Syspirit 
Why a blog?
This is the very first blog post, so before diving into the topic, a little context is in order.
I’m a systems & network administrator, passionate about IT and in a learning phase (Linux, DevOps, automation…). Like many others, I’m self-taught, experimenting on my homelab, taking notes, and sometimes wrestling with my configs.
This blog is both a logbook and a personal challenge. It helps me centralize my discoveries, keep track of my journey… but also pushes me to experiment and learn. Publishing here forces me to test, document, clarify my ideas — instead of letting my notes gather dust somewhere.
If it can inspire or help others along the way, then great! But above all, it’s a way to progress and stay motivated.
How?
I already have a WordPress site for my resume, and while I find it practical, it’s still heavy to configure/maintain and vulnerable. In my case, I had to rent a VPS to host it - I could have used my Homelab but my infrastructure isn’t ready for that yet.
So I turned to static sites, which I didn’t even know existed before building my resume… otherwise I would have probably gone that route!
What is a static site?
A static site is a website composed of pre-generated HTML, CSS, and JavaScript files that don’t change in real-time. Unlike dynamic sites that generate pages on demand via a database, static sites serve files that are already created.
Main advantages: ultra-fast loading, enhanced security (no database to hack), simple and often free hosting, and excellent SEO.
Typical use cases: blogs, showcase sites, documentation, portfolios, landing pages - any content that doesn’t need constant updates.
Why static sites?
So, as you’ve figured out: no need to worry about security, free hosting on platforms like Cloudflare Pages, speed, fluidity, site versioning via the GitHub repo, easy publishing… in short, lots of positives!
Plus it allows me to learn more about the subject and get hands-on :)
Though I didn’t expect to have to do so much development… but I’ll explain that later…
Which static site generator (SSG) to choose?
SSG = Static Site Generator
Here, I had to ask AI for a quick explanation of the differences and what they implied.
So here’s a simple comparison made by Claude between the most popular ones:
| Criteria | Hugo | Next.js | Astro | Jekyll |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Language | Go (templates) | JavaScript/React | JavaScript | Ruby (Liquid) |
| Ease of use | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ | ⭐⭐⭐ | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ |
| Build speed | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ | ⭐⭐⭐ | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ | ⭐⭐ |
| Final performance | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ |
| SEO | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ |
| Available themes | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ | ⭐⭐⭐ | ⭐⭐⭐ | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ |
| Community | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ | ⭐⭐⭐ | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ |
| Learning curve | Easy | Difficult | Medium | Easy |
| Free hosting | Excellent | Excellent | Excellent | GitHub Pages native |
Hugo dominates for speed and simplicity: ultra-fast builds, 5-minute installation and over 400 themes available. Ideal for starting an IT blog without hassle.
Next.js shines for its flexibility and massive React ecosystem. Perfect if you master JavaScript and want an evolving blog that could become a more complex app, but harder to get started with.
Astro represents modernity with its “zero JavaScript” approach by default and excellent MDX support. The best performance/modern features compromise, but smaller community.
Jekyll remains the safe choice for GitHub with its native GitHub Pages integration. Stable and proven, but slow builds and less modern technology.
For me, AstroJS was the best choice: I like modernity and it was well recognized for its performance and balance, so I went with it without really knowing what to expect.
The theme
So I first needed a theme to start my project. I browsed the Astro themes gallery quite a bit and finally found the one I liked most for what I wanted to do: Astro Citrus (Many thanks to the author!) Buuut, whatever I chose, I knew I’d have to get my hands dirty and customize the theme. I didn’t want to settle for the simple base template…
That’s when I realized I needed to understand a bit about the dev job: file structure, languages used, purpose of different modules… In the end, it took me many hours to absorb all that and many prompts on ChatGPT! Then I discovered Claude Code which really helped me reshape the site as I wanted - it significantly sped up the process. (I’ll probably write an article about this AI switch.)
I was able to improve several aspects and above all get a more personalized site, reflecting my style:
- Colors
- A dedicated CheatSheets page
- Clean and adapted mobile display
- Modern and fluid CSS
There we go, I have a clean site, everything works… locally at least!
Deployment and workflow
Now, I had to manage deployment and production. I started with Netlify for its simplicity, but quickly switched to Cloudflare Pages for its significantly better performance and unlimited free hosting.
The migration was simple: just connect the GitHub repo, configure the build command, and Cloudflare takes care of the rest. Bonus: the CDN is global with 330+ data centers, making the site ultra-fast worldwide!
After some bugs/build errors, my site is finally online! Pretty proud! As for the final workflow:
- I write an article or cheatsheet in Markdown
git pushto the repo- Cloudflare Pages builds and deploys automatically in ~30 seconds
- And voila!
Simple, efficient, and it allows me to focus on content rather than all the maintenance a VPS requires, for example.
What’s next?
Time to go! Learn, write, publish and share!
On the agenda: Windows, classic support, Linux, automation, tech watch…
If you want to follow the updates, the RSS feed is here: syspirit.fr/rss.xml
Thanks for reading and see you soon if you want to keep following my adventures!