Last winter I moved family photos off Google Photos to Immich on an old Dell Optiplex 7040 in the closet (Proxmox, Immich, Nextcloud, Matrix). Main reason was Google One kept getting more expensive.
Tech part works. Immich is great, Nextcloud is fine.
People part doesn’t. My wife uses it because she has to, but she still brings up January when I almost lost a month of kid photos due to no real backup. My sister is still on Messenger, my mom is on iCloud, so my Matrix server is mostly just me and wife.
I have backup now (USB + B2) and cost is lower than Google One, but time cost is higher and family adoption is low.
For those who self-host for family — how did you actually get them to switch and stick? Did you force it, make it invisible, bribe with something, or just accept that they will stay on Google / Messenger / iCloud?
What worked for you with non-technical family?
This is the answer My boomer parents taught me how to use computers and rely on them in their everyday lives
Yet, the actual literacy they used to have is basically atrophied by the smart phones, tablets, and worst of all the walled garden set top boxes or “TV sticks” that are just plug and play to them
They don’t care that the tech is getting worse or taking more from them in terms of privacy and owning their purchases or software, it’s just easier for them to use and constantly churning out slop to capture their attention
I’ve had this itch to get my own mini PC and set it up for them to use things like Jellyfin or Kodi but I’m going to have to wait and see if they even care, it’s likely just not for them