Google Drive, Dropbox, and OneDrive are convenient services that millions use daily. But behind that convenience lies a cost that few acknowledge: your files are stored on servers owned by corporations that have full access to your data. They analyze your documents, your photos, your spreadsheets—for product improvement, targeted advertising, or simply because they can.

If you store sensitive information—business correspondence, medical records, legal documents, financial statements—the risk is even greater. Google can freeze your account at any moment, and with it, access to everything stored there. This has already happened to thousands of users worldwide.

Nextcloud is the answer. It is open-source software for building your own cloud server on your own hardware. Your files on your hardware, under your control, without any third parties.

Nextcloud has evolved far beyond simple file storage:

File sync across Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, and Android with versioning and sharing

Online document editing through Collabora or OnlyOffice

Calendar and contacts via CalDAV/CardDAV

Video conferencing and chat

Photo backup with face and object recognition

Email client, notes, kanban boards, forms, and hundreds more apps through the app store

Hardware requirements are surprisingly modest. For 1-5 users, a Raspberry Pi 4 with 4GB RAM and an SSD works perfectly. An old laptop from 2015 or later is another excellent option. A VPS for a few dollars per month is ideal for those who prefer not to keep hardware at home.

Installation via Docker Compose or Nextcloud AIO takes 15-30 minutes. Desktop and mobile clients provide automatic sync like Dropbox. Calendar and contacts sync without Google or Apple.

Self-hosted means self-responsibility: strong passwords, two-factor authentication, SSL certificates, regular updates, backups, and firewall configuration. But the reward is priceless: certainty that your data is truly yours.

Nextcloud in 2026 is mature, stable, and feature-rich. It does not fall short of Google Drive in functionality. In privacy and control, it surpasses it by orders of magnitude.

Start with Nextcloud AIO on an inexpensive VPS. In one or two hours, you will have a fully functional cloud storage system open only to you. This is one of the most important steps toward digital independence.

https://newsgroup.site/nextcloud-self-hosted-cloud-storage-guide-2026/
#Nextcloud #Privacy #SelfHosting #CloudStorage #OpenSource #DigitalSovereignty #GoogleDrive #Dropbox

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Nextcloud logo

Which instance or server are you using?
#Nextcloud #Privacy #SelfHosting #CloudStorage #OpenSource #DigitalSovereignty #GoogleDrive #Dropbox

Liebes #Hetzner Team, liebe #NixOS Community:

Ich habe einen Forumsbeitrag auf Hetzner verfasst, warum ein offizielles #NixOS Install-Image fehlt — und warum das keine exotische Nische ist, sondern eine naheliegende Ergänzung. (Brauchst einen Login, darum Screenshot angehängt)

Workarounds existieren, aber sie sind unbefriedigend. Das Community-Tooling ist reif. Der nächste Schritt liegt bei Hetzner. 🐧
#Linux #Selfhosting #FreeSoftware #Debian #Cloud
https://forum.hetzner.com/index.php?thread/32545-nixos-install-image-f%C3%BCr-virtual-dedicated-hetzner-server-fehlt-im-portfolio/

Wäre nett, wenn Ihr da ein bisschen pushen könntet, ich würde gerne künftig NixOS auf Hetzner Servern nutzen können - Du auch?

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Screenshot meines Forum Plädoyer warum ein NixOS Install Image ein 'Must häffle' und eigentlich kein Feature Request ist...

Screw #bigtech
Support #smalltech or #localtech

Most people in #tech don't support what bigtech is doing. Blaming all of us for the #techbros is like blaming Amazon workers for what Bezos does.

We're also the people creating solutions, from #SelfHosting to anti #surveillance tools.

We ARE fighting back. We are the people who contact politicians and educate them, we are the front line.

Stop blaming everyone in tech for everything that tech billionares do.

