i am not looking to manipulate or convince anybody, just something informative in general, like “this is the bigtech world, this is the open source / selfhosted world.” any good knowledge bases, blogs, youtube channels and alike that you would recommend? the less technical, the better. it’s not about “how to install this and that” but rather “what do i need this and that for, what are the advantes and what are the downsides”. also, are there resources like that in your language (if you or your people are not english native speakers)?
also very interested in anything else you have to share regarding your personal selfhosting experience and how it may or may not affect those around you.
i’ll start: in my own experience, there are so many other things going on in people’s life, that i understand are far more important than whether their todo list is stored on their own disk or in some other part of the world. especially in the beginning, going open source / selfhosted does often feel like losing comfort, only to be left with more to take care about in return. so getting started as a non-technical person seems incredibly difficult. another thing that comes to mind is, yes i could do the selfhosting for related people and friends, and yes they would trust me with some of their data – but no i don’t want that. not because i am not willing to help, but i honestly don’t want to have access to their data, it just doesn’t feel correct.
thanks for your inputs and have a nice weekend!
You know Google drive? You know how it doesn’t work when the internet is out? You know how we live in rural USA so the internet is out every other day?
Yeah that computer in the corner is my own Google drive that still works when the internet is out.
“You pay for how many streaming services??? You could start building a decent DVD/BRD collection that you own forever.”
“Yea but I hate swapping disks and I watch on my phone.”
“Gather around, let me tell you the story of a fin made of jelly.”
I say, I don’t pay for Netflix, but I’m able to stream whatever I want. I do the same with books. And audiobooks.
Do you remember that time Netflix removed [insert series title]? I basically have my own private version of Netflix. That way nobody can take my favorite series away from me without warning.
It’s like Dropbox but instead of the cloud, it’s at my house. Less expensive that way.
This is the same strategy I use with my family as well, I refer to a service they know and then tell them it’s in our house.
This is the way. Money will always get peoples’ attention.
Just tell them “I own my own private cloud” and then look smug.
Then I may tell them “this way the CIA (don’t say NSA, older people usually don’t know what NSA is, but they know CIA) or those capitalist companies can’t spy on me”
And I don’t find a need to go into more detail, at this point the conversation has either moved on or they say “but I have nothing to hide” and move on anyway.
You know [Burger chain]? Self hosting is making your own burger. Kinda similar ingredients, kinda looking product overall, it’s still a burger.
But you’re in control.
I liken it to hiring a plumber/electrician/carpenter vs figuring it out myself. Instead of using a website on someone else’s computer, I use websites on my own computer.
That is actually an important distinction, with the burger example you only get the “do it myself” part and some people will say “meh I can deal not getting home made burger”.
Hiring an electrician though for example. You let someone in your house. Without self hosting is like having an electrician constantly knowing what you do with the electricity, like he never leaves the house.
And the one you make at home is always better anyway. Just requires more labor.
Normies don’t get it. Privacy means nothing to most normies. I tell them about things they would understand an appreciate:
I don’t need to pay for the following anymore because I have my personal version of Netflix, Spotify, Dropbox, Google photos, etc.
I can tell them about a home server also saving me from Onenote, Google Calendar, etc as well; but they tend not to understand this and say “but that’s free anyway”. In which case it becomes a more prolonged conversation of trying to explain why privacy and data ownership are important.
There’s also the hobby/interest/learning aspect of this. But even my wife sees what I do and says she doesn’t understand how I can stand troubleshooting server problems; because she gets hugely triggered if tech doesn’t immediately work as intended. Tinkering and troubleshooting tech is most people’s idea of hell (the equivalent of saying it is fun to have to unclog a public toilet).
Also I can get services not possible otherwise, like Nintendo Switch save game sync across devices (emulation on a number of devices and Syncthing with save data folders).
Can you elaborate what you mean with Nintendo switch sync? I have switch online so I have the cloud backups between my switch and switch 2, but there are some games like the Pokemon games that don’t support cloud backups
I’ve shoved my Switch to the back of a cupboard somewhere and don’t use that hardware at all. I use Eden emulator to play Switch games on my Steam Deck and my Retroid Pocket 5, and also my PC (if my kids want their save game progress there). Syncthing is set up on my home server and all these devices. The save data gets synced across all devices. I’ve been loving it. I’ve ditched the shitty Nintendo hardware and always refused to pay for Switch online since it didn’t work for a bunch of games anyway. The emulated games get better performance with better screens and controllers on these devices, and all games sync reliably at no extra cost.
I’ve got Switch games on my phone as well (Into the Breach works great with touch controls alone), but I haven’t figured out synchronising save data from here since Android locked down app data folders.
I can give you more details or resources with instructions if you want, but this won’t apply to actual Nintendo hardware and certainly not Switch 2.
That’s alright, thanks
You may find syncthing-fork on fdroid to be useful. The nextcloud app was crippled with sync charges due to the play store but the fdroid variant doesn’t have such restrictions. The same may be true for syncthing-fork
Yeah i think it’s an education thing as well. People tend not to understand how stuff works and if they did they would be much more „paranoid“
I just tell people “It’s free and I don’t get twenty thousand ‘license term updates’ in my email every month”
I don’t.
I’ve got 1TB pictures and videos. I can either pay google a shitload of money and fear that they delte my stuff. Or I can self host immich for a fraction of the cost for electricity and a donation.
This. Why pay £6/m when, with self-hosting a Samba/NFS/NextCloud instance, I pay a fraction of the corporate cost.
Currently I’m paying ~£15/m as my server now has a GPU for better streaming and local assistant purposes. It uses ~80W. Without the GPU I was paying ~£4.50/m, which gets me:
- Network-wide traffic protection, ads, spam etc.
- Hub to remotely control, secure and automate my home
- Cloud media, frequently synced between devices
- CCTV
- Password management
- Notekeeping
- Instant messaging
- Streaming for locally stored movies, shows, music, podcasts, books, audio books and YouTube subscriptions
- Multiplayer Minecraft server
- Website/blogsite
- Remote desktop access
- Group video calling/presentation hosting
- 54TB shared storage between everything
- Network-attached storage
Imagine the cost of outsourcing all these services for unlimited access, unlimited* storage, unlimited e-mailboxes, and complete independence** from outside influence. I know I’d be paying £8/m to Google for their 2TB media storage plan alone.
*Limited by the drives you can afford
**Relying only on the developers of the software
It cost approx. £200 for the base parts, £200 for the GPU and £900 for the hard drives. A valuable investment.I’ve worked out that I’ve had the server running for 3 years. If I take into account the money I have saved by not paying Google £8/m, I’ve saved £40/year. If I account for Netflix £25/m, I’ve completely covered the £900 I spent on storage. Disney+ £15/m takes me well over the remaining hardware costs. The media I own is far less than that offered by streamers but it’s everything I can need for the next 20 years+. I’ve counted. Every other service is just a bonus.
Everyone has experienced an AWS / Google Cloud / Azure outage or has had a service - you are happy to use switching to (more expensive) subscription service. That’s two things that are not going to happen to self-hosters (except the outage thing, but you can actually do something about it when it happens).
Just link them the story of a Dad getting locked out of his Google account after sending a picture of his child to the Doctor as part of remote care.
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/aug/22/google-csam-account-blocked
The point being they can fuck up your life on a whim and don’t care about the harm they will cause because your one out of millions.
I don’t.
