured performance, power use and reliability should remain unmeasured.
Source dates and configuration caveats are part of the content. If a model name covers several versions, the page should say so. If a workflow has only been planned, it should be described as a proposed workflow.
Some Gear Room and review links can earn a commission. Read the affiliate and editorial disclosure for the financial connection and how click measurement is handled.
Follow the next build.
Projects, experiments and the decisions behind the systems are shared through the lab’s social channels. Start with YouTube, or follow Instagram, TikTok and X.
For a useful first read, compare Raspberry Pi 5 and an x86 mini PC for home services, then work through the SER5 Pro Proxmox and Docker checklist if virtualization is part of the plan.