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  3. I self-host a lot of stuff.

I self-host a lot of stuff.

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  • neil@mastodon.neilzone.co.ukN neil@mastodon.neilzone.co.uk

    I self-host a lot of stuff. Nearly everything that I use. FOSS and self-hosting is a massive part of my computing experience.

    I love reading about people enjoying / exploring self-hosting stuff.

    I struggle when people advocate "just self-host it", without giving due consideration to the costs, risks, security considerations, and so on.

    I know that I've posted this a few times now, but this discussion seems to pop up quite a lot. So:

    Link Preview Image
    'Self-host it' is not the answer

    Neil Brown's personal blog.

    favicon

    (neilzone.co.uk)

    #SelfHosting #FOSS #blog

    xchaos@f.czX This user is from outside of this forum
    xchaos@f.czX This user is from outside of this forum
    xchaos@f.cz
    wrote last edited by
    #18

    @neil "It appears that “self-hosting” might mean different things to different people."

    Definitely. We are able to do #selfhosting because we are local ISP for 25 years. We run our own datacenter from at least 8 years, and I was planning how to do the waste heat recycling for 10 years. We have access to second-hand hardware, because it would be hard to afford only the new hardware.

    So #selfhosting is still collective activity of some kind, you need small business, or cooperative, or something, because you have expenses.

    I suppose aggregating VPS-es for multiple instances on same physical hardware may have some advantages eg. with containers sharing the same ZFS filesystem (you can turn on eg. de-duplication of files)

    So the #selfhosting usually anway about seeking some kind of cooperation. I would not be able to "selfhost" without cooperating with experienced admin...

    laurel@social.lolL 1 Reply Last reply
    0
    • neil@mastodon.neilzone.co.ukN neil@mastodon.neilzone.co.uk

      I self-host a lot of stuff. Nearly everything that I use. FOSS and self-hosting is a massive part of my computing experience.

      I love reading about people enjoying / exploring self-hosting stuff.

      I struggle when people advocate "just self-host it", without giving due consideration to the costs, risks, security considerations, and so on.

      I know that I've posted this a few times now, but this discussion seems to pop up quite a lot. So:

      Link Preview Image
      'Self-host it' is not the answer

      Neil Brown's personal blog.

      favicon

      (neilzone.co.uk)

      #SelfHosting #FOSS #blog

      unqualifiedtechbros@mastodon.socialU This user is from outside of this forum
      unqualifiedtechbros@mastodon.socialU This user is from outside of this forum
      unqualifiedtechbros@mastodon.social
      wrote last edited by
      #19

      @neil
      Do you recommend yunohost?

      neil@mastodon.neilzone.co.ukN 1 Reply Last reply
      0
      • unqualifiedtechbros@mastodon.socialU unqualifiedtechbros@mastodon.social

        @neil
        Do you recommend yunohost?

        neil@mastodon.neilzone.co.ukN This user is from outside of this forum
        neil@mastodon.neilzone.co.ukN This user is from outside of this forum
        neil@mastodon.neilzone.co.uk
        wrote last edited by
        #20

        @unqualifiedtechbros I have no experience of it, I'm afraid.

        1 Reply Last reply
        0
        • rail@snailedit.socialR rail@snailedit.social

          @neil and you gotta hope the tools you’re using is actually secure

          Link Preview Image

          favicon

          (www.reddit.com)

          gjoel@mstdn.dkG This user is from outside of this forum
          gjoel@mstdn.dkG This user is from outside of this forum
          gjoel@mstdn.dk
          wrote last edited by
          #21

          @rail @neil I self host exactly so my data can remain in my relatively closed intranet (that is, completely NAT'ed). There's still a password in place, but to be honest, it would be trivial for an intruder to take over everything.

          1 Reply Last reply
          0
          • neil@mastodon.neilzone.co.ukN neil@mastodon.neilzone.co.uk

            I self-host a lot of stuff. Nearly everything that I use. FOSS and self-hosting is a massive part of my computing experience.

