The cloud is convenient until it isn't. You upload your photos, sync your contacts, click through the cookie banners. Then prices go up again or you read about a family that lost their entire Google account over a medical photo sent to a doctor. At some point, the question shifts from "why would I run this myself?" to "why aren't I?"

My guest this week is Alex Kretzschmar, head of DevRel at Tailscale, longtime host of the Self-Hosted podcast, and co-founder of Linuxserver.io. We cover what self-hosting really means in 2026, the apps worth running yourself like Immich and Home Assistant, why Docker Compose ties it all together, and how Tailscale lets you reach any of it from anywhere, without opening a single port. If you've been thinking about pulling your digital life back behind your own walls, this is your roadmap.

Temporal

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Links from the show

Alex Kretzschmar: alex.ktz.me

Bitflip podcast: bitflip.show

Self-Hosted podcast (Alex's previous show): selfhosted.show

Perfect Media Server: perfectmediaserver.com

KTZ Systems on YouTube: youtube.com/@ktzsystems

Linuxserver.io (co-founded by Alex): linuxserver.io

"How Tailscale Works" blog post: tailscale.com/blog/how-tailscale-works

https://tailscale.com/: tailscale.com

Awesome Self-Hosted (GitHub list): github.com

Immich (Google Photos alternative): immich.app

Home Assistant: home-assistant.io

Open Home Foundation: openhomefoundation.org

Plausible Analytics: plausible.io

Umami Analytics: umami.is

Python integration for umami: pypi.org

Pi-hole: pi-hole.net

AdGuard Home: adguard.com

NextDNS: nextdns.io

Coolify: coolify.io

Docker + ufw: docs.docker.com

OpenZFS: openzfs.org

ZFS.rent (offsite ZFS replication): zfs.rent

Backblaze: backblaze.com

Hetzner Storage Box: hetzner.com

DigitalOcean: digitalocean.com

OpenBao (open-source Vault fork): openbao.org

HashiCorp Vault: hashicorp.com

Bitwarden: bitwarden.com

1Password: 1password.com

Proxmox VE: proxmox.com

Minisforum MS01: minisforum.com

Zima Board / Zima OS: zimaspace.com

Cory Doctorow on "enshittification" (Cory's blog where he coined the term): pluralistic.net

Linus Tech Tips' WAN Show (Linus mentioned NAS-building going mainstream): linustechtips.com

Watch this episode on YouTube: youtube.com

Episode #546 deep-dive: talkpython.fm/546

Episode transcripts: talkpython.fm

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