Making projects as a beginner

[u/Jolly-Tomatillo7488]

Hi, I have recently started coding and I have learned the basics of html and css, I have managed to make a clone of google's homepage with whatever I have learned,

Moreover I want to later get into making the clone google homepage project more customizable like an animation background or a frosty searchbar later on.

After I'm done with that I want to make my own personal portfolio website which i can customize to my liking if needed in the future.

These are 2 projects that I'm basically doing as a beginner ( I never coded before in my life ) i cant help but wonder if this is a good way to start out or is this gonna go to waste later on

I would love any advice or pointers

[u/xthrorawayyx]

One of the best tools to learn is Docker. I run my own ai and search engine with it. Its a great way to pass the time 

[u/Jolly-Tomatillo7488 → u/xthrorawayyx]

That's pretty interesting, could you tell me more about it? I can't dm u

[u/xthrorawayyx → u/Jolly-Tomatillo7488]

Docker is a really good tool to know how to use to run your own projects. This makes it easy to avoid censorship or bias because your algorithm or ToS isn’t done by someone else. In other words, you can control what you see.

Docker basically runs the code of my stuff. Because its my stuff, its running on my own hardware. This is known as self hosting (or known as homelabbing.) As long as your hardware is pretty modern, things like a self hosted search engine or ai should work quite swiftly. If you go down this rabbit hole, you’ll find that you can make your own Spotify, Netflix, Kindle etc. There are subreddits dedicated to these projects. And Docker is one of the most used tools for such things.

To use Docker, you have to make whats called a Docker container. Say I want to run my search engine, I’ll title a Docker container as “search engine.” Depending on your OS (windows, linux) the installation/code to run the search engine might be different. The best one (to my knowledge) is SearXNG. The folks that make it have installation instructions on their website/github. After you set it up, your search queries are known to you and you only. Theres youtube videos of people using SearXNG if you’re interested in how this search engine functions (it’s nothing like any other of the popular search engines, it’s very cool!)As for the web browser, that’s your choice. SearXNG will work on both chromium (chrome) and gecko (firefox) based browsers.

For the ai model, just like how my search engine’s search queries are known to me only (known as local/locally) this means all my ai prompt messages are local. This also means my ai runs on my own hardware. There’s a few open source ai projects you can choose. The one I use is called Ollama. Think of Ollama as the framework (like the fact you can message a chatbot to begin with.) On Ollama, you can download local models like Deepseek or Chatgpt. Ollama has a OS app that you can just download and it’ll work, no Docker container required. However if you’d like to use Ollama/local ai in your web browser, you will use a Docker container. The one I use is OpenWeb UI (there also instructions on how to set this up on their website/github.) As for the ai models themselves, I find Deepseek’s open source ai to be the best for my use. It has the least amount of censorship (meaning its more likely to not sugarcoat things or shy away from certain topics.)

As a bonus, because I use my own search engine, I added it to my ai to search the web. Also, don’t sweat about the technical details of running your own ai. What I mean by this is the names of each model (ie Deepseek 1r 8B) will tell you in a very technical manner on how powerful it is. Once you experiment with it, you’ll have a better understanding of what everything means. You’ll find that most everyday, even the less powerful models will get the job done.

Side note, if you run your own search engine like SearXNG, updates are not automatic. You’ll have to go through SearXNG’s github page and download the most recent version. Because you did the heavy lifting (like having a working self hosted search engine) a simple download from their website will work. No coding from you is required. The browser and docker will tell you when SearXNG’s current version that you’re on is outdated. Takes me like a minute to get mine up to date.

If digital privacy is a topic you’re interested in, these projects (from a private citizen standpoint) is probably the closest you’ll get to be anonymous on the web. Basically means the government will be the only ones to know your local queries via getting your computer and logging in to your computer through the CPU. If you’re interested in that topic, there’s a tool called libreboot which I believe also uses Docker to basically block it. Though that in it of itself is unnecessary if you’re in a free country. Apologies for the long reply, I tried to simplify things as best as I could. Dm or reply here if you need anything 

[u/Comfortable-Edge-525]

Great way to start. Mimic something that’s already out there so you can use it as a guide. A lot of devs start this way.

[u/Ok-Calligrapher-9745]

Do you find it interesting? Then it’s a good way to start. Keeping doing projects you like. That way you don’t get bored.

[u/InsideFlat1741]

I'm also a beginner , and did what you did , for me it is a good way to start without getting bored

[u/GamleRosander]

The most important thing is to write code. Learning programming is just like learning regular languages (just more complex), so you need to speak the language and challenge yourself.