#546: Self hosting apps for Python people
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.
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Links from the show
Guest
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
Self-hosted apps discussed
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
Storage, backup & filesystem
OpenZFS: openzfs.org
ZFS.rent (offsite ZFS replication): zfs.rent
Backblaze: backblaze.com
Hetzner Storage Box: hetzner.com
DigitalOcean: digitalocean.com
Secrets management mentioned
OpenBao (open-source Vault fork): openbao.org
HashiCorp Vault: hashicorp.com
Bitwarden: bitwarden.com
1Password: 1password.com
Hardware mentioned
Proxmox VE: proxmox.com
Minisforum MS01: minisforum.com
Zima Board / Zima OS: zimaspace.com
Other references
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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Down the Linux rabbit hole (Friends)
Alex Kretzschmar joins Adam for a trip down the Linux rabbit hole – Docker vs Podman, building a Kubernetes cluster, ZFS backups with zfs.rent, bootc, favorite Linux distros, new homelab tools built with AI, self-hosting Immich, content creation, Plex and Jellyfin, the future of piracy and more.
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Sponsors:
Tiger Data – Postgres for Developers, devices, and agents The data platform trusted by hundreds of thousands from IoT to Web3 to AI and more.
Depot – 10x faster builds? Yes please. Build faster. Waste less time. Accelerate Docker image builds, and GitHub Actions workflows. Easily integrate with your existing CI provider and dev workflows to save hours of build time.
Augment Code – Adam loves “Auggie” – Augment Code’s CLI that brings Augment’s context engine and powerful AI reasoning anywhere your code goes. From building alongside you in the terminal to any part of your development workflow.
Framer – Design and publish in one place. Get started free at framer.com/design, code CHANGELOG for a free month of Pro.
Featuring:
Alex Kretzschmar – Website, GitHub, LinkedIn, Mastodon, X
Adam Stacoviak – Website, GitHub, LinkedIn, Mastodon, X
Show Notes:
Tailscale YouTube
Docker
Podman
Kubernetes
zfs.rent
bootc
Immich
Plex
Jellyfin
Something missing or broken? PRs welcome!
ANTHOLOGY – Self-hosted, self-confident & self-employed (Friends)
We take you one last time back to the All Things Open 2024 hallway track to talk with some friends, new & old. We speak with Alex Kretzchmar about self-hosting. We speak with Israa Taha about self-confidence. We speak with Avindra Fernando & Adhithi Ravichandran about self-employment.
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Sponsors:
Sentry – Code breaks, fix it faster. Don’t just observe. Take action. Sentry is the only app monitoring platform built for developers that gets to the root cause for every issue. 100,000+ growing teams use sentry to find problems fast. Use the code CHANGELOG when you sign up to get $100 OFF the team plan.
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Featuring:
Alex Kretzschmar – Website, GitHub, LinkedIn, Mastodon, X
Israa Taha – Website, GitHub, LinkedIn, X
Avindra Fernando – Website, LinkedIn, X
Adhithi Ravichandran – Website, GitHub, LinkedIn, X
Jerod Santo – Website, GitHub, LinkedIn, Mastodon, X
Adam Stacoviak – Website, GitHub, LinkedIn, Mastodon, X
Show Notes:
Self-hosted media server goodness (Changelog & Friends #44)
Self-Hosted Show
Nix & NixOS
Self-Hosted 133: No Google October
Perplexica is an AI-powered search engine
Foo Camp - Wikipedia
BarCamp - Wikipedia
Something missing or broken? PRs welcome!
Self-hosted media server goodness (Friends)
Alex Kretzschmar joins Adam to discuss their experiences with building the “perfect media server” and all the hardware and software involved to make it happen — LinuxServer.io, PerfectMediaServer.com, Plex, Jellyfin, ZFS, mergerfs, TrueNAS, Docker Compose and so much more in this episode.
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Sponsors:
Sentry – Code breaks, fix it faster. Don’t just observe. Take action. Sentry is the only app monitoring platform built for developers that gets to the root cause for every issue. 90,000+ growing teams use sentry to find problems fast. Use the code CHANGELOG when you sign up to get $100 OFF the team plan.
Tailscale – Adam loves Tailscale! Tailscale is programmable networking software that’s private and secure by default. It’s the easiest way to connect devices and services to each other, wherever they are. Secure, remote access to production, databases, servers, kubernetes, and more. Try Tailscale for free for up to 100 devices and 3 users at changelog.com/tailscale, no credit card required. Also check out Remotely access Home Assistant via Tailscale for free!
Coda – Your all-in-one collaborative workspace. Coda brings teams and tools together for a more organized work day.
Fly.io – The home of Changelog.com — Deploy your apps and databases close to your users. In minutes you can run your Ruby, Go, Node, Deno, Python, or Elixir app (and databases!) all over the world. No ops required. Learn more at fly.io/changelog and check out the speedrun in their docs.
Featuring:
Alex Kretzschmar – Website, GitHub, LinkedIn, Mastodon, X
Adam Stacoviak – Website, GitHub, LinkedIn, Mastodon, X
Show Notes:
blog.ktz.me
linuxserver.io
perfectmediaserver.com
ZFS is resource efficient.
selfhosted.show
The Best Media Server CPU… in the world.
A Cheap No-Frills OPNsense box
mergerfs
The beginning of linuxserver.io
jimsalterjrs/sanoid
Jellyfin
Plex
Restic
Auto-Restic
Something missing or broken? PRs welcome!
Software for your second brain
Alex comes up with better ways to interact with technology and writes about it on his website.
Is there a link between playing music and writing code? A previous article of ours covered the merger of the two in the music programming language, Sonic PI.
If you're curious about the weird extremes of operating system development, check out TempleOS.
Cassidy and Alex both take copious notes through Obsidian. Alex has a plugin that may help you organize notes automatically.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.