Nutzt eigentlich jemand die "Find my Device" App und kann vielleicht aus gemachten Erfahrungen berichten?

https://f-droid.org/de/packages/de.nulide.findmydevice/

https://fmd-foss.org/

#android #fdm #smartphone #fdroid #foss #findmydevice #selfhosting #findmyphone #google

Why I don't self-host a Matrix and XMPP server anymore?

Simple: no one to chat with. Yeah, I know, barely anyone to text — not even my future girlfriend. Everybody here loves WhatsApp.

#tech #selfhosting #matrix #xmpp #whatsapp #apps #communication #life #digital #malaysia #privacy #server #it #social #chat

Ah yes, the hubris of thinking that I can update my DNS zones and then go to bed without breaking my personal email server. #selfhosting

Fresh Debian 13 (Trixie) install – was ich immer als erstes mache:

→ Root deaktivieren
→ SSH-Key only (ed25519)
→ UFW mit nur den nötigen Ports
→ Docker ready

Dokumentation für mich, vielleicht nützlich für andere.

https://m1ch4.net/blog/debian13-grundsetup/

#Debian #Linux #Docker #Selfhosting #Homelab

A poll to any admins who are self-hosting their own xmpp
what is your server running?

#xmpp #jabber #conversations #selfhosting #poll

Currently (finally) updating Proxmox from 8 to 9 ... pray for me fediverse.

#selfhosting

friends, I need to run a receive only mail server
any suggestions for software, tips and best practices and what to absolutely never ever do are incredibly welcome

I've never hosted e-mail things before; assume I know nothing
I have a domain with DNSSEC, a VPS, and a lot of hope

#askfedi #duckduckfedi #selfhosting #selfhosted #emailhosting #email

Tasmota is an open-source firmware that replaces stock software on many smart devices giving you full local control.

Remove cloud dependencies and manage everything via MQTT, HTTP, or tools like Home Assistant.

Turn “smart” devices into private, self-controlled ones.

👉 https://github.com/arendst/Tasmota

👉 More privacy-friendly tools: https://digital-escape-tools-phi.vercel.app/

#OpenSource #SelfHosting #Privacy #IoT #HomeAutomation #DigitalMinimalism

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Screenshot of MiroTalk P2P GitHub-style repository card showing: "MiroTalk P2P – Open Source WebRTC P2P Video Conferencing You Can Self-Host in Minutes. Free, Secure, Fast Real-Time Communication – up to 8K, 60fps. Works in All Browsers and Platforms. Stars 4.4k, Forks 713. License AGPLv3 Open Source, docker pulls 174k. Last commit: last Wednesday. Discord, Community. Author: Miroslav Pejic."

Jeder (Self-)Hoster kennt diesen Moment:
Update klicken, kurz die Luft anhalten und hoffen, dass nicht wieder PHP, Datenbank oder Desktop-Client beschließen, heute kreativ zu werden.
Nach Jahren mit Nextcloud habe ich 2026 für meinen eigenen Usecase die Reißleine gezogen. Nicht aus Dogmatismus. Sondern weil digitale Souveränität für mich am besten funktioniert, wenn Infrastruktur wieder ein bisschen langweilig wird.
Darum bin ich bei #OpenCloud gelandet.
Schlanker, fokussierter, weniger bewegliche Teile. Kein PHP. Keine Datenbank. Go-basiert, unter 200 MB RAM im Idle. Auf K3s mit ZFS-Snapshots dahinter läuft das sehr viel näher an „funktioniert“ als an „braucht Aufmerksamkeit“.
Und dahinter steckt das Team von #mailbox.org,  #Heinlein Support. Kein US-Risikokapital, kein Exit-Druck. Keine fragwürdige Eigentümerstruktur. Einfach Leute, die seit 30 Jahren für datenschutzkonforme Infrastruktur in Deutschland kämpfen. Das ist kein Zufall, das ist eine Entscheidung.
Der schönste Nebeneffekt:
OpenCloud wurde bei mir quasi nebenbei zur souveränen E-Book-Bibliothek. DRM-freie EPUBs auf dem Boox Go 7, ohne Amazon-Ökosystem, ohne Plattform-Lock-in, ohne das übliche „wir kennen deinen Geschmack besser als du selbst“.
Amazon weiß sehr genau, was du liest, wann du liest, wie schnell du liest und wo du aufgehört hast. Das ist keine Paranoia. Das steht in deren  AGB.
Genau da wird digitale Souveränität sehr konkret:
nicht als politische Folie, sondern als gelebter Alltag.
Eigene Dateien - eigene Infrastruktur - eigene Regeln - eigene Verantwortung.
Wie der Umzug lief, wo die kleinen HTTPS-/Traefik-Fallen lagen und warum weniger Komplexität manchmal der eigentliche Fortschritt ist:

