this post was submitted on 28 Aug 2026
43 points (93.9% liked)

Selfhosted

61808 readers
634 users here now

A place to share alternatives to popular online services that can be self-hosted without giving up privacy or locking you into a service you don't control.

Rules:

Detailed Rules Post

  1. Be civil.

  2. No spam.

  3. Posts are to be related to self-hosting.

  4. Don't duplicate the full text of your blog or readme if you're providing a link.

  5. Submission headline should match the article title.

  6. No trolling.

  7. Promotion posts require active participation, with an account that is at least 30 days old. F/LOSS without a paywall has exceptions, with requirements. See the rules link for details. Tags [CBH] or [AIP] are required, see the links in Rule 8 for details.

  8. AI-related discussions and AI-involved promotional posts have additional requirements for tagging, as noted in Rule 7 and the AI & Promotional Post Expanded Rules post, and find example disclosures here.

Resources:

Any issues on the community? Report it using the report flag.

Questions? DM the mods!

founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
ruud@lemmy.world
Loki@lemmy.world
CannaVet@lemmy.world
devve@lemmy.world
ayyy@sh.itjust.works
curbstickle@anarchist.nexus
curbstickle_lw@lemmy.world
43
Why homelab? (aussie.zone)
submitted 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) by SuspiciousCarrot78@aussie.zone to c/selfhosted@lemmy.world
40 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

I was reading a homelab discussion about NUTs (Network UPS Tools) that left me scratching my head and wondering "...why? Is complexity for complexities sake part of homelabs? Isn't this a huge overkill for one machine? Just...use a UPS? "

Then I got to thinking more broadly about homelabbing and I started to wonder if there weren't maybe (at least) two different schools of thought.

Using home media as example -

  • Store the original.
  • Detect the client.
  • Transcode when required.
  • Monitor the GPU.
  • Add reverse proxy et al
  • Track bandwidth.
  • Add user accounts
  • Add failover.
  • Graph the result.
  • Dashboard.

Vs

  • Store a common compatible file for your devices.
  • Play it directly.

Which school of thought are you and why?

PS: not throwing shade. I get it; for some people, complexity, learning infrastructure, practicing skills for work etc is part of the why. For me, complexity as recreation is suspiciously like work after work.

Perhaps there's an odd Venn diagram between homelabbing, interest in ownership / useful capability and infrastructure that could make for a fun discussion. For you, is homelabbing a means to an end or is it an end in itself?

EDIT: Feel free to consider "home-lab" and "self hosted" as synonyms for the purpose of this discussion (although I am aware they are somewhat different in scope).

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] curbstickle@anarchist.nexus 8 points 3 days ago

My lab and my hosting setup are actually fully segregated, but as far as why I'll go the more complex route I'd say its simple:

  • I have the hardware (I get things through my work, sometimes to test for clients, etc)
  • I have the knowledge
  • I can give my family a better experience than the big companies offer
  • Because I like to keep my skills current
  • Some of the time, manufacturers send me things to test out or develop features for. After passing the lab testing, if I like it I'll add it to my home and maybe make some more fun things happen.

So the short version is just "because I can". I don't stress over outages or anything, if I'm out then I'm out. I UPS with NUTs because I can, and because that data is also useful for me for my work.

That same approach applies to other aspects as well. If I'm not interested in doing something, I just don't and I move on.