James R Kirk

The LinkedIn-styled writing here is hard for me to get through, but I think the general gist is that for profit platforms are easier to onboard which I agree with. This line stands out:

And what do we get in return? A worse experience than cloud-based services.

I have to disagree somewhat, it’s a different experience that is absolutely more difficult in many ways, but for those of us who value privacy, control over our data, and don’t like ads, the trade-off is worth it. Also it goes without saying that the usability of selfhosted apps has exploded in the past few years and it will likely become less and less of an issue.

Using recycled parts is the best advice. As you said, it’s almost certainly overkill and the price can’t be beat.

Thanks for the explainer, that last point is really great actually and I’m surprised that Amazon/Google etc are pushing for Matter if the data isn’t sent to the internet.

I am just getting started on this journey but zigbee seems great and I like that it works fine even if the wifi goes down. I’m not sure what the drawbacks are or the benefits of Matter.

Jellyfin is great, but in defense of Plex, they announced that remote streaming would require one of the two parties to have a Plex pass was coming back in March so I don’t know if it’s fair to say they are holding anything hostage.

That is correct and echoes what I said

The Remote Watch Pass is only needed if neither you nor the server owner have a Plex pass: https://support.plex.tv/articles/requirements-for-remote-playback-of-personal-media/

When using an affected platform to stream personal video content remotely from a Plex Media Server, then one of the following needs to be true:

1. The admin account for the Plex Media Server has an active Plex Pass (which also allows remote playback for any other user streaming from that server)
2. Your account has an active Plex Pass
3. Your account has an active Remote Watch Pass

The remote playback restrictions do not apply to streaming music content to Plexamp or photos to our Plex Photos app.

People are talking about privacy but the big reason is that it gives you, the owner, control over everything quickly without ads or other uneeded stuff. We are so used to apps being optomized for revenue and not being interoperable with other services that it’s easy to forget the single biggest advantage of computers which is that programs and apps can work together quickly and quietly and in the background. Companies provide products, self-hosting provides tools.

Not bad for free. Appreciate you checking.

Ok thanks not bad! How much storage?

What are the specs like?