this post was submitted on 02 Feb 2026
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I agree in principle. I know how to self-host, and I do self-host some things, but I can't always afford the upfront investment (especially with today's hardware costs) and I don't always have time to keep up with the administration (because I'm a wage slave) so I end up renting some of it. I'm not the only one in this position.
I think there's a place for rented tech services just as there's a place for rented housing, but the problem in both cases is regulatory capture by landlords that mean we get stuck renting forever from exploiters. (And with tech there's the surveillance too, so they're the landlord that puts a secret camera in your bedroom.) So anyway, I'm trying to at least pick my tech landlords more carefully until I can afford a better solution, and as far as possible I try to make sure my stuff is encrypted before they see it.
that's why I believe that in a normal world, renting should only be needed for temporary hardware. a temporary home, a temporary vehicle, a temporary server, temporary storage..
but with homeservers you could have your own once you can afford it, and you could request help from contractors for the urgent type of maintenance. replacing failing disks in the array, minimal monitoring so that they can keep an eye on when that happens, maybe critical updates..