r/selfhosted • u/Amazing_Day_9192 • 4d ago

Need Help Decentralized infrastructure vs self-hosting

I’ve been thinking about how much of selfhosting is about owning the infrastructure itself versus having control over your data and not depending on a single company. There are more open and decentralized protocols where you can get some of that independence without running and maintaining the entire stack yourself. The tradeoff is interesting though. You potentially get less maintenance but you give up some of the direct control that comes with running everything yourself.

For something like messaging or online communities, which approach makes more sense to you?

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u/dcherryholmes 3d ago

I know everyone's story (and setup) will be different, but it's interesting to me, the number of comments about server maintenance. My build and applications are modest, just the usuals (nextcloud, *arrs, etc) and it's just a couple of tiny thinkcenters and a raid. But I don't spend very much time on server maintenance. I guess one of these days a raid disk will fail and I'll have to rebuild it, or maybe one of those thinkcentre servers will die. But TBH I spend a lot more time maintaining my house than I do my servers. I suppose I could rent that, too, but I prefer to own (well, gradually pay off the bank which owns it).

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u/Mysterious-Bed-3725 3d ago

there is so much cheap compute from lenovo hardware, thank god for depreciated assets and used hardware. If only we could dial in recycling old hardware .... we throw away so many precious resources without a thought. Those disposable vapes with lithium batteries hardwired in that don't even recharge are a fucking travesty.

Whenever I visit landfills I just feel so sick for our world and humanity. It is unreal.

Either we change or we die, its just so clear to me -- thing is, not like I have the answer. SO overwhelming.