Discussion
My way of rebelling against techbros and autocrats:
December 2024: quit all Big Tech platforms and start #selfhosting essential services
December 2025: write guides for newbies about how to self-host
I'm also in discussion with a blogger I admire to start a podcast about tech... where we'll focus on solutions (instead of problems)... aiming to inspire others to join in...
It's been a really heavy year but these little acts of rebellion give me hope ✨
@_elena
Bonus points: Invite people who aren't technically savvy / motivated enough to selfhost, to use your services. You can be the agent of change for more people than just yourself! Maybe it can be your gift to them. Maybe they'd be happy to help you out with something they're good at.
Exactly. Self-hosting is simply not an option for the vast majority of computer users. I live in a poor community with a lot of 'minimally computer literate' people. Self-hosting is only an option for a few. But if you provide proper support a lot more people are going to take up the alternative. Hence, I've gotten three of my MCL neighbors on Linux...but not because I told them how to do it, because I did it for them and make myself available to help when they need it.
@_elena still no simple FTP server that doesn't require 287302723 different config files with 0xDEADBEEF command line options.
Honestly if a ftp server is more complicated than `ftpserver $HOME --write --read` then it is a failed one.
I love it and that is why I added your RSS to #TidySearch 🥰
@_elena My way of rebelling: Teach compsci whilst painting a positive vision for computing, to show how narrow-minded these powerful fools are!
And yes, I would check out your podcast.
@_elena its so fun switching off these mega-corp platforms and apps. you realize you don't actually need most of them at all.
@_elena As a busy dad, i dont have the time to set things up any more, and self hosting is seldom plug and play... I set up Home Assistant on a raspi, but it took time. More plug and play self hosting pls! 🙂 And i dont want to have 100 raspberry pis running things neither, so some sort of virtualization would be nice also.
@_elena yep the cost and knowledge makes FOSS and self-hosting feel inaccessible to most. In the long run it definitely saves much more, but anything to make it feel like less of a hurdle to friends and family.
I say start with having them practice booting to USB and VMs, dip their toes in and build their confidence.
@_elena Thank you for the great job!
@_elena The one massively painful thing here is the RAM price surge.
@_elena Podcast is a great idea. Can't wait for it.
@_elena your departure from big tech and embrace of open source and foss mirrors my own personal journey also in timeline!
I’ve been planting the seeds to get my professional livelihood from ethical tech consulting so that’s my primary focus for the 1st quarter of the year. Then alongside I’ll continue with my mission of raising and helping regular people untangle themselves from big tech.
@_elena Hell yeah! I wanted brush up on my IT skills so I set up a homeserver with virtualization in Nov 2024 and being able to divorce from Big Tech as it fell in line with fascism in 2025 was so liberating.
Install bonfire.cafe
Get the full app experience
@_elena Sweet! Just took the leap into self hosting this month. Bought my hardware and about to start installing software. Ive got ideas planned but love seeing an overview for whats recommended. Thank you Elena! Ive been sharing your intro fediverse videos with friends & family, its so much easier & likely more effective than trying to explain it myself.