Any non-tech-background self-hosters?

Submitted ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩ by ⁨explorer5A@lemmy.world⁩ to ⁨selfhosted@lemmy.world⁩

I assume most users here have some sort of tech/IT/software background. However, I’ve seen some comments of people who might not have that background (no problem with that) and I wonder if you are self-hosting anything, how did you decide that you would like to self-host?

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Hiko0@feddit.org ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Teacher here. No professional affiliation with PCs, Linux or self-hosting. Started out with a Synology NAS and got my first experiences with Linux, CLI, Docker, etc. Switched to Unraid last fall and I self-host quite a lot of services now. 100% self-taught.

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- iltoroargento@lemmy.sdf.org ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Are you me?
  
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- navi@lemmy.tespia.org ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  I love unRAID so much. It’s crazy how just a simple GUI can help solidify docker concepts.
  
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drhoopoe@lemmy.sdf.org ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
I’m a college professor in the humanities (religious studies, history). Got into linux about 5 years back, partly because it comports better with my lefty politics than the alternatives, but also just because I’ve long been a closet computer nerd. I currently run a couple of proxmox servers on old optiplexes I grabbed off ebay. Full *arr stack with jellyfin on docker, a Tails VM for TOR stuff, NAS (omv on a vm), some other dockerized stuff: linkding, radicale, alexandrite (a self-hosted lemmy client, which I’m currently writing this on), various backup utilities.

It’s basically just a hobby for me, though the switch to linux has also totally changed my academic workflow, e.g. I do all my writing in nvim + latex now, use syncthing to sync my home desktop, laptops, and office computer, etc. I dig divesting myself from corporate computing to the greatest extent possible, appreciate the privacy benefits, and generally just enjoy the community-driven spirit of the whole thing.

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helenslunch@feddit.nl ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
I’ve worked in auto repair and real estate. Have no professional experience.

Why self-host? Because its cool. And for privacy. And save a few bucks on subscriptions.

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pr0927@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Former USAF JAG here (lawyer). I was always a tech geek, undergrad major was in MIS actually, but I didn’t enjoy coding. Always ran Plex on the side, built my own computers, etc.

I didn’t enjoy law (surprise!). I was disillusioned with the criminal justice system too. Quit the law in 2020. Then suddenly had quality time by global happenstance to rethink my life path.

I work in IT now. Restarted at the bottom of a new career but I’m in deep - Proxmox servers, Home Assistant, networks with VLANs, OPNsense router, 22U server rack, etc.

Much happier now.

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gedaliyah@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Just getting started but yeah, I have basically no technology background. Mostly I’m too stubborn to know when to quit something so here I am lol.

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- Appoxo@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Sufficiently qualifiedd to be working in IT.
  
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Schlemmy@lemmy.ml ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
No background but I can read and listen. There are plenty of resources around.

I started out of privacy concerns and I wanted to deGoogle It started this year with a RPI and pihole. Then I saw Mealie, bought a domain, and started sharing recipes with my family.

At first I messed around with Casa OS. It’s like a gateway drug. So easy to use and get stuff running.

Last week a 2nd hand i5 arrived and now I moved everything to proxmox. The RPI is still running pinhole. At the moment I’m setting up Immich and I’m thinking about buying a NAS.

Since it is a new hobby I keep everything low cost. If it sticks I’ll invest in a proper home server.

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- subtext@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  De-Googling was what got me started as well. Wanted to be able to have my own Google Drive clone with Nextcloud. From there it was just one little improvement / additional service at a time as I learned to use Linux and docker. Now I run a Linux laptop and am considering an android phone.
  
  Engineering background for reference.
  
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BigDaddySlim@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
I’m just an idiot that tinkers with things. I’ve got a TrueNAS Scale system up and running as network storage and Plex storage. There’s about 44TB of raw capacity in there right now, connected via a server SAS card. I just follow tutorials if I don’t know what I’m supposed to do.

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- sem@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Am also an idiot. I have several raspberry pis and UPS boards mostly operating on hopes and dreams, and the most useful things I do are a single-user nextcloud instance that’s even accessible over the Internet, and a smb drive that’s always accessible
  
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Telodzrum@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Former attorney who now consults for corporate compliance departments/programs. I have zero formal training or professional practical experience, but tech has always been my strongest hobby. I decided to self host as much as possible almost 20 years ago starting with media libraries and email; it stemmed from a deep distrust of the tech industry.

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- fine_sandy_bottom@lemmy.federate.cc ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Similar here. I’m an accountant by trade but tech is my strongest hobby.
  
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balancedchaos@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
I work in logistics. I’ve always had a fascination with tech, and was leery of all these neato things on offer from big tech, from social media to the cloud.

Found out I could self-host, and got to learning.

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psmgx@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
My father in law was a commercial pilot and he had a home server just to keep photos and travel writing while he was flying and away from home a lot. I helped him upgrade some of that to the cloud, since that makes for sense when on the other side of the country, but he still has a bunch of stuff at home.

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charles@lemmy.ca ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
I work in emergency management but I’ve always been interested in tech as a hobby. That led me to start self-hosting Plex on my desktop about 6-7 years ago. Now I’ve got a dedicated machine running unraid with about 20 to 30 different docker services.

I really enjoy being able to figure out how to setup a service and then being able to be fully in control of how it works. Beyond just enjoying tinkering with the system to learn, I enjoy being able to troubleshoot and fix problems without relying on large companies.

