How the Current Workshop Started
The current Dan Peters Designs computing workshop began with one improvised stack built during the Zena and Lib-Lab era. It grew from a small collection of older machines, salvaged parts, Linux experiments, and a need to keep useful services running without surrendering everything to rented cloud platforms.
These early projects included the first home node, reclaimed power systems, and the beginnings of a private Nextcloud network for family and friends. They were rough, practical, and frequently rebuilt—but they established the approach that still guides the workshop: reuse what is available, understand how it works, document the failures, and improve it one piece at a time.
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That first stack eventually grew into the current DPD setup. See Current Systems for the present-day overview.