this post was submitted on 12 Feb 2026
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Selfhosted

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I'm an English teacher who wanted to "cut the cord" wherever I could, so I started learning about domain hosts, containerization, .yaml files, etc.

Since then, I've been hosting several pods for file sharing and streaming for many years, and I'm currently thinking about learning kubernetes for home deployment. But why?

If you aren't in development, IT, cyber security, or in a related profession, what made you want to learn this on your own? What made you want to pick this up as a hobby?

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[–] noodNinja@sh.itjust.works 1 points 3 hours ago

Yes you're right. When i did the math at the start i calculated it would pay for itself in a few years. However it's kind of like a car. You get a car and you always want to add new rims, new turbo, new subwoofer etc. I added more ram which was needed anyway. Upgraded the SSD. Want to replace the old SATA. Bought a new HDD to backup too. Then it started to add up. My server is really small and basic too. Just a pre 2020 lenovo thinkcentre. Of course everyone is different too. If I were just hosting my data and not using it as a media downloader and player as well then I wouldn't have really needed any of that extra stuff. Also you have to consider that liberating your data is a huge benefit even if financially it the numbers don't look as good as you want. You can't put a price on that.