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- SendMePhotos@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  If plex counts… Then also me. I work in retail. I can’t escape. I have a degree in tech, but not enough work experience.
  
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Evil_incarnate@lemm.ee ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Hi, I’m a chef. I’m just playing around with raspberry pis and stuff. I just like learning and seeing what I can do.

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bdonvr@thelemmy.club ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
I’ve never been in tech professionally, I’m a truck driver (now working in the office of company but still drive sometimes) but I have always been into tech. I selfhost as much as possible. Bitwarden, jellyfin, seafile, etc. and also run a Lemmy instance. I like tech projects and control.

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sk@hub.utsukta.org ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
yes! structural engineer here, computers has been my passion for a long time and self hosting is a joy! i have learnt a ton in the past year about networking, security and so many things!
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Hawk@lemmynsfw.com ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Self hosting is your pathway to a tech background.

University for comp sci, in my experience around the space, is a complete waste of time. Just a piece of paper that may or may not equip the recipient with some skills that may or may not be relevant.

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- tburkhol@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  University is ok if you’re starting at zero and don’t even know what’s out there. It’s for exposing students to a a breadth of topics and some rationale of why things are as they are, but not necessarily for plugging them into a production environment.
  
  Nothing beats having your own real world project, either for motivation or exposure to cutting edge methods. Universities have tried to replicate that with things like ‘problem based learning,’ and they probably hope that students will be inspired by one or two of the classes to start their own out-of-class project, but school and work are fundamentally different ways of learning with fundamentally different goals.
  
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CrimeDad@lemmy.crimedad.work ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Mechanical engineer here self-hosting my own Lemmy and Pixelfed instances in a Yunohost VM on an old Ubuntu box. It just feels better being my own admin.

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- curry@programming.dev ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Kudos for self-hosting fediverse stuff, man.
  
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  - CrimeDad@lemmy.crimedad.work ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    Thank you!
    
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Gradually_Adjusting@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
I have no tech background, and I am just getting into creating a media server. I started with a ln old secondhand Synology NAS, which developed a power issue within a month and no chance of returning it or getting it covered by warranty.

My current plan is to get a newer Synology NAS, along with a spare HDD enclosure so I can have an extra layer of redundancy, finally set up Jellyfin, and then I want to build a Pihole. At that point I won’t need much more self hosting until further notice.

Still have no idea what I’m doing.

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teuto@lemmy.teuto.icu ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
My one and only reason is that I’m a turbo-nerd. No professional or even educational tech background at all.

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Zikeji@programming.dev ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Programming and self hosting the results when I was ~14 is what led me to a tech background. No university, but I’ve been working professionally in both IT and software for over a decade and self hosting even longer.

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iflyspaceships@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
I clean construction site toilets. I wanted to run my own game and media severs and ended up with a Dell Poweredge, a synology 1u NAS and some ubiquity gear

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antlion@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Non-tech. I decided to self host first to send media to my TV. I wanted an always-on solid state hard drive computer that didn’t have to do any transcoding. Tried DLNA but Emby just worked better. Jellyfin didn’t have an LG App at the time so I’m still using Emby. Eventually I also asked my poor ARM server with 2 GB of RAM to also run my wireless access points, but the Omada software is a resource hog. So I have a little Intel machine that can do Omada better and also transcoding for Emby on the go. And then I learned about HomeBridge and that’s been great too. I think together the two computers run about 15W of energy I could decommission the ARM one but it does a couple things I haven’t migrated yet. I’ve tried hosting other stuff but those are the main ones used every day.

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ada@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Kinda? My bare bones initial self hosted media streaming setup was put together by my partner. It’s no longer bare bones, because I’ve since upgraded it, added new functionality and I keep it going.

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evidences@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
I work in retail, but my homelab isn’t super extensive just a nas, a Plex server, and a couple proxmox boxes.

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bluegandalf@lemmy.ml ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Background in biology and insurance - major career transition but yes, I love self-hosting! Have about 37 services running!

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variants@possumpat.io ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Started with running a minecraft realm then it grew to the point greifers became a problem so we needed plug-ins for protection. So that led to having a managed hosted server then a VPN and then finally self hosting

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ikidd@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
I’m a farmer that was an IT guy a decade or so ago, which I guess is a background in it, but that’s not why I do it. Self-hosting is a self-reliance thing. I like to fix my own equipment, metal and silicon.

When it comes apart, I want to know the reason, and I like to invent new ways to do things, which means I have to be able to control my infrastructure.

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jjlinux@lemmy.ml ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
I believe that most self holsters actually are more hobbyist lifestyle than people with actual tech background.

I read and research a whole lot, which has taken me down this rabbit hole.

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folkrav@lemmy.ca ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
It was self-fulfilling for me. I started self-hosting and messing with networking before I went into IT. I thought I’d be in a very different field until ~10 years ago.

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Illecors@lemmy.cafe ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
I’m a syaadmin now, but self hosting nextcloud is what got me my first IT job. I now host a bunch of stuff (even email!), lemmy included.

how did you decide that you would like to self-host? I wanted my friends to play a cs1.6 map I had created.

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Vanth@reddthat.com ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Nope, I work in STEM but not IT nor software.

I’m a serial hobbyist and actively pursue projects outside the scope of my job and education background.

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