🔗 https://www.pandolin.io/warum-ich-2026-zu-opencloud-gewechselt-bin/

One person. One homelab. One less excuse. :-)
#Fediverse #DigitaleSouveränität #SelfHosting #Homelab #OpenSource #Nextcloud #K3s #Privacy #EBooks #Linux #Ubuntu #BigTechAlternatives

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Pandolins Desktop.

• users: 1 (just myself)
• following: 254
• timeline_purge_days: 30
• disk: 298m (/var/snac/data)
• ram: 184m (including relayd, httpd, logger, snac itself)

Having a "reflective" afternoon.

On the topic of free operating systems, I have been playing with these lately, and recommend if it suits usage (alpha order).

- Alpine Linux (my daily driver)
- Chimera Linux
- Elementary Linux
- FreeBSD
- OpenBSD
- Solus Linux

Not "mainstream" suggestions per se, and that's kinda the point. Caveats re: glibc/musl, nvidia support, etc. apply.

If I had to have nvidia support for my primary workstation I'd probably go with Solus (KDE), or at least try it, in spite of systemd.

I'm starting to scratch the surface on

- CachyOS

for my son's gaming rig. Pretty much what it says on the tin. I like it. Arch could use a bit of polish. We'll see how it goes on real hardware.

Others that I haven't run much beyond playing with the iso, but am intrigued by, mostly by intended use case tbh:

- Mint
- Zorin

I used to run these for years and years and years but don't nowadays:

- Arch
- Gentoo

Excellent, but the time intensity ...

~20 years ago I used to run Gentoo in a government research agency data centre. Even came up with an "ansible-like" set of deployment scripts/framework and whatnot in /bin/bash to manage them (pre-dates Ansible).

Fun times... the time... the time.

Gentoo was bracketed by RHEL in the past and CentOS as the successor. CentOS was fine but gave up a lot of performance way back then. Shifting priorities, server hardware was still following Moore's, and all that.

I flirted with Ubuntu a bit over the years. Could never really get into it back when it was decent. I won't touch it now.

Today, I think I'm done with Debian. Too static for my tastes - stuff gets too stale. Sure, there's Testing/Sid but there's also other options at that point.

Now that I'm a sysadmin just for myself I can embrace using whatever I want. Ha.

I'm all about community projects nowadays.

Corporate software will eventually disappoint you so it pays to just not go there in the first place.

Deep thoughts.

#Linux #RunBSD #HomeLab #SelfHosted #SelfHosting

ich hab jetzt ne Miniserverbrücke oder ist das schon ne Serverfarm 🤔
#selfhosting

So that's it. I've retired. Well, technically not quite because I'm still being paid for another week. However, my two work laptops have been wiped and handed back along with my security pass, and my development desktop machine has been cleaned up and shut down. I've deleted the various TOTP entries for my work accounts from my phone.

It's over. I'm free.

I'll keep myself mentally active with some #FOSS development, and will continue to enjoy tinkering with #SelfHosting on my #HomeLab , hopefully with a bit more mental energy available than before. Good times lie ahead, I hope.

