1 month ago I'd never touched Linux. Seen docker mentioned a few times in GitHubs, but had no idea how to use. Today I run my entire digital life on a NAS in my living room: Photos - Immich > Google Photos Open source, self-hosted, with ML-powered face recognition, object search, and maps. Looks almost identical to Google Photos but my family's photos aren't training someone else's AI. Running the machine learning container on my main PC so searches are instant. Cloud Storage - Nextcloud > OneDrive/Google Drive Full office suite, calendar, contacts, file sync across all devices. 15GB free from Google vs however many terabytes I want to throw at it. Desktop and mobile apps work flawlessly. Passwords - Vaultwarden > 1Password/LastPass/Dashlane Fully compatible with Bitwarden apps so the UX is polished. I control the vault. No subscription fees. No trusting a company that might get breached or acquired. Media - @jellyfin > Netflix/Prime/Plex No monthly fee. No "this title is leaving soon". No content getting pulled because of licensing. No ads. No "are you still watching?". My library, forever in the best possible quality, not your compressed 4k stream rubbish. - Jellyseerr > asking friends what to watch Beautiful request system. Family can browse and request content, I approve it, and it automatically gets grabbed in the best quality available. - Radarr > manually finding movies Monitors for movies I want, grabs them automatically when available, upgrades quality if a better version appears. Set and forget. - Sonarr > manually finding TV shows Same as Radarr but for TV. Tracks every show I follow, grabs new episodes within minutes of release, names everything perfectly for Jellyfin. - Bazarr > no subtitles Automatically fetches subtitles in whatever languages I need. Syncs them perfectly. Never watch a foreign film without subs again. - Prowlarr > managing indexers manually One place to manage all my sources. Syncs with Radarr and Sonarr automatically. Using TrashGuides profiles so everything's optimised for 4K Dolby Vision and Atmos. - SABnzbd > Torrents? pffttt Usenet baby, Usenet. Rock solid, fast, automated. Integrates with everything. Never touch it after initial setup. - Flaresolverr > getting blocked by Cloudflare Handles those annoying Cloudflare challenges automatically so my indexers keep working. - nzb360 > having to be at my PC Android app that controls the entire stack from my phone. Approve requests, check downloads, manage queues from anywhere. Ad Blocking - @AdGuard Home > ads existing Network-wide ad blocking. Every device in my house, including smart TVs and phones, automatically ad-free. YouTube ads gone. Spotify ads gone. In-app ads gone. No configuration needed on individual devices. - PiHole > single point of failure Running as backup DNS. Redundancy because now I can't live without network-wide blocking. Backups - Duplicati > trusting Big Tech with my only copy Encrypted before it leaves my network. Automated daily backups. Stored offsite in the cloud but they can't read any of it. Proper 3-2-1 backup strategy: 3 copies, 2 different media, 1 offsite. Database - PostgreSQL > managed database fees Running my own database for Nextcloud and Immich. Free. Fast. On SSD storage. Security & Network - @Tailscale > traditional VPN pain Absolute game changer. All my devices form a private mesh network. Access my NAS from anywhere in the world as if I'm at home. Zero port forwarding. Zero configuration. Zero attack surface. This is genuinely brilliant technology. - @mullvadnet exit nodes > trying to configure WireGuard manually When I need to appear somewhere else, one click and my traffic exits through Mullvad. Privacy sorted. Management - @portainerio > typing Docker commands like an animal Beautiful web UI for managing all my containers. Start, stop, view logs, check resource usage. Makes Docker actually approachable. - Watchtower > manually updating containers Monitors all my containers and automatically updates them. Set once, stays current forever. Distro - @TrueNAS > proprietary vendor lock-in Enterprise-grade file system. Snapshots. RAID management. Rock solid foundation for everything above. Zero Google. Zero Apple. Zero streaming subscriptions. Zero monthly fees bleeding out of my account for shit services. Just a NAS, Docker containers, mass of trial and error, and mass of "why isn't this working" at 2am followed by "I AM A GOD" when it finally worked. I try to explain how incredible this system is but I'm often met with "oh yeah okay" from normies, they just don't get it.... Btw the communities around these tools are incredible. The documentation is actually good now. ChatGPT/Claude to guide you through most setups. If I can do this starting from literally nothing, you can too. Your data doesn't have to live on someone else's computer. Take it back, get a NAS. Up next, GrapheneOS and ArchLinux.

Now that my NAS is somewhat complete, I now need something new to scratch that itch. GrapheneOS and ArchLinux perhaps?