Pi5 8GB with SSD. Only 1 user but often sharing folders with others including Memories photo sharing add on. Syncs between several machines & mobile. Also syncs Joplin notes. Pi5 also hosts variety of other (lightweight) stuff with no issues at all (Portainer, Nginx Proxy Manager, Linkwarden etc).

Previously hosted on Pi4B (4GB) with external hard drive. I’ve found the Pi5 + SSD faster & more robust so for me it’s been a worthwhile upgrade

No. Should I ever mention enshittification or reducing exposure to “big tech” then usually tinfoil hat jokes at my expense ensue

Wouldn’t say scam but potentially unsustainable. Some years ago I signed up for a brand new startup Nextcloud service which was priced far too low & went under very quickly. Switched to a hosted Nextcloud provider who had been around a long time (still around). They were really good but after a short time I decided to learn how to host it myself.

Hardware wise you don’t need much, I upgraded to a used Pi5 8GB with fanless heatsink case & added an m.2 SSD. Only 1 user on my instance but I often share folders with others, it’s robust & never once crashed.

If exposing to www you need to keep your network secure. There’s a learning curve but self hosting can be rewarding. Any if you’re lucky you might get to spend hours & hours problem solving when something breaks 😉😁

I use Keepass but I recommended Bitwarden to less nerdy family members as it syncs out of the box & does what they need it to do. Sync is simple enough to set up with Keepass & the big plus for me is that it allows storage of files/documents. Last time I checked this was a limited/paid feature on Bitwarden

Never knew I needed? Another vote for Paperless-ngx. I still feel like I’m living in the future using it. The trick I’ve found was initially setting up a good document naming & management convention & following it religiously for every document. The search function is fantastic at narrowing down results. Used in conjunction with specific coloured tags I can immediately see what I need from search results.

Fired up Immich recently. Amazing. Will be donating as I like their stance.

I also enjoy Linkwarden. Switched from the also excellent Hoarder as I prefer the UI.

Most used? Nextcloud with Joplin.

For sure. Its a race to the bottom. I was only talking about this last night with my other half. I’m a tech nerd & I yearn for the pre internet days when stuff was fun & we weren’t getting stiffed at every opportunity by “The Man”

I moved from Nextcloudpi some time back & found THIS TUTORIAL far & away the most useful. Instead of just saying copy/paste a Docker Compose file he shows how to build it step by step using Portainer so i found it invaluable for future projects.

It seems a bit overwhelming initially but once you’ve installed it a few times you’ll be able to do it from scratch in less than an hour. Probably less as it sounds like you already know what’s what having used Ansible

“What madness is this?” 😉

Earthbound was great!

Loved it & used it for such a long time because at the time it was the only android browser with extension capability …but it’s on an outdated version of Chromium & development seems to have ceased. Switched to Firefox which is great, though I still miss “open new tab in group”

Tech has definitely become worse since megacorps killed the little guys & sucked the fun out of everything. Open source & self hosting is becoming/has become the only way. So glad I taught myself how to do it

A close friend sells a product on eBay. A product most households have & my friend collects when it’s no longer wanted which is cleaned, sorted & resold. Has now left 9-5 job to run it as a business.

This friend is exceptional at exploiting niches & will likely become amongst leading sellers of this type (is well on the way already having done it before with a particular collectible). Interestingly, reading through the suggestions here, previously collected & sold scrap before pivoting.

I’m very proud of them!

For me it’s the first thing i learned how to self host: Nextcloud …which in turn allows me to sync Joplin notes, which I use constantly

Never directly watch any ads. We record everything on HTPC (NextPVR), ads are cut before the recordings get thrown into Jellyfin. Ads in general simply dont happen in our household

Anyone for a quick game of ET?!

• Mullvad
• Addy.io
• A TV EPG provider so i can set my HTPC USB receivers to record stuff each week for the family (1. It details for specific channels new series/new episodes for the week aired between certain times of day which websites dont seem to do 2. Its cheaper & far more efficient than a TV mag/newspaper 3. Its extremely cheap so great value)
• I donate to some open source projects/devs when I find I’m using a product regularly

I consider myself a novice but this is how I do it too (ngnx reverse proxy handling SSL in conjunction with Duckdns domain. Wireguard for remote access to everything else). Both Nginx & duckdns are fairly straightforward to set up through Docker/Portainer.

Should the need arise I’ll look at Tailscale.

I dont use HA yet, it’s something I’d like to get into if I can figure out VLAN in order to keep IoT stuff away from the rest of the network.

Red squirrel

I only witness it whenever any of my work colleagues anyone with a phone wants to show me a video. Always have to sit through ads before & during the video. Absolutely horrific. Mind you they also have to close multiple pop up ads in every app they ever use on their phone. I couldn’t live with it & not learn how to deal with it

Go into this completely blind - do not watch the trailer, do not read about it first, just take a deep breath & enjoy the ride