2025 was a pretty good year. A lot happened in my personal and professional life, and it was good! For the year ahead, my goal is to slow down and play with my hobbies and experiments. Maybe I'll get back to staying curious and share the crazy things I do around here?
This year, I compiled the classic "favorite things of the past year" posts into one mega text with reflections here and there. Enjoy!
Software
Other than the self-hosted things I'll mention in the next topic, nothing has changed from last year. I'm in a place where my workflow works so well that I don't need to change much.
NUC, Proxmox and Self-Hosting
It had been a few years since I last had a Raspberry Pi to set up PiHole and try out other experiments.
Talking to some coworkers about this, several recommended buying a mini PC. After some research (and given the crazy prices of a complete Raspberry Pi 5), I opted for an Intel NUC. With 16GB of RAM and an Intel N150 processor, the little thing is a low-power monster (12w).
I installed Proxmox for managing multiple VMs in parallel, and it was the best thing I could have done. Installing full Linux distributions and LXCs is very simple with the excellent Proxmox VE Helper-Scripts project.
Currently, I have three main items hosted on this NUC:
- PiHole, for network-level ad blocking, with DNS configured directly on the home router;
- A ZorinOS instance, which I use for experiments and remote development;
- Home Assistant, moving smart device integration to the local network;
All connected via Tailscale, allowing remote access outside my local network.
Additionally, I've been experimenting with different self-hosted services. I recently created a Grafana instance for creating local dashboards with different data sources.
I plan to test other self-hosted services to maybe replace some subscriptions.
iOS, iPadOS and MacOS 26
Pretty controversial releases.
From bizarre Safari bugs on iOS to problems with Electron applications on MacOS, the version 26 releases still have a lot to improve in 2026. It's consensus in online communities that these are among the least stable versions of Apple's systems in recent years.
Apple Intelligence remains completely unnecessary, with terrible notification summaries and an awful object removal tool in photos.
Siri is still dumb as a rock and supposedly should improve starting with version 26.4, with Gemini integration.
Despite the problems, I like the unified versioning of the systems and more consistent components regardless of the device used.
The Year of Linux on the Desktop
I'm very happy about Linux's growth outside the bubble of people who work on IT. The success of the Steam Deck, combined with the mess that Windows 11 has become, has made more and more people venture to the penguin side of things.
I love seeing how distros focused on things like Bazzite (for gaming) and Zorin (designed for those coming from Windows) have been gaining mainstream media attention.
Will every year be the year of Linux from now on? I hope so. Slow and steady.
Reflections on AI, Chatbots and Other Things
AI isn't just chatbots. Machine learning has been part of the products we use for a long time. The problem is how the market sells "AI" as a homogenized commodity that solves anything. It's people using ChatGPT as a research source with absolute answers, people chatting with LLMs as if they were therapists, image generation with questionable (and even criminal) content, and so on.
The unbridled volume of investments that big tech has received for AI development seems more harmful than beneficial to me, especially in the past year.
Microsoft, for example, has been making a series of terrible business decisions. I've been sadly watching the closure of studios and cancellation of projects in the Xbox division. The reason? Pouring money into data centers to process AI features in Office and Windows that no user asked for.
Not to mention the electronic components crisis we're already living through and which should extend for a few more years. Large companies prefer to sell RAM and GPUs to big tech that will buy in bulk, making technology increasingly expensive for the end consumer.
When the bubble bursts, I believe the survivors will be those who make computationally efficient use of local models, naturally incorporated into our phones and computers, without being a buzzword shoved down all our throats.
Given the rant, don't get me wrong: I use AI tools daily. I love Claude Code, an extraordinary tool that has been helping me in multiple things and processes. But using it requires precision, context, and most importantly, human analysis and interaction.
The bmad method is also a very powerful AI-based workflow to document projects, create PRDs, do brainstorming sessions, create epics and tasks and much more. Everything is done interactively. Excellent for both existing and new projects. It's fully open source, free and constantly evolving. Actually this is one of my favorite ways to iterate on projects in an AI-based workflow. If you are a software developer, it's 100% worth a try.
MCPs are really useful too. A lot of services like GitHub and Jira have very good MCP servers for making specialized requests using natural language. Generally, it's super easy to plug into tools like Claude Code and Gemini CLI.
AI should be used with intentionality and context.
I want AI helping me in my day-to-day with repetitive tasks, predictively showing potential problems, helping me save electricity, fuel, time. Not generating slop.
Games
My game of the year was obviously Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. Except for Pokémon, I was never into turn-based RPGs. Expedition 33 got me with the complete package. Diving headfirst into that world is a delight because everything works perfectly together: music, gameplay, story, characters, and art direction.
I'm really enjoying the Switch 2. It's a considerable generational leap, though the screen and battery are a downgrade compared to the Switch OLED. On it, I gave new life to Pokémon Violet (and Scarlet). The games remain graphically bad, but at least now they run well. Game Freak missed the redemption opportunity by also improving the game's graphics and textures in the patch they released.
Speaking of Pokémon, Legends ZA was the change the franchise needed. I devoured the game quickly. The new real-time battle dynamic is great, much more dynamic and fast. Do all the streets of Lumiose look the same? Yes. Do I think they'll improve this in the next generation? No.
Donkey Kong Bananza was a modern throwback to my childhood. I'd put on the game and immediately teleport myself to a rainy afternoon drinking Nescau and eating bolacha maria. For Donkey Kong Country (or even Super Mario Odyssey) fans, it's a must-play.
And here's my condolences on the death of Xbox.
It's a shame what Microsoft is doing with the platform. In one year it went from my favorite platform to my least favorite. All the incredible work they did for years with Game Pass and the game preservation and backward compatibility initiatives going to waste. Very sad.
Retrogaming
With the rising prices of consoles and games, retrogaming and emulation have been booming recently.
A series of powerful low-cost portables have been appearing on AliExpress with hardware and software optimized to run basically anything up to fifth-generation consoles with ease. Controllers that fit current smartphones too.
Emulators and front-ends are increasingly easier to configure and have excellent general compatibility. Have an old computer? It's easy to turn it into a console fully controllable by a joystick.
At the end of the year, I tested the latest versions of Duckstation and PCSX2 and was impressed by how the user experience can be close to a current-generation console. With achievements and everything!
It's great to know we have entire communities dedicated to emulation and game preservation.
And to finish up... Music
Jade was #1 on the playlists here at home. It's the first time in years that Tove Lo doesn't appear in my most-listened-to artists of the year. Some recommendations:
Albums
- That's Showbiz Baby! The Encore - the Deluxe version of Jade Thirlwall's debut album. High quality pop. Experimental, honest, with storytelling. The visual album is also crazy good. Highlights: Lip Service, Glitch, Unconditional, IT Girl, Plastic Box.
- Mayhem - Lady Gaga. I don't think I need to go into details, right? Highlights: Zombieboy.
- Don't Click Play - Ava Max's latest album. First class cheesy pop for a car trip on a sunny day. Highlights: Catch My Breath, Don't Click Play, Take My Call.
- Beautiful Chaos - EP by Katseye. Everything's gnarly. Highlights: Gnarly, Gameboy, Gabriela Mean Girls.
Random
- We listened a lot to the Blackpink girls. Born Again by Lisa with Doja Cat and Raye, Like Jennie, Mantra and ExtraL by Jennie, and Earthquake by Jisoo.
- IT Boy, and two by bbno$.
- Passaçaum (ÉoQquerida?), by Carol Konká and Clementaum.
Here's to an amazing 2026! Happy new year!
