Thank you. This is more aligned with what I was hoping for. I wanted a way to access these services but still lock the device down as much as I can. Thank you for sharing.

Actually this is a more clear idea of what I was looking for. A device I could get these apps on and still have control over the device.

Thank you for the tips! This seems like it may be a good option.

Was actually unaware of SmartTube. Looks like it may cover that part for me :). I had also never heard of LineageOS, I’ll take a look there too. I have a Pi4 laying about I was going to use.

As for FireTV I may just end up going that rout, I was just curious what the options looked like. Thank you for taking the time to enlighten me :).

Actually hadn’t though of this. Thank you!

I do have a pi-hole set up, but alas it won’t stop YT ads.

Bold of you to assume that you’re not the one in the mirror.

Yeah, I guarantee you google isn’t interested in showing you one or the other. They want the revenue from both. My only question is, if you pause an ad, can you get another ad in your ad?

Pornhub is an example of exactly this. They’ve blocked whole stares like Arkansas and Utah over these kinds of laws. I highly doubt pornhub has a physical presence in Arkansas of all places.

I switched in November. I have no regrets. I rarely run into issues, and having the control to make decisions over my own computer is superb.

Naa cast-iron pan user. Throw that shit in a fire, melt away the bad and star it over.

Also kidding, but maybe.

“I promise” followed by anything. That thing will 100% not happen.

Honestly, that’s not bad for a start. That Xeon should be fine for most things. I run an amd 4650g pro and never get close to using it all.

Side Note: The people over at [email protected] have been immensely helpful for me in my brief journey so far.

What will you be hosting on? I started with a raspberry pi. It was important to me to host on something outside my main machine. I chose the pi because it would run linux, use very little electricity, and would remain out of the way.

Initially it was for pi-hole. Which is a network wide DNS filter used to block ads (with some exceptions like YT). That got me more interested in my own privacy. So, I added a searx instance to my pi. It’s an aggregate search engine that searches a bunch of search engines and won’t track me. Or at least I’m tracking myself.

I’ve never run a minecraft server on a pi but I have a friend who has. It was fine for up to about 4 people.

From there I actually built a rig specifically for hosting. It’s a little more stout than the pi. On it I run Proxmox (which I use to create linux containers for the other things I host). I do run a file share on it. It’s nice because it’s easy to run weekly backups so I don’t lose things. I also run a vpn, qbittorrent (for linux isos), jackett (indexes torrents), sonarr (used to… find movies I’m missing), jellyfin (to watch said movies anywhere in the house) and finally I do host a valheim server there for my friend’s and I.

Honestly I would at least start with a dedicated machine for it, maybe an old laptop, a pi, just anything cheap that if you screw up you can wipe and start over. From there: pi hole, seaex, retro game box maybe? There’s really a lot of things you can host. Find a need you have a Google a linux solution for it. There’s almost always one.

Recently I’ve taken to self hosting. It started with me just wanting a raspberry pi for pi-hole and has developed into a full hobby. Because so many of these services are FOSS and can run on a toaster it’s helped me immensely with avoiding commercial fatigue. I also find that the communities for the hobby are insightful and, because the solutions are free, they aren’t selling you on a product. They’re just passionate about the service, distro, or setup that they use.

I’ve also learned a ton of applicable skills for adult life, so happy side-effects.

Halocene, she does a bunch of covers of old rock songs from around the early 2000s. It’s like fresh nostalgia straight into my ears. Her original stuff is also pretty good :)

I think that it does as of gnome 43+. Oddly enough Pop_OS ships with gnome 42.5. Which seems to have been the issue.

pavucontrol does seem to work well. Just need to choose an easier way to switch now. Thank you kindly.

Ohh what a neat solution, thank you!

Hah, what a novel name, thank you.