Currently I use Jellyfin and found it simple enough to setup. My personal setup is https on the public internet using Caddy as a reverse proxy to handle the https part, but you can set it up for local network access only using http.

Jellyfin itself is not the greatest music player ever, (UI is more setup for movies and tv) but there are music-centric apps that use it as a backend that are really good, for most platforms. On my phone and tablet, I really like Finamp, and on the desktop I use Sonixd.

I’m also considering just getting a portable, 128GB FLAC player with a minijack connection and moving on with my life without getting involved in networking at all.

I used this setup for the better part of 20 years. Nothing wrong with it, my music collection simply expanded to the point where it simply wasn’t feasible to store all of it on my iPod anymore and from day to day I never really know what I’m going to be in the mood to listen to. Setting up a streaming service made more sense for me.

Tobacco. You?

https://auth0.com/blog/defending-against-password-cracking-understanding-the-math/

The simplest way to do this, is to put the server on a private vpn (I use Tailscale, there are others) and expose ports only to the vpn. Then you share access to the vpn with your friends.

With Tailscale, this is as simple as sending them a share link for the host. They will need to have an account at Tailscale, and have the client running, but they will then be able to access the host with a static ip address.

As a general rule of thumb, nothing should be exposed to the public internet unless you want that service to be public access and then you need to keep it up to date. If a vulnerability doesn’t currently exist for the service, one will sooner rather than later. SSH, especially password only ssh, can be broken into fairly easily. If you must expose ssh to the public internet for whatever reason, you need to be using IP white lists, password protected keys, change the default port, and turn off service advertisements and ping responses. I’m probably missing something. When someone scans your server randomly, they should see nothing. And if they fail login they should be ip blocked.

1. Host family media through Jellyfin, etc. This would include tv, music, and possibly books as well. Many of these will be managed through the Arr apps.
2. Degoogle my phone - I’m beginning by replacing Photos with Immich, but hope to also use Home Assistant, backup other phone data such as messages media, shopping lists, etc. I hope to replace Google storage/backup with Proton Drive.

Seems like a solid plan. I used Nextcloud as a Google Drive/Photos/Calander/Lists replacement, but depending on what you are running as your server it may be a bit too heavy.

I’ve heard that once you get into it, Linux distros like Ubuntu are not very user friendly for self-hosting as a beginner.

Not sure who is saying this. Granted, if your not used to *nix, our ways of doing things can be a bit obtuse from time to time but the Ubuntu based distros are some of the most heavily documented distros available with only Arch being better documented (Don’t use Arch unless you’ve got stock in Bayer. /joking, kinda).

Your current OS choice is maybe not what I would choose, but it is fine. Xubuntu just Ubuntu Server with the XFCE desktop installed. A bit heavy for a server install as a result. One thing I will say is that most server software is setup via the command line and setup via configuration files (These are just regular text files readable by any text editor. I like micro, but anything will work). The desktop environment is just extra weight you don’t really need in this application. Doesn’t hurt anything, just heavy and not really needed.

So is it better on the whole for a beginner to have a popular distro with lots if documentation and step by step guides, or to have a purpose-built OS like TrueNAS that might be more straightforward, but with less support?

Stick with what you have. Ubuntu is a very well supported server distro, and the XFCE desktop doesn’t change that. Things like TrueNAS, UnRAID, and whatever is the flavor of the week tend to cover things up to simplify things. This is fine when they work correctly, the problem comes when things inevitably break. You won’t know where to go looking to fix things. Also TrueNAS is a network storage OS, not really suited for what you are trying to do currently, which seems to be hosting services.

It seems to be working well, but I’ve had a few hiccups trying to update it,

What hiccups were you running into? And were you using the GUI tool or apt on the command line?

I seem to remember a scene in Babylon 5 where Vir got sick eating at a place that sounded like a rebranded McDonalds. Londo was chastising him saying you know Centauri stomachs can’t handle fast food. I wish I had time to rewatch that show.

I’m short on time, but here’s the general idea. Telegrams front end, the part you use I the open source part. The backend is the closed off part. The two parts are separate but communicate via a protocol, kinda like email. The forked project can change anything they want, to make it do whatever they want, but it still needs to be able to speak to the backend server.

I don’t know about Silverblue, but I know you can use NixOS on pretty much any VPS using the tool nixos-infect.

Not sure how it would reduce your attack surface though. That’s not really the problem that they are trying to solve.

I’ve heard mixed things about them, never used them though. Personally I used Digital Ocean for my VPS needs till I had a spare computer available, at which point I moved everything in house.

Make it three months. It would take at least that long for the loss of their labor to start being felt across the board. Undocumented immigrants are vital in some of the damnest places and their absence would not e particularly noticeable at first.

Off course! Though I bought the CD and ripped it. Dangerous and Moving was a great album.

With used hardware, it very much depends on what the hardware is and what you’re using it for. if you can find something from the last 10 years it’s probably worth it, but I wouldn’t get anything older than that. Power usage is the main concern, as systems have been plenty powerful enough for most applications for sometime. Hardware reliability would be another factor.

When I was looking a couple of months ago, it looked like $200 USD was the sweet spot for used hardware, but at that price point, you could get one of those NUC knockoffs brand new, such as the Beelink N100. It just depends on what you need.

Considering how much the tickets cost the few times I was interested in seeing something live, $30,000 worth of tickets isn’t that many tickets. This feels like manufactured outrage to me.

I’m not sure the Dropkick Murphy’s are a band most folks have ever heard of. I think the only song of theirs I’ve heard someone else play was Shipping Up to Boston. It was being used for a commercial. Great band with great music, but I don’t think they ever hit mainstream.

ROFL!! Apparently the folks complaining haven’t actually ever listened to Green Day. Though the severed Trump head at the concert was probably a bit much.

Unfortunately, they appear to be shutting down soon. Looks like it is illegal to gamble on politics in the US, at least according to one multi national betting site I looked at last night.

Know of anywhere that will let you bet on political races?

At least in the US, depends on how the elections go in November. It’s another nail biter and I’m not sure which way the election will go, but I am reasonably sure of the paths that follows each option.

As for the rest of the world, I’ve got my own problems.

I use AIO as well though I’ve heard the snap version is pretty painless, most of the time.

This is news? To anyone?

Personal preference.

Unless something has changed, Caddy isn’t a dns server. It’s a web server and reverse proxy. If you might expose something to the public internet, you will want it behind the reverse proxy.

If you want to access local network services (private vpn counts) via a domain name all you need is a DNS server and for you clients setup to query that dns server. I use PiHole for this. From what I understand Adguard may be similar to PiHole but I’ve never looked a it.

One thing to be wary of, there are no reserved private network domains. Depending on how you set things up your local network dns queries may go out onto the public internet. It’s best to go ahead and register a domain name that you want to use so that you can control it routing if that happens. They can be had cheap as $11 USD each.