I run a super minimal setup for my server and home network devices but I still like to see how the self-hosting scene is evolving. It’s changed so much in the last year alone.

I think one reason why I choose to run such a minimal setup is because there’s so many trust issues that seem to be developing over time with so many different projects. At the very least, every weekly newsletter keeps me inspired to keep creating my own projects.

Recently I just finished writing my own back up system including rotating out old backups using only rsync and POSIX portable shell commands. I wrote the scripts to be adaptable to many uses outside of just backups so I am really proud of how they turned out.

My next self-hosting project is something far more absurd and I’m excited to start developing it.

I use a Pixel 6 which has a light up biometric finger sensor under the screen. I’m constantly flashbanging myself…

I run Alpine Linux on my laptop and two Raspberry Pi’s. I also have Linux Mint DE on my laptop but that’s exclusively for steam games. I also have GrapheneOS with Termux on my android phone.

Alpine on my laptop uses Sway as my desktop and it’s where I do all my coding and self hosting work. It’s also where I spend most of my time.

My Raspberry Pi 4 exclusively runs HomeAssistant and it doesn’t get touched unless I’m doing an update or making a backup.

I have a Pi 5 that’s going to be used to host a server. I’m just doing some background learning and setting up before I start hosting again. It should go a lot quicker and smoother this time because I set up my computer and HomeAssistant up in a standardized way. I tried to make as many files and folders as similar as possible so I have less differences to sort out from one machine to the next.

It’s feels a lot easier to manage for me.

I once saw someone in the irc channel jokingly refer to Alpine as Alpine linux pine. Now when I goto the website, all my mind reads is Alpine Linux Pine Linux…