For this new year, I’d like to learn the skills necessary to self host. Specifically, I would like to eventually be able to self host Nextcloud, Jellyfin and possibly my email server too.

I’ve have a basic level understanding of Python and Kotlin. Now I’m in the process of learning Linux through a virtual machine because I know Linux is better suited for self hosting.

Should I stick with Python? Or is JavaScript (or maybe Ruby) better suited for that purpose? I’m more than happy to learn a new language, but I’m unsure on which is better suited.

And if you could start again in your self hosting journey, what would you do differently? :)

EDIT: I wasn’t expecting all these wonderful replies. You’re all very kind people to share so much with me :)

The consensus seems to be that hosting your own email server might be a lot, so I might leave that as future project. But for Nextcloud and Jellyfin I saw a lot of great tips! I forgot to mention that ideally I would like to have Nextcloud available for multiple users (ie. family memebers) so indeed learning some basic networking/firewalling seems the bare minimum.

I also promise that I will carefully read the manuals!

  • @ramenshamanEnglish
    2•4 hours ago

    Hey OP, I’m just starting my self-hosting journey as well. I can program a little bit in Python and C++ but I haven’t needed any of that so far. As others have said, some familiarity with Linux would be very helpful. The things I’ve done so far:

    • Wireguard VPN server on my router(no programming or linux commands, just some config of my router which I was able to do in the router’s GUI.
    • Wireguard VPN client on some of my devices. My phone setup was easy, still working on setting that up on my Windows/Ubuntu laptop.
    • Home Assistant on a Raspberry Pi (WIP).

    Eventually I plan to set up a NAS with Immich and some local IP cameras and Plex or something similar.