Has anyone used Bottles in Linux for running Windows applications, What do you think? https://usebottles.com/

Take a look at my post here. Do You Really Need Wi-Fi 7 in Your Home Lab in 2025? https://www.virtualizationhowto.com/2025/12/do-you-really-need-wi-fi-7-in-your-home-lab-in-2025/

Check out my thoughts on this topic and how the change in hardware pricing and availability may affect how we run self-hosted services: https://www.virtualizationhowto.com/2025/12/why-containers-will-be-more-important-than-ever-in-the-2026-home-lab/

Portainer has new feature that will alert if you have an outdated image and update is available. Also here is Watchtower fork that is stable and works with the current version of Docker and Docker Compose. Been running it week now and no issues so far. https://watchtower.devcdn.net/ https://github.com/beatkind/watchtower/

Been reading a lot on the forum discussing how high prices are especially around memory. A good solution is go on eBay or Facebook market and just buy a complete used computer that has the memory requirement you are looking for and just strip out what you need . After that, resell the computer or parts minus the memory. Another option are local paper, yard sales, thrift stores, etc. You would be surprise what you will find.