---
title: "One machine in the homelab with agents and readable logs, a few pieces of glass, and a twin in Amsterdam"
language: en
topics: ["AI", "cloud", "laptop", "linux", "server", "work"]
full_article_url: https://willem.com/en/2026-08-26_innovation-is-software/
---
# One machine in the homelab with agents and readable logs, a few pieces of glass, and a twin in Amsterdam

*The existing gear has stretch; innovation is software.*

> In August 2026 my computer setup changed more than it had in years, and the lesson was the opposite of new hardware: one brain in the homelab where my files and agents live, thin glass around it, and the same setup in two houses.

The machine in the homelab does the thinking: agents run there, the logs are readable by them, and a local shell reaches everything. The laptops and the phone are glass: windows into that one brain, replaceable and interchangeable.
A twin of the setup stands in Amsterdam, so the same working day is possible in either house. Infrastructure has become subordinate to concept: decide what the system should do, and the hardware follows.
A machine with agents, logs and a local shell does in a day what used to take weeks. Before you order a faster machine, give the one you have some agents and a look at its logs.