Selfhosted

60281 readers

597 users here now

A place to share alternatives to popular online services that can be self-hosted without giving up privacy or locking you into a service you don't control.

Rules:

Detailed Rules Post

Be civil.
No spam.
Posts are to be related to self-hosting.
Don't duplicate the full text of your blog or readme if you're providing a link.
Submission headline should match the article title.
No trolling.
Promotion posts require active participation, with an account that is at least 30 days old. F/LOSS without a paywall has exceptions, with requirements. See the rules link for details.

Resources:

selfh.st Newsletter and index of selfhosted software and apps
awesome-selfhosted software
awesome-sysadmin resources
Self-Hosted Podcast from Jupiter Broadcasting

Any issues on the community? Report it using the report flag.

Questions? DM the mods!

founded 3 years ago

MODERATORS

curbstickle@anarchist.nexus

curbstickle_lw@lemmy.world

158

From reddit selfhosted: What do you wish you knew from the start (www.reddit.com)

submitted 2 years ago by EliRibble@lemmy.world to c/selfhosted@lemmy.world

116 comments fedilink hide all child comments

I saw this post today on Reddit and was curious to see if views are similar here as they are there.

What are the best benefits of self-hosting?
What do you wish you would have known as a beginner starting out?
What resources do you know of to help a non-computer-scientist/engineer get started in self-hosting?

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] kitnaht@lemmy.world 11 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 children)

            
Learning.  If you ever found yourself tired of learning new things, your life is basically done.
Cost. You already have an internet connection at home.  It's practically a necessity these days.  The connection is likely fast enough for most things.  Renting even the most piddly of VPS is wildly expensive.  Just throw a spare machine at it and go wild.
Freedom. Your own data is constantly being collected, regurgitated, and sold back to you.  More people need to care about this incessant invasion of our lives.

Backups.  3 copies, on different forms of storage, in multiple PHYSICALLY distinct locations.  Just when you have that teeny little imp in the back of your mind say "hmm, I should probably back up soon" -- stop everything you're doing and run a backup.
Test your recovery!  Backups are only good if you can recover from them.  Many have lost data because they failed to ever fail-test their backups.

Google.  Legitimately the best skill you can ever attain is simply being able to search effectively and be able to learn jargon quickly.  Once you have the lingo down, searches become clearer, quicker, more precise.

[–] ChapulinColorado@lemmy.world 1 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

For #1 I would say not to focus on learning the same kind of thing that you started at some point recently. It took me a few months to get my local setup going since I would do it after work (also similar skills) and get tired of poking around.

At some point I gave up and started doing other things that brought me joy (video games, paint night with YouTube tutorials, movies/TV). When I finally decided to get back to it, it was enjoyable again. If I have to re-do it from scratch it could be done in probably a few hours or at most some nights after work and would be enjoyable since the annoying “got ya” lessons are somewhere on memory or some searches away that could be filtered much quicker.