By commercialism, I’m aiming at a mix of spending a lot and sifting through bloated business models (e.g. this or that accessory/equipment, microtransactions, etc.). Feel like many can relate to this sort of commercial fatigue, and yet it creeps even into hobbies where one tries to unwind.
Lately I’ve picked up reading more again, as thanks to libraries I’m able to do just that, but I’m wondering what some other, less obvious options* might be.
*
This is mainly for the going outside, walking folks. I enjoy a good walk from time to time, but I’m interested in activities that are a little less obvious.
What will you be hosting on? I started with a raspberry pi. It was important to me to host on something outside my main machine. I chose the pi because it would run linux, use very little electricity, and would remain out of the way.
Initially it was for pi-hole. Which is a network wide DNS filter used to block ads (with some exceptions like YT). That got me more interested in my own privacy. So, I added a searx instance to my pi. It’s an aggregate search engine that searches a bunch of search engines and won’t track me. Or at least I’m tracking myself.
I’ve never run a minecraft server on a pi but I have a friend who has. It was fine for up to about 4 people.
From there I actually built a rig specifically for hosting. It’s a little more stout than the pi. On it I run Proxmox (which I use to create linux containers for the other things I host). I do run a file share on it. It’s nice because it’s easy to run weekly backups so I don’t lose things. I also run a vpn, qbittorrent (for linux isos), jackett (indexes torrents), sonarr (used to… find movies I’m missing), jellyfin (to watch said movies anywhere in the house) and finally I do host a valheim server there for my friend’s and I.
Honestly I would at least start with a dedicated machine for it, maybe an old laptop, a pi, just anything cheap that if you screw up you can wipe and start over. From there: pi hole, seaex, retro game box maybe? There’s really a lot of things you can host. Find a need you have a Google a linux solution for it. There’s almost always one.
I work as a computer repair technician and my workplace has some really old cheap (90$) server hardware for sale. They have 32gb of DDR3 and old dual xeon 5606. I would probably upgrade them because old xeons are dirt cheap. They also have some old workstations too that could be suitable for hosting, similar amounts of ram but new processors.
Not energy efficient but that’s fine since they would literally be a space heater, and if maxed out those old CPUs can still get some work done.
Honestly, that’s not bad for a start. That Xeon should be fine for most things. I run an amd 4650g pro and never get close to using it all.
Side Note: The people over at [email protected] have been immensely helpful for me in my brief journey so far.