It seems to be a catch 22. People want a simple solution to their security concerns, but without people taking an effort to enhance their security little progress is being made towards creating those simple solutions.
Back when Session was a good messaging app, I was trying to get a friend to move to it. I finally convinced the friend, and their first question was "Where do I make an account?" I explained that there is no account, and the friend asked "Then how am I supposed to use it?" This friend was so used to the abuse of "sign in with your username, password, email, name, date of birth, the name of your first pet, the city you were born, the color of your genitals" that they were confused when that wasn't there.
Of course creating charts that show your strategy and make your decision predictable is itself just even more privileged information you now need to protect.
Also, any effective threat model also requires consistent reevaluation to assess the effectiveness of your methods and adjust with the evolution of threats.
And so the insanity continues ;)
FWIW I made about 7 charts before giving up and writing this post. I found that charts are far too simple with no easy way to represent the issues.
It seems that these security solutions also, and predicably open up more surface area for problems to arise.
Yes, it breaks the KISS Principal. When trying to increase safety by creating backup solutions, you inevitably add more complexity to the system. That's why the only simple, elegant solution to security is one that only follows a specific threat model.
I just wanted to let you know that this was a fascinating read.
I used GNOME Disks to modify /etc/crypttab and /etc/fstab to auto decrypt and auto mount on boot. Jellyfin still loses its access each time I restart, even though the jellyfin group still displays having access to the files.
Edit: Turns out it does have access, but it's no longer under the /media/username directory. I have to point Jellyfin to /mnt/UUID instead. This fixed it!
And you don’t share your photos with family, friends, or the public? Or is your sharing solution to spam people with MMS text messages?
If I need to quickly show somebody a photo, I'll physically show them by pulling it up on my phone. If I need to send photos to someone, I'll send them using a preferred messenger such as Signal. It allows you to send up to 32 images in a single message. If I need to send images to multiple people, I can send it in a group text or select multiple people to send them to at the same time.
No, I don’t. If Immich provides a feature your phone doesn’t, then it’s not a good example of something that doesn’t need to be self-hosted.
The point is that everything Immich offers is something that could be run entirely on-device. While AI image tagging isn't currently available for alternatives, I'm upset that Immich requires a server instead of making it optional and letting you do image tagging on-device.
I’m interested in other examples you have; it sounds as if many self-host solutions perplex you, beyond Immich - what are they?
What I missed in my initial post was availability across devices. So, something like Vaultwarden would have been useless by my criteria. I have two independent KeePass databases. One exclusively for desktop accounts and one exclusively for mobile accounts. I want to compartmentalize those, so I have no reason to selfhost Vaultwarden. As I've learned, Vaultwarden and other software is useful because of availability across devices.
Thanks reasonable! That does make me realize how different my workflow is. My philosophy is compartmentalizing everything. What I do on my phone stays on my phone. What I do on my desktop stays on my desktop. What I do on my laptop stays on my laptop. I've never really had the need for anything more until now. Then again, I've also never had the resources to selfhost until now.
If I left the USB stick plugged in constantly, but then it wouldn't be very useful I guess.
I've only recently started selfhosting on my own, so I am still quite new.
Nevertheless, you might like the idea of local-first software which is kind of a hybrid between local only software, and self-hosting (or cloud hosting).
Both. If your hardware isn't designed like a server to run 24/7 it can be unhealthy for it, especially if it isn't properly maintained. It can cause wear to it. As far as the OS, restarting is good to clear caches, fully install some software, and keep the system sanitary overall.
Can I do this with NextCloud or on my phone without killing the battery?
I suppose not. That's a fair point. Although I will mention, if your camera supports it, location metadata can be embedded automatically. Aves and many other gallery apps support viewing photos with location data on the map.
That's a fair point, and I don't suppose Nextcloud or Syncthing would be quite as useful or as designed for photos. Thank you for helping me understand!
I've made a point not to perpetually leave my home computer on simply because frequent restarts are healthy for it. Another reason is compartmentalization. I would want to keep my selfhosted server separate from where I game or browse the internet, if at least to keep it more secure.
I mentioned in the edit: I'm not asking why things should be selfhosted instead of run on a cloud provider, I'm asking why things are selfhosted on a server that could be run entirely on-device. The latter I argue provides more privacy and less cost. Again, there are some cases as I mentioned in the post where selfhosting on a server is useful (storage or processing power), but I keep seeing a lot of server-based selfhosting that could instead be run on the device itself.
and allows us to share them publicly with others using explicit links.
That's something I hadn't considered. I'm somewhat used to everything being completely local, no exceptions. It's why I started selfhosting so late, I never saw much of a point to it. I also don't feel completely comfortable opening any part of my home internet to the public, but I'm sure there's safe ways of going about it.
Another bias of mine is having a lot of compartmentalization. For example, none of my desktop account credentials are stored on my phone's password manager, and vice versa. If one device is compromised, I want to isolate the risk as much as I can. That also means that if I were to ever set up a movie library, for example, I would want to keep those isolated per-device as well.
Backups are a bit of a special case. You can either selfhost an automatic cloud backup, or use something simple like a USB stick you manually backup to. Besides that, though, I would argue you maintain more control over software that doesn't rely on an external device to begin with. I gave examples, such as Aves, Joplin, or Feeder. If those are on my phone only (and properly backed up), I maintain full control knowing that I don't need to rely on my own server at home to manage the data that I have in my pocket.
This has helped me see some new benefits of selfhosting, though. I've spent my whole life without a SIM card, so it isn't always easy finding a network (especially a trustworthy one) to connect to on the go to connect to my server with. Even in the moments I could connect to a network, they had heavy censorship (blocked VPNs and certain IP addresses). That's why I like having everything on-device.
I will always find the idea of buying ordinary items with Monero to be a little funny. You spend years building up your privacy and go through the effort to have an anonymous Monero wallet and then... buy a towel, or a cup of sugar. I guess because it isn't fully "mainstream" it's just a little funny seeing such ordinary things cropping up as an option to spend it on.
It seems to be a catch 22. People want a simple solution to their security concerns, but without people taking an effort to enhance their security little progress is being made towards creating those simple solutions.
Back when Session was a good messaging app, I was trying to get a friend to move to it. I finally convinced the friend, and their first question was "Where do I make an account?" I explained that there is no account, and the friend asked "Then how am I supposed to use it?" This friend was so used to the abuse of "sign in with your username, password, email, name, date of birth, the name of your first pet, the city you were born, the color of your genitals" that they were confused when that wasn't there.