            I love reading about people enjoying / exploring self-hosting stuff.

            I struggle when people advocate "just self-host it", without giving due consideration to the costs, risks, security considerations, and so on.

            I know that I've posted this a few times now, but this discussion seems to pop up quite a lot. So:

            Link Preview Image
            'Self-host it' is not the answer

            Neil Brown's personal blog.

            favicon

            (neilzone.co.uk)

            #SelfHosting #FOSS #blog

            khleedril@cyberplace.socialK This user is from outside of this forum
            khleedril@cyberplace.socialK This user is from outside of this forum
            khleedril@cyberplace.social
            wrote last edited by
            #22

            @neil That is an excellent article.

            I do think that you can self-host on someone else's computer, shrinking all the financial costs to a couple of small ones (hosting fee and domain name; just those are cheaper than having any kind of home internet connection).

            I run a root server in the cloud, on an OpenStack instance. The entire machine is defined by me. I regard it as self-hosting.

            neil@mastodon.neilzone.co.ukN 1 Reply Last reply
            0
            • neil@mastodon.neilzone.co.ukN neil@mastodon.neilzone.co.uk

              I self-host a lot of stuff. Nearly everything that I use. FOSS and self-hosting is a massive part of my computing experience.

              I love reading about people enjoying / exploring self-hosting stuff.

              I struggle when people advocate "just self-host it", without giving due consideration to the costs, risks, security considerations, and so on.

              I know that I've posted this a few times now, but this discussion seems to pop up quite a lot. So:

              Link Preview Image
              'Self-host it' is not the answer

              Neil Brown's personal blog.

              favicon

              (neilzone.co.uk)

              #SelfHosting #FOSS #blog

              csolisr@hub.azkware.netC This user is from outside of this forum
              csolisr@hub.azkware.netC This user is from outside of this forum
              csolisr@hub.azkware.net
              wrote last edited by
              #23
              @neil And (I'm yet to read the full article, but) the upcoming raise in hardware prices will make the entry price on self-hosting even more complicated to reach
              1 Reply Last reply
              0
              • khleedril@cyberplace.socialK khleedril@cyberplace.social

                @neil That is an excellent article.

                I do think that you can self-host on someone else's computer, shrinking all the financial costs to a couple of small ones (hosting fee and domain name; just those are cheaper than having any kind of home internet connection).

                I run a root server in the cloud, on an OpenStack instance. The entire machine is defined by me. I regard it as self-hosting.

                neil@mastodon.neilzone.co.ukN This user is from outside of this forum
                neil@mastodon.neilzone.co.ukN This user is from outside of this forum
                neil@mastodon.neilzone.co.uk
                wrote last edited by
                #24

                @khleedril Great!

                1 Reply Last reply
                0
                • nocturnalnessa@infosec.exchangeN nocturnalnessa@infosec.exchange

                  @neil in a better timeline, i'd like the idea of neighborhood/community hosting. like, the local library doing it, with help of tech savvy volunteers. that would be wholesome

                  evgandr@mastodon.bsd.cafeE This user is from outside of this forum
                  evgandr@mastodon.bsd.cafeE This user is from outside of this forum
                  evgandr@mastodon.bsd.cafe
                  wrote last edited by
                  #25

                  @NocturnalNessa @neil We, in Russia had such thing before (and looks like will have in the future ), when the ISP prices were high and unaffordable for usual people, but there were a lot of coaxial cables and 10BASE2 (IIRC) network equipment on the market for a reasonable price. So, people just connected apartments and buildings with these cables and had a local network in the block (or between some blocks) for filesharing, gaming in local network, etc… Something like this: https://medium.com/@pv.safronov/moscow-state-university-network-built-by-students-211539855cf9

                  1 Reply Last reply
                  0
                  • neil@mastodon.neilzone.co.ukN neil@mastodon.neilzone.co.uk

                    I self-host a lot of stuff. Nearly everything that I use. FOSS and self-hosting is a massive part of my computing experience.

