zlacker

>>websku+(OP)
This posts lists inexpensive home servers, Tailscale and Claude Code as the big unlocks.

I actually think Tailscale may be an even bigger deal here than sysadmin help from Claude Code at al.

The biggest reason I had not to run a home server was security: I'm worried that I might fall behind on updates and end up compromised.

Tailscale dramatically reduces this risk, because I can so easily configure it so my own devices can talk to my home server from anywhere in the world without the risk of exposing any ports on it directly to the internet.

Being able to hit my home server directly from my iPhone via a tailnet no matter where in the world my iPhone might be is really cool.

>>simonw+g6
I agree! Before Tailscale I was completely skeptical of self hosting.

Now I have tailscale on an old Kindle downloading epubs from a server running Copyparty. Its great!

>>philip+f7
Maybe I'm dumb, but I still don't quite understand the value-add of Tailscale over what Wireguard or some other VPN already provides. HN has tried to explain it to me but it just seems like sugar on top of a plain old VPN. Kind of like how "pi-hole" is just sugar on top of dnsmasq, and Plex is just sugar on top of file sharing.

>>ryandr+79
I think you answered the question. Sugar. It's easier than managing your own Wireguard connections. Adding a device just means logging into the Tailscale client, no need to distribute information to or from other devices. Get a new phone while traveling because yours was stolen? You can set up Tailscale and be back on your private network in a couple minutes.

Why did people use Dropbox instead of setting up their own FTP servers? Because it was easier.

>>Jtsumm+oa
Yeah, but "people" here are alleged software engieners. It is quite disheartening.

>>johnis+m91
First and foremost they are humans, with a limited time on Earth.

Being a software engineer doesn't mean you want to spend you free time tinkering about your self-hosting setup and doing support for your users.

With Tailscale, not only you don't have to care about most things since _it just works_, but also on-boarding of casual users is straightforward.

Same goes for Plex. I want to watch movies/shows, I don't want to spend time tinkering with my setup. And Plex provides exactly that. Ditto for my family/friends that can access my library with the same simple experience as Netflix or whatever.

Meanwhile, I have a coworker who want to own/manage everything. So they don't want to use Tailscale and they dropped Plex when they forced to use the third-party login system. Now they watch less than a third than they used to be, and they share their setup with nobody since it's too complicated to do.

To each their own, but my goal is to enjoy my setup and share it with others. Tailscale and Plex give me that.

>>wiethe+dm1
There is a difference between "I choose not to" and "I cannot". The thread is full of people saying Tailscale "unlocked" self-hosting, implying capability, not time savings or time preference.

Choosing convenience is fine. But if basic port forwarding or WireGuard is beyond someone's skill set, "software engineer" is doing a lot of heavy lifting.

I am not saying they are, but if it really is the case, then yeah.

As for file sharing... I remember when non-SWEs knew how to torrent movies, used DC++ and so on. These days even SWEs have no idea how to do it. It is mind-boggling.

>>johnis+Po1
To me the "unlocked" is just another hyperbole used by some people, partly because they lack initial knowledge, partly because its click-bait.

The way I understand it is more like "without the ease of use provided by X, even though I could have done it, I wouldn't have done it because it would require time and energy that I'm not willing to put in".

Since we're talking about self-hosting, to me the main focus is not skill set but time and energy.

There's the same debate around NAS products like Synology that are sold with a high markup, meanwhile "every SWE should be able to make their own NAS using recycled hardware".

Sure. And I did all of this: - homemade NAS setup - homemade network setup - homemade mediaplayer setup

It was fun and I learned a lot.

But I moved to some more convenient tools so that I can just use them as reliable services, and focus on other experimentations/tinkering.

To be honest, the fact that you insist that Plex is just "file sharing" that can be replaced by torrents makes me think you either don't know what Plex actually is, or you are acting in bad faith.