[chii]

> unthinkable that everyone would have their own desktop computer at some point

it was unthinkable not because people didn't want it, but that it costed too much back then. Half a mil for a microcomputer that took up a room?!

Current self-hosting requirements are similarly expensive - time and money. If someone were to sell an appliance for which you could just plug into the outlet, and you get it all, then it would be pretty good. Like a washing machine.

[nradov]

That hypothetical self hosting appliance would require constant system administration work, far worse than even the most complex "smart" washing machine.

[chii]

> constant system administration work

why is that an inescapable truth? If the needs of such a self-hosted system is not changing, there's a theoretical argument that there shouldn't be any need to make administrative work.

if the environment changes such that this need arises, like changing/new protocols, new services, etc, it stands to reason that the seller of this appliance would release a new version, or an update of sorts.

Like mobile phones. You certainly don't constantly do "system admin" on your mobile do you?

[xp84]

One reason at least in my country (USA) is the dire state of broadband. A few people have awesome symmetric fiber, but it’s about a single digit percentage. Most of the rest uses DOCSIS with wildly asymmetrical ratios (e.g. mine is 1000 down/100 up), dynamic IP, and some have unreliable connectivity.

Getting people to self host without corporate dependencies unfortunately means dynamic DNS, revealing your home IP address, and means that when your home internet is down or degraded, it affects you even if you go elsewhere.

[ndriscoll]

Dynamic DNS doesn't reveal your IP to anyone that doesn't know the domain name. Most self-hosted services also have offline modes. e.g. my finamp playlists are synced to my phone when I'm home and then play offline anywhere else. Within your home if your Internet connection goes down, a self-hosted service (e.g. streaming video) has better availability than cloud ones.

[xp84]

> Dynamic DNS doesn't reveal your IP to anyone that doesn't know the domain name

That assumes you don't set up SSL, since cert transparency now forces the publishing of every hostname that a cert is issued for.

(Painfully) work-around-able though, with a paid wildcard cert and manual setup, or with a self-hosted certificate authority that you have to install everywhere.

[psychoslave]

No, but I don't host a mail server on it?