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
More self hosting would improve the “average” person baseline.
We’ve had computers for decades. We’ve had computers in our pockets for several years now. Computer literacy is still garbage (mostly because your average person’s critical thinking skills are garbage).
I’m not saying that today everyone should push a button and start self hosting. I’m saying it would be great if more people learn to self host and that there are benefits to people learning more.
People don’t just absorb knowledge. It will require education programs.
The problem is the average person is not going to know how to properly secure whatever they are hosting.
Did you know how to do everything before you started?
I agree on principle but paying someone would do wonders for the state of self hosting - assuming that the people paid would foward parts to the software devs and help improve the software since they can afford to spend time with the software. Second point is that attempting self hosting only makes sense if someone is actually willing to learn and put time in.