What bring you to the path of self-hosting?

I guess for me is that because in the mid 2000's the free hosting services were quite terrible and I get my hands on the old family computer and some documentation about Debian.

#selfhosting

Mein #nobigtech journey ist irgendwie vorübergehend zum Stillstand gekommen. Alle bigtech-socialmedia-Accounts sind gelöscht, meine Daten aus Onedrive auf ne #nextcloud umgezogen, mein Freundeskreis auf #signal Mein neuer #linux PC macht mich immer noch glücklich. Und nu? Warten, bis der #raspberrypi geliefert wird und ich mit #selfhosting und #pihole experimentieren kann.. Gilt das jetzt schon als "Onni hat übrigens Ahnung von Technik"?

Am I the only dumbfuck to not use docker/containerization and host stuff the old way?

#selfhosting

Logiciel open source, prise en charge de DoH/DoT/DoQ, protections et architecture : j’ai documenté la stack de HostuxDNS ici :
https://dns.hostux.net/stack.html

#DNS #Privacy #OpenSource #SelfHosting #Hostux

Ok #homeautomation and #selfhosting folks, I am looking for opinions (boosts welcome).

I have this swimming pool controller that I built off a raspberry pi. It sits outside in a waterproof enclosure year-round. Temperatures range from -10ºC to 50ºC over the course of a year. It's running Raspbian or some Debian-flavored Linux.

I've tried spinning rust hard drives and SSDs. They die within 12-18 months and I'm on my third failure. I have a couple ideas.

1. Netboot: I could have it boot via PXE or TFTP or something and have no permanent storage outside.
2. SD flash cards. I could just run it off a micro-SD, and keep a few handy so when they burn out, I just swap it in. I can use NFS for permanent storage, so the loss of the SD doesn't matter.
3. Some kind of storage that is more resilient to this kind of temperature and humidity swing?

Thoughts on storage for this outdoor project? I'm asking other questions later in the thread.

The current waterproof box I use is a 300 x 300 x 180mm version of this. It works well, so I don't need a different one, but I'm open to suggestions.

#homeautomation #selfhosting

In case there are any doubts about updating to the latest #synology #DSM 7.3.2 version, be sure to check this list of CVE exploits that were patched

https://www.synology.com/en-global/security/advisory/Synology_SA_26_06

#selfhosting #selfhosted #homelab #security #network #storage

Whelp. My #minisforum ms01 died overnight underscoring some fears I had over the build quality of these models. #homelab #selfhosting

Syncthing-Fork is an open-source Android app for syncing files directly between your devices --no cloud needed.

Built on Syncthing, it uses peer-to-peer connections so your data stays private and fully under your control.

A solid alternative to Google Drive or Dropbox if you care about decentralization and privacy.

👉 https://github.com/researchxxl/syncthing-android
👉 More privacy-friendly tools: https://digital-escape-tools-phi.vercel.app/

#OpenSource #Privacy #SelfHosting #Decentralization #Android #DigitalMinimalism

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Screenshot of Synching-Fork Android wrapper project page showing license MPLv2, release v2.0.16.0, downloads 220k, F-Droid v2.0.16.0, last month 55716, “GET IT ON Obtainium”, translated 72%, Build App passing, and description: “A wrapper of Synching for Android. Head to the releases section or F-Droid for builds. Please seek help on the forum and/or social media apps first before creating issues on the tracker.”

It is home sever rebuild day. Wish me luck.... #selfhosting

The excellent free open self-hosted online service platform Nextcloud has just started posting videos to its own PeerTube server. You can follow their account at:

➡️ @nextcloud_main

They've already posted nine videos. If these haven't federated to your server yet, you can browse them all at https://peertube.nextcloud.com/a/nextcloud_main/videos

You can also follow their Mastodon account at @nextcloud

#FeaturedPeerTube #Nextcloud #SelfHosting #FOSS #PeerTube