Over the years, I've realized how far we've drifted from the original idea of the World Wide Web. These days, it feels more like a corporate, big-tech web. I think there's real value in self-hosting as much as possible while still using major platforms, especially when you can pick more European and reasonable options.
People often forget that YouTube, WhatsApp, and Instagram were once independent companies, not owned by Meta or Google. Google was meant to be ad-free, and OpenAI was founded as a non-profit research organization, etc.
We'll probably never return to that vision, but I'm glad I own most my data and have about half of my tech self-hosted and open-sourced. It's only a dent, but I'm proud of that dent.
