Self-Host

For weeks I haven’t updated Google Photos because I ran out of storage on the 200 gigabyte tier and I avoid using more than 200 gigabytes of storage with Apple iCloud. If either of them had a 500 GB tier, then I’d consider them. As they do not offer this option I chose to phase them out with Immich and Kdrive.

Immich As Photo Gallery

Immich replaces Google Photos, and iCloud among other apps. it allows me to take photos from a phone and have it backed up on a Raspberry Pi at “home”. I have backed up all the photos that I had on my phones to Immich, so, when iCloud says “storage full” I just delete them from my phone and they are automatically removed from iPhoto. It allows me to have my photo gallery locally.

As Wordpress grows and as my comfort with Hugo increases I question whether to move my blog from Infomaniak to being self-hosted on a Pi. I know that the Pi is not powerful but my site doesn’t get much traffic so I don’t think that it will be overwhelmed with traffic.

I have slightly less than three weeks to decide whether to make the leap or not. The Hugo part of my blog is easy to migrate because it’s a static site. It’s the WordPress stack that is just a little more fiddly to move. I could start the experiment this afternoon.

For up to three months I was running my own instance via Masto.host and the experience was good. Setting up an instance is easy. Within a few minutes you can set up your own instance, post and perform administrative tasks such as accept trending hashtags and more.

No DevOps and No Code Required

Masto.host is great for non-technical people because it doesn’t require any specialist knowledge. You create a Masto.host account, and then you choose the cheapest server option. Bring up the instance it and you’re ready to go. It’s as easy as ordering a pizza, or in fact easier, because the choice is “Give me the cheapest option”.