I love self-hosting a bunch of apps I use, so I don’t have to rely on anyone but my ISP for my digital life. Jellyfin, Immich, forgejo, memos and more.

But I know this isn’t for everyone. I just recently spent about 3 hours doing routine maintenance and fixing an issue (I caused) and I know not everyone is into doing that kind of thing.

I also wonder what it would take to get more people into this self-hosting thing. I.e., to get them off of subscription streaming services, Google, etc…, so they can own their own data, stop feeding the machine and for the general betterment of humanity. What would the world be like if half of all adults self-hosted their own services? Or even 25%?

So, for discussion, is increasing the number of self hosters a good idea? How can we make help that process along?

Edit: Fixed typos

  • Dark ArcEnglish
    2•6 months ago

    Something with 1-click installs like TrueNAS can help quite a bit. It’s still something that requires active involvement from the operator to do well though. If you’re self hosting, it’s like DIY construction, if something falls down … you can’t sue your contractor/nobody’s going to make you whole again except yourself.

    There’s also the networking side of things. I just wrote up some thoughts on that as well… https://alexandrite.app/social.packetloss.gg/comment/1821545

    Things like ZeroTier/TailScale/Nebula can make this monumentally more approachable and safer. It’s still far from for everyone though.