Been using it 18 months. Have drawn out $20 so far. Be another 6 months till I get another $20 which is the minimum withdrawal. Network has been solid and nothing dodgy showing up in the firewall or on my DNS. It’s not amazing, but it’s free money

Current Self-hosted Setup

Hardware

Server 1
Trycoo / Peladn mini pc
Intel n97 CPU
Integrated GPU
32gb of 3200mt/s ddr4 (Upgraded from 16gb)
512nvme
2x 2tb ssd's (Raid1 + LVM)
Startech usb to sata cable
Atolla 6 port powered usb 3.0 splitter 
2x 8tb hdd's
2 bay usb 3.0 Fideco dock
Each 8tb HDD is split into 2 equal size partitions, making 4 x 4tb partitions
Each night, the 2tb SSD array backups to the alternating first partition of the HDD's .
Each 1st of the month, the 2tb SSD array backups to the alternating 2nd partition of the HDD's .

Server 2
Raspberry pi 4b
32gb SD card
4gb ram

Services

Server 1
Nginx web server / reverse proxy.  
Fail2ban.  
Crowdsec.  
Valutwarden
Bit warden reimplantation for storing credentials 
Forgejo
Remote federated git
Immich.   
Google Photos replacement.  
External libraries only.  
4 users.  
Radicale
Calender and contacts
Navidrome.  
Spotify replacement.  
2 users.  
Adguard home
1st instance
Provides Network wide DNS filtering and DHCP server
Unbound
Provides recursive DNS
Go-notes
Rich Text formatting, live, real time multi-user notes app
FMD
Find my device
Transmission
Torrent client
PIA VPN
Network Namespace script to isolate PIA & Transmission
Searxng
Meta search engine
StirlingPDF 
PDF editor
File browser
This is in maintenance mode only so I am planning to migrate to File Browser Quantum soon
Syncthing 
Syncs 3 android and 1 apple phone for immich
Custom rsync backup script
Darkstat
Real time Network statistics

Server 2
Fail2ban
Crowdsec
Honeygain
Generates a tiny passive income
I'm UK based and in the last 6 months it has produced £15
Adguard home
2nd instance
Provides Network wide DNS filtering and DHCP server
Unbound
Provides recursive DNS
Custom DDNS update script

No mate. I wrote it all by myself pressing every key on my phone. Entirely my own opinion too.

I enjoyed your post and glad you have a balanced view of llm use. I totally agree llm’s are a useful tool and will inevitably be used in all and every field they can be

However I feel like it will go down like a lead balloon in this community as there is a lot of hate for llm’s, and I even expect my comment to be slatted by “them”.

I love podman quadlets, I didn’t do anything and it updated itself 😁

The vast majority of the world uses compatible voltages, so just a basic adapter is all that you need. The only places using odd voltage requiring a transformer are Japan and Northern America.

However for things with a power brick like a ps5, you just need to buy the correct power brick.

You can get universal plug sockets that accept any plug, see them in the middle East a lot. Obviously they only work with 220-240 v

I use it on all my machines. Debian, arch and void Linux. I have an efibootmgr script on each machine with my setup in, so if I ever need to change a setting, I update and run the script. In void, I have a hook for dracut to call it so everything stays working whenever I have a kernel update. It’s very simple and easy once you get the hang of it.

Mine just runs over my music directory on a cron and tags what it wants. I don’t pay any attention to it. I haven’t come across a mis tagged track yet. Maybe I will at some point?

Efistub is the simplest and best solution, but agree it could do with some basic manager.

Unfortunately, you do what everybody else does. You use your reading, patience and time to research test and try various options over the course of weeks, months and years until you get experienced and knowledgeable about Linux and the ever changing options and configurations. There is no ultimate manual that tells you everything there is to know about Linux.

The only questions you really need to ask when picking a distro are which one aligns best with your effort, skill and preferences. To begin with prior to using any distro, those are very low and basic, so you want to start with a low effort quick and easy introduction to Linux. Start with a live distro to play around with. Then decide how much hand holding you need from there to choose which distro you actually want to commit to at the start. Then after weeks or months on that first distro, you will figure out what you like and dislike, which will guide your choices to move to the next distro. To begin with is all about learning and experimenting.

There isn’t one. Build incrementally, and adapt and modify as it grows. Starting out, you have no idea where you will eventually end up. It’s a journey and a learning experience bespoke to you. Start with a basic dedicated device as a server that’s cheap. Add a service and get it safe and secure. Once you are happy with it and it is reliable and solid, add another service… Rinse and repeat.

Honestly, filebrowser or filebrowser quantum are what you need. Essentially a web UI frontend for sftp / sshfs. Really simple light weight.

Yeah podman and docker both run on it no problem.

Yeah, again though, that’s a free choice you control. Something you chose to setup.

I personally backup my entire root filesystem to a nas, and update it reasonably regularly. And keep all personal and data files on the nas. Then have a regular automated backup process for the nas.

Many ways to skin a cat as they say. None better than any others, just choices and options. The beauty of Linux 👍

From my perspective, self hosting is a hobby, we run services we feel we need, but it’s also something we do for fun. As such some people enjoy thinking about and deploying the most secure server possible, regardless of actual threats. However, to directly answer your question, yes there isn’t really a lot that can be stolen from a self host residential server, maybe if you hack a valutwarden instance and acquire all the credit card details stored in it and all the id’s stored in it. But the main hack isnt stealing, but deploying a bot net of some sort.

The whole point of Linux to me is I have complete freedom, choice and control of my pc.

The price you pay is the same though, you have the freedom, choice and control of everything your pc does, and if you do something wrong you can break it.

Windows protects you from yourself by giving you almost no freedom, choice and control. That way you can’t break it.

Can’t comment on ente. I looked at it originally along with many others and initially chose photo prism. Ran that for around 6 months then switched to immich. Have no plans on changing any time soon. I host 4 users on it. It works great, been using it over 12 months so been on it from v1, and been through all the changes to V2 and V3 and never had a breaking change. Have auto updates in in podman for it so I never manually touch it. It just works.

I switched from photo prism after 12 months on it, to immich. Much prefer it and offers more and better features from my perspective.

It is just a very simple clean stable unopinionated rolling release distro. It doesn’t try to be bleeding edge, or force you down any particular path. Its not a derivative of another distro. It uses runit for its init process, no systemd and is just really nice and clean to use. I’ve been on it about 12 months after swapping from arch which I had used for about 15 years. No plans to move any time soon.