Thanks for the advice! The 16 is probably as overkill as you say, but I've come to prefer a larger machine to work on.
I already have Proxmox installed on a secondhand mini-pc (one of those NUC / thin-client like office machines) and it's been a great way to (re)learn a few things indeed!
Thanks for the heads-up. I've seen that the first gen had a few issues, I understand your frustration. I even saw a solution involving soldering a wire onto the motherboard? My hope is that they got better as they gained experience, and that hardware support on Linux will only imrove with time.
Yeah the proposition of Framework is what draws me to it. Price-wise it's more expensive than any other alternative, but it's still quite unique, and it ticks a lot of boxes that other don't (open-source firmware keyboard on a laptop ? whaaaaa)
Your dual boot setup is interesting! How did you manage to get this setup? Is it just a matter of installing windows on the external storage and selecting it as priority when booting? It would be nice to have the option.
I'm in Europe, so System76 can quickly become expensive here, with shipping, taxes, duties, etc. Tuxedo would be the alternative (I think they use the same OEM, Clevo, anyway). Thanks for the rec though!
I did play it a few weeks ago with some friends, worked flawlessly! (using steam, on fedora, with a Nvidia gpu)