Your options will depend on many things…

• How much storage is needed?
• Is RAID important to you?
• Is power usage a concern?
• Noise level?

I don’t know how demanding photoprism is, but you could probably do fine with a refurbished i5/i7 Dell Optiplex or similar, with one or more SSDs added to it. If money is really tight and storage needs are high, you could go with mechanical drives instead.

The problem with enterprise servers is that are generally very loud and use a lot of power…not unlike adding a second refrigerator to your environment. In my opinion, they’re not worth it unless you have a specific use case (training for a career, etc.).

Yep, this is how we’ve kept ours for over 20 years. Even if you don’t use the command line, most graphical file browsers will search through text files without issue.

One of these days I’ll get around to setting up my own email server, but in the meantime I just take advantage of introductory offers on shared hosting plans. I purchase the 3-year plans and end up paying about $3-4/mo (CAD). When the plan is nearing expiry, I take my data and move on to the next web host. Been doing this for about 28 years now.

Radicale on the home server, which syncs contacts and calendaring for us. Thunderbird on the desktop. Fossify Calendar on Android, synced to Radicale via DAVx⁵.

I think you’ll be out of luck for 3 slots, but you could always use the native slot for OS and dock the other 2 via USB with RAID capability in something like this.

I’m a big fan of the Intel NUC platform, coupled with a fanless case and all-SSD/NVMe drives. They’re low-powered, fast enough for most common tasks, and completely silent.

I have an NVMe drive for the OS (currently Proxmox, soon to be Debian again or Fedora), containers and VMs, and an internal 8TB SSD for data storage (whole disk encrypted). This may not meet your needs if you’re intending to be a data hoarder, but I have a sizeable movie and lossless music collection accumulated over 25 years and I’m not even using 4TB yet.

You can of course still use a similar setup but keep even larger storage on a NAS device, or simply use a USB dock with a couple of 16TB drives. It’s really down to whatever your needs are.

I love that the server, router, modem, and switch use such a small footprint and are able to be powered for up to an hour by an equally small and inexpensive 600VA UPS.

Depends on your power needs. My home server is an Intel NUC, so I’m able to keep it, the modem, router, and main switches running through most power outages with an APC 600VA UPS for about $80 USD.

I try to keep things simple and just use Markdown files for everything. I have a doc for each physical device, and another doc for each service/container running on the LAN.

I generally track hardware specs, upgrade paths, and software changelogs/todos as unsorted lists within these docs. It’s super portable and easily synced across devices via Syncthing.

You’re very welcome. For Markor, I wasn’t a fan of the default viewer theme, which is how I view most notes when on mobile, so I made some tweaks to improve its appearance…below is a screenshot:

If you want something similar, add the following under Settings > View mode:

• Open existing files in view mode: on (this may be default)
• Link color: #71aaff

And replace the <style>...</style> block under the inject -> head pop-up with the following CSS:

<style> 
html, body { 
  font-family: sans-serif-condensed;
  font-size: 110%;
  background: #0d1117; 
  color: #c9d1d9;
  margin: 0;
  padding: 0.5em;
}

a {
  color: 58a6ff;
  text-decoration: none;
}

h1, h2, h3, h4 {
  padding-bottom: 0.25em;
  border-bottom: 2px solid #222934;
}

hr {
  border: 2px solid #222934;
}

pre, code {
  color: #b5a5ee;
}
</style>

I write nearly everything in markdown. Like you, I don’t want databases, or other barriers that will complicate portability.

I just use my text editor of choice, usually VSCodium or vim on the desktop, and Syncthing to keep the notes synced across all of our devices.

On Android, I’ve been happily using the Markor markdown editor for years. I’ve tried several others but always return to its simplicity.

All of the above editors support opening folders in a tree view, so you can easily keep your notes sorted under a traditional folder structure and find what you when you need it.

Edit: Forgot to mention that Markor does have a dedicated to-do feature too, which also uses markdown.

We use markdown notes extensively. Everything is synced to our desktops and mobile devices with Syncthing. Markor editor for Android, and VSCodium/vim on the desktop. Works great for tech notes, medical info, shopping lists, recipes, etc.

The deal breaker for me is that it seems the low-level component that would interface with the shells (presumably managing credentials in some way) is closed source and off-repo. That’s a big red flag for me, no matter how benign the intention.

I hear Anna’s Archives is great for ebooks. I don’t do audiobooks, and can’t stand podcasts, but it sounds like a lot of good suggestions were made for those already.

I haven’t had time to check out the forks from Tibor’s apps, but I recall there were issues with the original Simple Calendar Pro which is why I had settled on Etar at the time. I’ll definitely keep an eye on Naveen’s repos though.

Thanks for the info. Davx5 has worked well for me, but it’s still nice to have alternatives.

My challenge has been finding a decent open source calendar app for Android, which unfortunately excludes Calengoo. I’m just not interested in using closed source network-capable apps to manage my personal information.

Radicale, and I only sync when at home on the LAN. Super simple to setup, requires minimal maintenance and very few resources.

Thunderbird on our workstations syncs directly to Radicale, and it’s an overall good experience.

I use DAVx⁵ to sync on Android/GrapheneOS, but not overly thrilled with the calendaring options there…Etar works “okay”.

I don’t think you’ll be able to build anything with €100, but you might be able to buy an old PC or laptop locally and use it as is. I’ve never run nextcloud myself, but from I’ve read it’ll be the most taxing service on your list. Everything seems pretty minimal, though I don’t know anything about Photoprism.

VSCodium on the desktop, and Markor on Android. I write everything in markdown, and VSCodium is already where I spend half my time editing and writing code, so it was an easy choice. I also use Vim for quick one-offs, especially if I’m already working on a project with it.

Like others here, I also use Syncthing to keep my notes synced between home server, remote clients, and mobile devices.

Manual password entry. I feel that any other method offers insufficient security.

For my desktops, this means interactive decryption before the OS loads. For my servers, only the data drives are encrypted, and I decrypt them manually over SSH whenever a reboot is needed (kernel updates, etc.).

I have a couple of Pis, but currently only using the Pi 4 which is my Kodi box (LibreELEC). I planned to use my older Pi 3B as a web server, but I also have Proxmox on a NUC running as my main home server, so I don’t know if there’s any advantage to using the Pi at this point.