Steadfast Self-Hosting

🇩🇪 Deutsch

2026-01-02T00:00:00-08:00

The German translation is available for purchase in ebook and paperback. Happy new year!

The $10 ebook bundle price includes beautifully formatted EPUB, A4 PDF, and HTML versions of the book. The English version now uses the same pricing. If you want the ebook and cannot afford it, contact me for a discount code.

The $25 paperback is a 6” x 9” (US Trade) paperback full-color print with durable matte cover, available direct from the printer now, and eventually available most places you can buy books (it takes a while for Lulu’s “global distribution” to kick in).

Table of contents¶

See 📑 Content. Chapters in the German translation match one to one.

Sample pages¶

See screenshots on the ebook product page.

🌲 Evergreen

2025-04-15T00:00:00-07:00

Ebook readers rejoice: we just got several recent typesetting improvements thanks to Georger including centering captions and conforming the table of contents across formats.

I am grateful for Georger’s patches. This is exactly why I used FOSS licensing. The book is an evergreen work, ever growing and evolving.

In other news:

We’re working on a German translation 🇩🇪. ETA September.
I made a conscious effort to use zero exclamation marks in this post but believe me, I am stoked.

🙏 Reviews

2024-10-08T00:00:00-07:00

To my readers:

Sorry, I am unable to stream this video to you. Please download it or try playing it from a different browser or device.

Thank you for getting my book. Please leave me a review. Good reviews will attract more potential readers. They’ll really make a difference. If you have negative feedback, I want that too! Maybe just send it directly to me first. Give me a chance to earn your five-star review. My goal is to earn 10 reviews on Amazon, Goodreads, Lulu, and Gumroad by the end of the week. I’d appreciate your help if you have the time. Thank you. Together we can help spread the word about self-hosting!

Heart,
-Adam

I also emailed this to readers and posted it on Gumroad.

Looks like the book is on its way to the Seattle Public Library, too!

🏋️ Strong

2024-07-31T00:00:00-07:00

📬 If you want to stay in touch, join my mailing list. Imagine the sound of me cheering as you do.

🏗️ How’s your self-hosting journey going? Is your server running? Is it awesome? I’d like to hear all about it!

❓ Stuck? Come to an in person workshop. I’ll be in Portland at FOSSY this Saturday.

⁉️ Still stuck? Check out my new howto video.

Sorry, I am unable to stream this video to you. Please download it or try playing it from a different browser or device.

🚀 Got a new service of your own to share? I shared a Pi-hole extension to mario and I intend to share more.

🐞 Found a bug? Send me a patch. Be a part of [possibly the first] self-hosting [book’s commit] history! I’ve done a few releases already, and I’ll incorporate all the latest fixes and improvements in the next release.

💞 Loved the book? Please give me a positive rating/review wherever you buy books (not necessarily where you got it). I need your help spreading the word!

🖋️ Want me to sign your book? I’d love to. Come to a workshop, like the one this weekend at FOSSY.

📖 Paperbacks are available direct from the printer. You can buy a copy from many other booksellers as well or request it at your local library.

Heart,
-Adam

Author’s note: I also emailed this to readers and posted it on Gumroad.

🗃️ Resources

2024-07-01T00:00:00-07:00

Here are some resources I recommend for self-hosters besides what you’ll find in the More Resources chapter in the book.

selfh.st ¶

selfh.st is a great place to keep up on self-hostable software. Ethan Sholly ships an excellent email newsletter once a week.

videos¶

I’m making short videos to illustrate some concepts from the book. Here’s the first:

How to create a test VM for your self-hosting homelab¶

Sorry, I am unable to stream this video to you. Please download it or try playing it from a different browser or device.

This demo walks through creating a server VM for use with the book. You may watch it here or elsewhere, with ads and other distractions.

In the installer I use the default auto DHCP networking option to minimize customizations. I use my LAN router to assign an IP address that doesn’t change instead of configuring a static IP address in the server OS (this technique is mentioned in the book under “OS Install”).