                    I love reading about people enjoying / exploring self-hosting stuff.

                    I struggle when people advocate "just self-host it", without giving due consideration to the costs, risks, security considerations, and so on.

                    I know that I've posted this a few times now, but this discussion seems to pop up quite a lot. So:

                    Link Preview Image
                    'Self-host it' is not the answer

                    Neil Brown's personal blog.

                    favicon

                    (neilzone.co.uk)

                    #SelfHosting #FOSS #blog

                    randomhost@tech.lgbtR This user is from outside of this forum
                    randomhost@tech.lgbtR This user is from outside of this forum
                    randomhost@tech.lgbt
                    wrote last edited by
                    #26

                    @neil I think this summarizes why I'm suffering from more or less severe burnout symptoms on a daily basis.

                    When I'm done developing depressingly poor quality software projects designed to "generate" revenue for a greedy tech company for the day, I am expected to keep on top of the never-ending bot attacks against my self-managed services.

                    Every time I install a new kernel version or significant package updates, my anxiety peaks while I wait for machines and services - some of them being the backbone of my digital existence - to come back up.

                    I'd rather just pay for someone else to do it, but experience has shown that companies can't be trusted with anything anymore as increasing profits has become the driving force behind everything with quality and reliability being downgraded to a mere afterthought.

                    I hate that system and I hate being part of it but I have to pay my ever growing greed and inflation driven bills so what can I do?

                    1 Reply Last reply
                    0
                    • petko@social.petko.meP petko@social.petko.me

                      @Colman @neil

                      As opposed to 'just pay the faceless corp instead of self-hosting.' This is notably not techno-libertarian at all, very inclusive, and the opposite of atomizing --
                      just look at Facebook and Twitter after all, they are the *Threads* that knit together our nations!!!

                      If self-hosting shit is anything like a political statement, I'd say it's closer to anarchy than libertarianism.

                      evgandr@mastodon.bsd.cafeE This user is from outside of this forum
                      evgandr@mastodon.bsd.cafeE This user is from outside of this forum
                      evgandr@mastodon.bsd.cafe
                      wrote last edited by
                      #27

                      @petko @neil @Colman Agreed. If you need something, like some black-box to share files with other people — you could just make something yourself with existing technical skills. Or organize with some other people with necessary skills and make a thing. This looks like some kind of anarchy and definitely not like "techno-libertarianism" lol.

                      The "how-to" knowledge is freely acessible and no one hides it with paywall — you can learn or get help from other people (for beer or money, etc) if you don't have a time/courage to learn.

                      1 Reply Last reply
                      0
                      • ahnlak@kavlak.ukA ahnlak@kavlak.uk

                        @neil I think self-hosting is a bit like doing your own car servicing.

                        Sure, you can do it and if you know what you're doing you'll probably be happy and saving yourself some money - but unless you *actually* know what you're doing, many things can and will come back to bite you in the ass 😉

                        Hell, I *do* know what I'm doing and I'm very happy to pay someone else to do quite a lot of things I could, theoretically, do myself.

                        evgandr@mastodon.bsd.cafeE This user is from outside of this forum
                        evgandr@mastodon.bsd.cafeE This user is from outside of this forum
                        evgandr@mastodon.bsd.cafe
                        wrote last edited by
                        #28

                        @ahnlak @neil I like this metaphor! I don't have a car, but I have a bike and like to make a lot of maintenance by myself. And this definitely looks like self-hosting — if you able to have fun with wrenches and grease, then you will do it yourself and will have fun. Otherwise, no fun

                        1 Reply Last reply
                        0
                        • neil@mastodon.neilzone.co.ukN neil@mastodon.neilzone.co.uk

                          I self-host a lot of stuff. Nearly everything that I use. FOSS and self-hosting is a massive part of my computing experience.

                          I love reading about people enjoying / exploring self-hosting stuff.

                          I struggle when people advocate "just self-host it", without giving due consideration to the costs, risks, security considerations, and so on.

