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Comment by factorialboy | Hacker News Reader

This "only if your time is cheap" argument is fallacious.

Especially since it was originally used in the Linux desktop context.

If you have enough skill (or the willingness to learn) and initial investment of time, then the ROI on these DIY projects can be immense.

I am far more productive with a Linux desktop and self-hosted / managed "solutions" than their commercial alternatives.

For example: My media server setup far outperforms Netflix and Spotify in terms of ROI and /even/ convenience.

Similarly my Linux desktop PC is better for work and play compared to any off the shelf MacOS or Windows experience.

If you have the perseverance and initial time to invest, you end up over time saving so much time and money.

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> If you have enough skill (or the willingness to learn) and initial investment of time, then the ROI on these DIY projects can be immense.

I self host a ton of stuff. Sometimes I feel like I'm wasting time that could be spent writing code, but, ultimately, I think having good sysadmin and network admin abilities makes a difference in the quality of software development.

Sometimes I see developers that barely seem to know how networks and DNS work.

And the whole argument about time spent is getting weaker. My stuff has gotten to the point where it's a bunch of Docker containers that I could auto-update if I wanted. The hardest part is picking containers that are maintained, but all the official ones are nowadays.

De-cloudification is a thing now: https://www.economist.com/business/2021/07/03/do-the-costs-o...

We're coming a full circle. At work, we just installed a couple of massive 64-core Xeon machines. On prem. Like it is 2002.

> If you have enough skill (or the willingness to learn)

Building the skill requires an investment of time, which has to be compared against more productive (read: profitable) alternatives. Remember that all endeavors have opportunity costs.

> My media server setup far outperforms Netflix and Spotify

Every time I've done the math, this only comes out ahead financially if you already have a huge library or if you are willing to torrent.

Is there something I'm missing?

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