it would probably be a great way for people to get their feet wet if they dont have a server, but maybe not a great long term solution due to possible battery issues (unless its a phone that supports bypass charging)

most people have an old phone lying around that could be set up fairly quickly with something like syncthing for some basic file synciing, or run some services using termux along with tailscale or netbird so they can be accessed when away from home. all that would still be a bit of work but it would be a lot less daunting than all the research you have to do when youre getting into self-hosting. server/nas hardware, disks, how you are going to set them up, what OS to install etc etc

“bypass charging” is becoming a bit more popular now. you see it on some android gaming tablets where it bypasses the battery once a cable is plugged in, which makes sense considering how quickly the battery would run down on those. i think i saw the recent google pixel devices having this feature as well so many it will just be a thing on all phones eventually

me: “it makes separate networks seem like they are joined together into a single network”

elderly relative: “like a tv network?”

theyre fairly similar as far as i can tell. they both use gnome-terminal so you wouldnt notice any difference there.

mint seems more like a windows 7 style desktop, as in its more compact and meant to be used with a keyboard and mouse. zorin is more like windows 11 where there is more space around everything, which is ideal if you are also using a touchscreen some of the time

im definitely more of a zorin fan anyway. i have it installed on 2 computers, and i have mint on an old computer that i never use, just cos

that ship is still floating and theres no containers in the water. seems good to me

if it seems daunting, which it is!, maybe it would be a good piont to ask yourself if you really need to run a server and these self hosted web apps in the first place. i did for about 10 years but i realised at some point i didnt need half of it.

if youre planning on having multiple users or want to share one of the services (like real time editing of files or passwords etc) then thats where self hosted stuff makes sense to me, but if not then syncthing can do a lot without needing any complicated setup

keepass is a good example. or note taking apps like jopin or obsidian where the data is store in plain text and where you can choose where the data is stored works great with syncthing

for about a year before i did any self hosted stuff i was running only syncthing on my laptop and phone without any server so its do-able and you can get started right now and worry about getting a server later.

tailscale is a huge help as well and is very easy to setup. say you repurpose an old laptop as a server for now and install whatever services on it, jellyfin for example, you will only be able to access that when you are on your home network but not when you are away, and thats where tailscale comes in. as long as its installed on each device you should be able to connect to your apps/services from anywhere.

basically you can start small and then over the coming months and years as you learn more you will get more confident about moving onto more complicated setups

ArduiNo thanks

they must have cleaned their couches recently