                          I know that I've posted this a few times now, but this discussion seems to pop up quite a lot. So:

                          Link Preview Image
                          'Self-host it' is not the answer

                          Neil Brown's personal blog.

                          favicon

                          (neilzone.co.uk)

                          #SelfHosting #FOSS #blog

                          pheonix@hachyderm.ioP This user is from outside of this forum
                          pheonix@hachyderm.ioP This user is from outside of this forum
                          pheonix@hachyderm.io
                          wrote last edited by
                          #29

                          @neil Neil is absolutely spot on and we need to talk about the politics of this. Telling people to "just self-host" to escape surveillance capitalism is the exact same tactic as telling people to "calculate your carbon footprint" to stop climate change.

                          It individualizes a systemic, corporate failure.
                          Privacy and digital safety shouldn't be luxury goods reserved for cis-white-male engineers with unmetered fiber connections, rack-mount servers along with free time and financial stability to pull it off. When our response to the collapse of digital rights is "run your own infrastructure," we are engaging in digital redlining. The solution to predatory data brokering isn't forcing single mothers working two jobs to learn Kubernetes; the solution is ruthlessly regulating the data brokers out of existence.

                          ainmosni@social.ainmosni.euA 1 Reply Last reply
                          0
                          • carstenraddatz@pixelfed.automat.clickC This user is from outside of this forum
                            carstenraddatz@pixelfed.automat.clickC This user is from outside of this forum
                            carstenraddatz@pixelfed.automat.click
                            wrote last edited by
                            #30
                            Thanks for sharing. This is useful info 🙂
                            1 Reply Last reply
                            0
                            • neil@mastodon.neilzone.co.ukN neil@mastodon.neilzone.co.uk

                              I self-host a lot of stuff. Nearly everything that I use. FOSS and self-hosting is a massive part of my computing experience.

                              I love reading about people enjoying / exploring self-hosting stuff.

                              I struggle when people advocate "just self-host it", without giving due consideration to the costs, risks, security considerations, and so on.

                              I know that I've posted this a few times now, but this discussion seems to pop up quite a lot. So:

                              Link Preview Image
                              'Self-host it' is not the answer

                              Neil Brown's personal blog.

                              favicon

                              (neilzone.co.uk)

                              #SelfHosting #FOSS #blog

                              fname@kamloops.socialF This user is from outside of this forum
                              fname@kamloops.socialF This user is from outside of this forum
                              fname@kamloops.social
                              wrote last edited by
                              #31

                              @neil
                              Sort of off-topic (and I agree that not everyone has the skillset/desire to self-host) but I followed your guide to upgrade my GlitchSoc instance and it was great. Thank you for posting it.

                              neil@mastodon.neilzone.co.ukN 1 Reply Last reply
                              0
                              • xchaos@f.czX xchaos@f.cz

                                @neil "It appears that “self-hosting” might mean different things to different people."

                                Definitely. We are able to do #selfhosting because we are local ISP for 25 years. We run our own datacenter from at least 8 years, and I was planning how to do the waste heat recycling for 10 years. We have access to second-hand hardware, because it would be hard to afford only the new hardware.

                                So #selfhosting is still collective activity of some kind, you need small business, or cooperative, or something, because you have expenses.

                                I suppose aggregating VPS-es for multiple instances on same physical hardware may have some advantages eg. with containers sharing the same ZFS filesystem (you can turn on eg. de-duplication of files)

                                So the #selfhosting usually anway about seeking some kind of cooperation. I would not be able to "selfhost" without cooperating with experienced admin...

                                laurel@social.lolL This user is from outside of this forum
                                laurel@social.lolL This user is from outside of this forum
                                laurel@social.lol
                                wrote last edited by
                                #32

                                @xChaos @neil Oh wow — this is *super* interesting to me! How many people are involved in maintaining your local ISP? And it is cooperatively owned?

                                xchaos@f.czX 1 Reply Last reply
                                0
                                • fname@kamloops.socialF fname@kamloops.social

                                  @neil
                                  Sort of off-topic (and I agree that not everyone has the skillset/desire to self-host) but I followed your guide to upgrade my GlitchSoc instance and it was great. Thank you for posting it.

