I’m an English teacher who wanted to “cut the cord” wherever I could, so I started learning about domain hosts, containerization, .yaml files, etc.
Since then, I’ve been hosting several pods for file sharing and streaming for many years, and I’m currently thinking about learning kubernetes for home deployment. But why?
If you aren’t in development, IT, cyber security, or in a related profession, what made you want to learn this on your own? What made you want to pick this up as a hobby?
I reached a breaking point with the number of SaaS that I was having to pay for monthly, so I started taking steps to eliminate my subscriptions one by one
That’s interesting. Can you elaborate?
I was paying for netflix, spotify, cloud storage, shared calendar software, the works. I’ve since moved my media watching to jellyfin, music to navidrome, storage to my server w/ offsite backups of critical files, baikal + open source calendar solutions. Anything I can replace with something I run myself, I do. And I’m always adding more. If you don’t count the fact that I keep expanding the scope of my setup and buying hardware, I save lots per month in subs of various kinds
Aah, I did not consider Netflix & Spotify. yeah that makes sense. I never paid for those either. But of course you can only self-host media if you first get it from somewhere*.
I do wonder who takes money separately/only for calendar hosting.
But yeah, all in all that amounts to a lot, and considering you can have a VPS with decent storage for under €10/mo. - it’s really the best solution.
Another teacher here, I picked up an interest in computing in general from my dad when I was young (got my start on an old C64). As I grew up we both discovered Linux and it’s been a slow burn ever since. My first self-hosted service was Emby and a simple file server, followed by a personal Moodle instance. I eventually moved to Proxmox for hosting my services and have steadily expanded my list as I become ever more dismayed by cloud hosted services and subscriptions.
I’ve been a media hoarder for decades, my partner is an avid dvd collector. I used to have lofty goals with friends about setting up our own server and media centers so we didn’t have to afford the world we live in. The friends fell off along the way, but I finally managed to make the dream happen. It’s bittersweet that I don’t really have anyone to celebrate it with.
Sorry to hear. On the upside, no one will be upset when the server goes down.
That’s true. Honestly I think it’s fine this way, I just wish I could send out little updates, take requests and stuff. Day to day operations is my love language and not having a valid reason to make an RSS feed or newsletter is just a reminder that I don’t have a community anymore.
“If you build it they will come”
I would love to get your newsletter!
Any chance you’re looking for a free jellyfin with a surplus of weird movies and music? It’s not fast, but it’s free!
Heck yeah! Where do I sign?
Check you PMs, I sent you the link!
I’m a social worker by background. It all started with running Linux on my desktop.
From there, the possibilities seemed endless.
I was going to think up something more elaborate, but this is enough.
I’m also a bit of an electronics
hoarderrecycler, which probably got me into Linux in the first place. And Linux proved me right: old hardware is still good. My first server was a 32 bit laptop.I also work in the social sector btw.
Linux - the gateway drug.
Its gotta be the sox.
That’s the way to go! I’m sure you didn’t want to go back to Windows after a while. That was the start for me, too, back with Ubuntu Jaunty Jackalope.
I still have a means of booting up Windows if there’s a need (usually for a firmware flash too that doesn’t have a Linux alternative).
I was dual booting with Windows ME (which worked well for my computer). Distro hopping until I bootstrapped Gentoo from stage one.
as a student, this is much more interesting than studying
As a student, most things are more interesting than studying.
Hey, hosting your own LLM could work out for you in that respect.
i’d rather spend time actually learning and doing things instead of being an LLM slopper lol
One. Of. Us!
Damn, got shot down, lol. I’m not advocating for churning out assignments; just for tinkering with editing and brainstorming. “Actually learning and doing things” is admirable. I’d rather be certain a student is growing instead of the clanker.
@muxika @hexagonwin If you do make sure you got a gpu or you’d likely be frustrated with it if it worked.
I once wired my whole ass house for ethernet. (Before realizing I was colorblind nonetheless.) Instead of studying.
Never underestimate how you can use study procrastination as a push force for other shit. (Unless you’re a dipshit like me and do it with an imminent exam)
As a cyber student, I have to literally stop myself from researching FOSS apps and homelab setups so I do my actual work that will get me the degree to pay for said projects and setups…
Mostly gaming. I self-host three different game servers (Palworld, Minecraft and Terraria on occasion) and will be adding a TeamSpeak server soon to replace discord. Is it the best? Prolly not, but audio chat is all we really use Discord for anyway so we don’t need the full feature stack.
