💾 Intro to Self-Hosting: The Internet Was Supposed to Be Yours

Every photo you take, every note you write, every file you save lives on someone else's computer. Companies get acquired, products get sunset, prices go up, terms change, and one day the service you relied on just isn't there anymore. We've all been through it.

But the internet wasn't supposed to work this way. The original web was decentralized by design. Anyone could run a server. Somewhere along the way we handed all of that to five companies and started paying rent on our own data. Self-hosting is just taking it back.

In this session I'll make the case that running your own services from home isn't a niche hobby for sysadmins, it's something all of us should be thinking about as a practical response to a real problem. I'll walk through my own setup as a living example: how I serve my own websites, store my files, serve my own music, and run a handful of other services all from my apartment with no monthly hosting bill.

We'll cover what the hardware looks like, what software makes it possible, and how much effort it actually takes to keep it running.

The goal is to leave you with a clear picture of what's involved and the confidence that this is something you can do too.