The future is not self-hosted • Hacker News Board

Re: The future is not self-hosted

#141

Post by pimlottc » Fri, Jul 25, 2025, 7:07 PM UTC

bix6 wrote: post #5

I don’t think most people realize how much they’ve given up. Unfortunately it’s a fair bit of work to reclaim everything as your story shows. I switched to my own modem and router recently for privacy from my ISP and it was a fantastic experience / worth it but it cost some money and time which can be hard to find.

For every person that has “giving something up” compared to what they had, there are five people gaining what they never had before. That is why these hosted services are popular. They bring cutting edge tools and platforms to people who would never have been able to set them up and maintained them themselves.

That’s not to say there aren’t issues of ownership and control to be concerned about, but they are providing real value to many users, especially those who aren’t technically minded.

Re: The future is not self-hosted

#142

Post by the_snooze » Fri, Jul 25, 2025, 7:08 PM UTC

xnx wrote: post #137

potatolicious wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A whole host of reasons: - Battery life. One of the main reasons your phone lasts as long as it does is because it severely restricts the ability to run always-on things. A phone of course can run an email server, but the battery life will immediately tank to the point where the device becomes largely unusable for its original purpose. - Phones make extremely poor servers because connectivity is intermittent. This is…

Right, but you can leave a spare phone plugged in and connected to wifi just like a laptop.

The point is that while phones are able to do what you suggest, they're not fit for purpose. A phone shouldn't be used as a long-term server because it turns into a fire hazard as the battery degrades. And you can't just remove the battery because most phones won't even power on without a battery (even when plugged in).

At that point, you're better off going with some N100 mini-PC or such. But that's not a phone.

Re: The future is not self-hosted

#143

Post by drew_lytle » Fri, Jul 25, 2025, 7:09 PM UTC

torium wrote: post #39

> Kindle users would no longer be able to download and back up their book libraries to their computers I should create an account that posts nothing but the phrase "Stallman was right". I'd have work every day. Anyway, I have a Pocketbook[1], recommended. Got the cheapest one, cost me something like 100 pounds. Doesn't need internet if you don't want it, and supports all the usual file formats. [1] https://pocketbook…

Interesting! Thanks for sharing! Stallman was, indeed, right lol

Re: The future is not self-hosted

#144

Post by drew_lytle » Fri, Jul 25, 2025, 7:11 PM UTC

LaGrange wrote: post #129

> Well...without exposing our services to the public internet and forcing our friends to signup for our weird app... You do exactly that. "Oh but security." Any security you get from hiding behind a firewall is illusory at best. You still need to keep on top of updates and tech news. And I want to be able to access my stuff from wherever too. Most of my friends don't have to, because they have me and at least 3 other…

Interesting! Thanks for sharing!

Re: The future is not self-hosted

#145

Post by nine_k » Fri, Jul 25, 2025, 7:12 PM UTC

The future is not uniform.

Certain things will be cloud-based or otherwise provider-hosted. Some things will remain self-hosted, for those who prefer it.

It's like owning a car: you take the trouble to maintain it, but it's yours and will take you where you want, without the limitations of a taxi or even a rented car. I live in NYC and don't own a car, for I have too little use for it. OTOH if I were a plumbing contractor, I most definitely would own a car, or maybe a light truck. One size does not exactly fit all.

Re: The future is not self-hosted

#146

Post by mihaaly » Fri, Jul 25, 2025, 7:13 PM UTC

slightwinder wrote: post #16

bix6 wrote: post #5

I don’t think most people realize how much they’ve given up. Unfortunately it’s a fair bit of work to reclaim everything as your story shows. I switched to my own modem and router recently for privacy from my ISP and it was a fantastic experience / worth it but it cost some money and time which can be hard to find.

> I don’t think most people realize how much they’ve given up. I think many are overstating how much people are giving up. People exchange control for comfort, but most people never had any need or ability for this control in the first place. That's why cloud-services became popular, and remain popular. > Unfortunately it’s a fair bit of work to reclaim everything as your story shows. This work would be necessary any…

> That's why cloud-services became popular, and remain popular.

Or, because they do not know and do not care what is happening. Yes, they only care about comfort, who reads TOS anyway, right?! : /

But if the same was happening to their physical not digital properties then they might be furious.

Re: The future is not self-hosted

#147

Post by saidinesh5 » Fri, Jul 25, 2025, 7:13 PM UTC

xnx wrote: post #35

MoreQARespect wrote: post #9

Self hosting reminds me of the world of smartphones just before the advent of the iPhone. Using a phone as a mini computer was possible. Downloading and using apps happened. I even used offline maps. It was still the preserve of nerds while regular people "couldn't understand why you'd use a phone to do anything other than text and call". SUDDENLY once it became seamless and trivial to set everything and it was all b…

> It's a pain in the ass to set up self hosting. Phones are amazingly powerful. Why not "self host" apps on phones?

What kind of apps would you want to self host on phones?

Re: The future is not self-hosted

#148

Post by ingohelpinger » Fri, Jul 25, 2025, 7:13 PM UTC

> So, how do I create a shared photo album with my friends where we can all upload pictures from our latest trip?

Who is doing this anyway? Nowadays everyone has his instagram profile on private and if you need to share some pics, you do it via Airdrop. lol

Re: The future is not self-hosted

#149

Post by drew_lytle » Fri, Jul 25, 2025, 7:14 PM UTC

armchairhacker wrote: post #69

It seems like the main benefit of self-hosting (and community-hosting) is “what if the bigco SAAS enshittifies”? i.e. it’s a backup plan. What if instead, you just store local copies of your data, possibly organized and synchronized? If necessary it can be done manually, just download anything important enough that you might want it later. If a service decays, then import it into another. A big point the author makes…

#LocalFirst baby! I agree that that would be ideal, but as someone who spent two days using Google Takeout to transfer 4 TB of photos from Google Photos to my server, even with easily downloadable file formats, they still make it a nightmare haha.

Re: The future is not self-hosted

#150

Post by warkdarrior » Fri, Jul 25, 2025, 7:14 PM UTC

nsb1 wrote: post #133

For those interested in self-hosting, here's a site that maintains a collection of self-hostable services. https://selfh.st

That website lists Hugo, the static site generator. What kind of self-hostable service does Hugo provide??? Confusing info like this makes me doubt the rest of the entries on that page.