I’ve been trying to get the boys off discord for years, and am finally getting some traction with the whole age verification thing. Sticking point is they want screen sharing, any ideas?
Teamspeak 6 is in beta right now, but does have screen sharing. I don’t know how stable everything is atm, but might be worth looking into and keeping an eye on.
If the pricing model remains the same, we can expect TS6 to have a free self-hostable server for up to 32 users (which is the beta licensing right now).
I don’t know of any FOSS programs that have it, but I’m sure you can ask around and find one.
I’m not in a tech field now, but I used to be. I jumped ship when everything started moving to ‘cloud based’ because I don’t trust anything I can’t kick when it breaks.
I’m a teacher too. Started feeling burnt out a few years ago and considered a career change to tech. Didn’t make the jump but did gain a new hobby and a love for privacy, owning my own things, and happy blinking lights in a rack. Still not as jazzed about teaching as I used to be, but making time to work on projects that have clear, achievable goals has been good for me.
I did make the jump… into unemployment. But still much happier. I love teaching and would join an authentic, child-centred school at the drop of a hat - but not willing to be complicit in the toxic horror show that’s current UK education.
I didn’t want to pay for cable TV. I started with torrents. Then I found utorrent could automate via rss and search terms, then sickbeard could automate it even further, usenet made it safer, etc… And that’s also how I ended up with a career in IT.
As a kid, dad set me up on one of his spare dos/win3.1 PCs when he was working. The passion and learning never stopped from that point. Just not something I want to make a career of.
Yeah, there’s always a child-like fascination with technology. Do you ever feel like making it a career would’ve taken the joy out of it? My bro is IT and it somewhat did for him.
I’m a mechanic.
This is both my reason and explanation lol.
I do my own work has been said to be taken a bit too literally in my case. I got ripped off by Geek Squad when I was 18 and said “wow, it’s just like getting ripped off at a shitty mechanic shop” and ever since then it’s been all hands-on.
career
I sat on that fence but being a mechanic gives me guaranteed work and I basically work-out every day. It’s hard, but not brutal and the pay is decent. Surrounded by maga tho.
I guess that allure of rugged individualism attracts a lot of MAGA types to trades and small businesses. It’s been the opposite in education on the teachers’ side, but definitely adversarial with MAGA on the students’ and parents’ side. I used to teach current events, but I haven’t been able to do that for the last 10 years. Kids would find their way into your personal accounts, too, so I switched to federated platforms instead.
I’m also a mechanic, I self host for basically the same reasons and I just don’t like the idea of big tech spying on me . Definitely a lot of MAGA, it’s fucking annoying hahaha.
I’m a web developer and whenever I see my (awesome) mechanic I always wonder what it’s like on the “other side.”My dad was a mechanic when I was a child and I always regret never picking up those skills.
A lot of times when they run me through their problem-solving I’m like “damn, that’s just like reproducing a bug to find its root cause.”
Yes, but also factor in information in the mechanic space has no FOSS comparison. Some companies put out their official service manuals after a period of time but most charge your company out the ass to let you view everything in some proprietary walled garden. Troubleshooting a mechanical fault can be very similar to troubleshooting code or software, and sometimes it literally is a vehicle’s software, and out comes a laptop.
“What field am I in, again?”
https://charm.li/ at least there’s a piracy comparison. Closest thing to FOSS are the (sometimes quite good) walkthroughs of different projects you find on owners forums. I don’t know shit about nothin, but built myself both a decent car and server from other people’s junk
I always regret never picking up those skills.
Never too late
I quit IT work to be a mechanic. It’s exactly the same problem-solving process, but the problems are almost always way less arcane. I’m very happy with the switch.
If you wanted to make the switch yourself, the skill sets are very interchangeable. You’re just debugging an alternator instead of an Active Directory setup. If you have a willingness to learn you’ll be up to speed in under a year.
Privacy and ownership
Lemmy has been a big part of it.
I’ve never been fond of paying big tech to spy on me. It has been getting gradually more expensive and more intrusive for years. Around the time I reached a breaking point, folks here helped me realize that digital sovereignty is possible.
One day I was just like, “Why does Google need to know when my lightswich is on?” And that was the start of it.
Linux initially, giving way for me to see that the best alternatives to me are generally the ones I control.
And considering geopolitics, where I can see how dangerous a well-positioned spy/saboteur/paid actor can be, my next self host project is some ActivityPub social media, at least as an one-user instance since I don’t want to act as a company yet, so I have control of where I’m posting from too.
Because I hate big tech and I want control of my media.
