My experience has taught me not to ‘apt autoremove’ unless im really sure what they are!

Take it one software at a time. See it’s running fine then move on to another. You’ll often realise something down the line will be helpful so will go back to make changes.

Keep a running list of software and the ports used.

With docker, do not automatically do :latest on important software (nginx proxy manager, SSO software, password database, anything you use regularly, etc). I did that and was burned a few times.

Also that at some point you’ll either mess up or realise it would just be easier and start again with a fresh OS install. Keep copying data (docker compose files and persistent storage) on working software before starting a new one, or before installing anything directly onto the OS, or before major updates.

I would highly discourage getting a fire stick, they’ve locked it down so much its just annoying. Yes, you can get there but found it much easier on android tv boxes, specifically the Xiaomi Mii TV ones. Which one you get probably depends on whether you need 4K and/or dolby

I just started using some docker containers I found on Docker Hub designed for DB backups (e.g. prodrigestivill/postgres-backup-local) to automatically dump from the databases into a set folder, which is included in the restic backup. I know you could come up with scripts but this way, I could easily copy the compose code to other containers with different databases (and different passwords etc).

I would recommend it as it is fairly easy to understand and most Foss services give you an example to use. You can also convert docker run examples to compose (search docker composeriser) although it doesn’t always work.

I found composer files easier when learning it, to digest what is going on (ports, networks, depends_on etc) and can compare with other services to see what is missing (container name, restart schedule etc). I can then easily backup the compose files, env files and data directories to be able to very quickly get a service up again (although DBs are trickier but found a docker image that I can stick on the compose files which backups the DB dumps regularly)

I use authentik but believe it’s similar. You can create accounts for people and give them passwords, or send a welcome email asking them to register to create one. I would warn you though, not every service has the ability to use it and it does take quite some effort to get it working! It’s interesting to learn about though

I tried the readarr and other options. They work sometimes but not enough to rely on it. As others mention, there’s no standard naming and also, lots of people use their library card for Libby access. I also think there’s a bit more of a direct link to authors so I’d prefer to buy the book unless theyre super well off anyway. To be honest, I can’t see the arr’s working with LibGen having looked at the open issues on integrating it, it just doesn’t allow for scraping in the same way.

For me, I self host openbooks (uses IRC) and select a download straight away, which to be fair, is about the same time as searching / finding a TV show if you are after one book. I have exposed it behind an SSO so can access it on my phone and download the book straight away when someone gives me a recommendation. Most of the time I just add to a running note on phone and go through it every few months when I need more books.

It’s fairly quick for multiple books but not sonarr levels of ease. The downloads go into a calibre monitored folder which then does the automation (naming, conversion if needed etc). I bulk email the new books to my kindle with one click. Calibre-web is on read only for a nice browsing experience and to read on other devices if I need to (althogh no page sync). It’s a bit of manual work but I find it is not too bad and in 10 minutes I can load up enough books for months.

Occasionally IRC does not have the book so try manually searching on prowlarr, and download on sab or transmission. The downloads are almost instant so I then just wait and copy them to my downloads folder (I could probably automate this step too with tags but it’s so infrequent).

I have dynamic IP and there are several ways around it. I use Cloudflared (updates DNS records regularly) and a script I found to update duck DNS as a backup. Both very simple.

Accessing the services is not the problem, the problem is keeping them safe. I’ve tried lots of different ways (although not tailscale yet) and have a few services exposed directly to the internet behind authentik \ NPM \ Cloudflare \ fail2ban \ ufw. Others, I access through my router openvpn server, with keys for my laptop and phone as clients. There are so many guides online for all VPN types. Its just finding the right approach between ease of use vs safety

I’m hesitant about it too for the same reason but not sure if I’m being unreasonable given that I rely on so many other free services. However, this is one that would potentially have access to everything I do.

I’m watching headscale with interest until its safe enough for me to try breaking it!

Would you trust rsync.net to be around for a long time? They’re doing a $540 lifetime 1TB offer which is interesting as I’m luckily in a position to do but would take 6 years plus to “pay off”.