                                  neil@mastodon.neilzone.co.ukN This user is from outside of this forum
                                  neil@mastodon.neilzone.co.ukN This user is from outside of this forum
                                  neil@mastodon.neilzone.co.uk
                                  wrote last edited by
                                  #33

                                  @fname I am so pleased - thank you!

                                  fname@kamloops.socialF 1 Reply Last reply
                                  0
                                  • pheonix@hachyderm.ioP pheonix@hachyderm.io

                                    @neil Neil is absolutely spot on and we need to talk about the politics of this. Telling people to "just self-host" to escape surveillance capitalism is the exact same tactic as telling people to "calculate your carbon footprint" to stop climate change.

                                    It individualizes a systemic, corporate failure.
                                    Privacy and digital safety shouldn't be luxury goods reserved for cis-white-male engineers with unmetered fiber connections, rack-mount servers along with free time and financial stability to pull it off. When our response to the collapse of digital rights is "run your own infrastructure," we are engaging in digital redlining. The solution to predatory data brokering isn't forcing single mothers working two jobs to learn Kubernetes; the solution is ruthlessly regulating the data brokers out of existence.

                                    ainmosni@social.ainmosni.euA This user is from outside of this forum
                                    ainmosni@social.ainmosni.euA This user is from outside of this forum
                                    ainmosni@social.ainmosni.eu
                                    wrote last edited by
                                    #34

                                    @pheonix @neil 100% agreed, and this is coming from someone who has essentially set up a private internet for himself by now.

                                    1 Reply Last reply
                                    0
                                    • neil@mastodon.neilzone.co.ukN neil@mastodon.neilzone.co.uk

                                      @fname I am so pleased - thank you!

                                      fname@kamloops.socialF This user is from outside of this forum
                                      fname@kamloops.socialF This user is from outside of this forum
                                      fname@kamloops.social
                                      wrote last edited by
                                      #35

                                      @neil
                                      I used the official guide the first time I did it and managed to mash my way through, but yours was much easier to follow. 🙏

                                      neil@mastodon.neilzone.co.ukN 1 Reply Last reply
                                      0
                                      • fname@kamloops.socialF fname@kamloops.social

                                        @neil
                                        I used the official guide the first time I did it and managed to mash my way through, but yours was much easier to follow. 🙏

                                        neil@mastodon.neilzone.co.ukN This user is from outside of this forum
                                        neil@mastodon.neilzone.co.ukN This user is from outside of this forum
                                        neil@mastodon.neilzone.co.uk
                                        wrote last edited by
                                        #36

                                        @fname Excellent 🙂

                                        1 Reply Last reply
                                        0
                                        • neil@mastodon.neilzone.co.ukN neil@mastodon.neilzone.co.uk

                                          I self-host a lot of stuff. Nearly everything that I use. FOSS and self-hosting is a massive part of my computing experience.

                                          I love reading about people enjoying / exploring self-hosting stuff.

                                          I struggle when people advocate "just self-host it", without giving due consideration to the costs, risks, security considerations, and so on.

                                          I know that I've posted this a few times now, but this discussion seems to pop up quite a lot. So:

                                          Link Preview Image
                                          'Self-host it' is not the answer

                                          Neil Brown's personal blog.

                                          favicon

                                          (neilzone.co.uk)

                                          #SelfHosting #FOSS #blog

                                          casandro@f-ckendehoelle.deC This user is from outside of this forum
                                          casandro@f-ckendehoelle.deC This user is from outside of this forum
                                          casandro@f-ckendehoelle.de
                                          wrote last edited by
                                          #37

                                          @neil When I was young there were organisations offering "shell servers" where you could run your software and host your website in a subdirectory of your home directory. That all was done for minimal amounts of money.
                                          Maybe we need something like that again in the age of ad-phones.

                                          1 Reply Last reply
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