Take care to download the correct Ubuntu server ISO image for your hardware. See this issue if your VM host is a mac and you run into poor performance.

Please forgive my terrible video cropping and editing. I wanted to make sure and leave room for improvement. 😉

🛠️ Workshops

2024-07-01T00:00:00-07:00

Come join a hands-on session to help each other get unblocked wherever we’re at, from curious consideration about standing up a server to adding and improving smooth-running services. These workshops focus on fundamental concepts, tools, and techniques from the book, although having and having read the book is not required.

What	Where	When
Apache Community Over Code 2025 conference	Minneapolis, MN, USA	Thu Sep 11, 2025 at 11:00am Central
SeaGL 2024 conference	Seattle, WA, USA and online	Sat Nov 9, 2024 at 11:00am Pacific
BLU meeting	online	Wed Sep 18, 2024 at 6:30pm Eastern
BELUG meeting	Bellevue, WA, USA and online	Tue Sep 10, 2024 at 6:30pm Pacific
BELUG meeting (Presented by Dave Compton)	Bellevue, WA, USA and online	Tue Aug 13, 2024 at 6:30pm Pacific
FOSSY 2024 conference	Portland, OR, USA and online	Sat Aug 3, 2024

If you want me to speak somewhere not listed above, connect me with an organizer for the event.

Attendees: Please consider buying your own physical or digital copy of the book. This is the best way to participate and support the author. If you’re unable to afford a copy, scholarships are available.

As you read the book, you’re encouraged to join in the community chat and forum to get help and share your improvements with other readers.

🌏 Global

2024-06-23T00:00:00-07:00

The standard quality paperback is now in global distribution. That means my printer will get it out to many places folks can actually pick it up, flip through it, and buy it.

I learned the hard way that self-publishing is hard (ok, I was warned, I did it anyway). One challenge is distributing the actual printed book. You usually have to interface with various places with various printing requirements. Each collects various amounts of money to get your book in front of customers.

So whew, Lulu is taking care of distribution and saving me a lot of time and hassle. Jury’s out on the quality of their distribution… so far all I see is a listing on Amazon with many typos introduced by their distribution system. Hopefully they’ll fix this soon (I’m waiting to hear back on multiple support tickets). And I’ll get less money than if folks bought the print book directly from Lulu, but hopefully more readers, and I had already prioritized readership.

This whole print distribution pipeline is still a bit cumbersome on my end, and this matters for errata. It takes a while to update everything so new prints have the latest improvements. If you find a potential error in your copy, check the latest git commits since your version to see if it has been fixed. If it has not yet been fixed, please let me know.

📖 Paperback

2024-06-05T00:00:00-07:00

The paperback is ready!

You may buy one today.

Quality¶

I currently use Lulu print on demand.

I took my time experimenting with Lulu. They offer many choice combinations as far as materials and quality. I formatted and tested a few and landed on two versions: A “standard” economical and good-looking print, as well as a “premium” print with better ink and less print variance.

Here are some photos of actual prints. I saw most obvious differences in the color photos and illustrations. The content changed a bit between prints, so ignore differences like “Figure 7” vs. “Figure 8”. Ignore object distortion, too; that’s me trying to line up the shots by hand.

Traefik gopher logo - standard quality. From the MIT-licensed Traefik source code. Credit to Peka for the gopher logo, licensed CC-BY-3.0.

Traefik gopher logo - premium quality. From the MIT-licensed Traefik source code. Credit to Peka for the gopher logo, licensed CC-BY-3.0.

Server in the shape of a loaf of bread - standard quality.

Server in the shape of a loaf of bread - premium quality.

These photos capture how the premium ink shines a bit in direct light. I like the effect, but YMMV.

I can’t comment on variance between prints/printers, that’s up to Lulu. Please see the Lulu printing quality FAQ.

Offset printing looks cool too but I’m not ready for that level of scale and commitment.

📖 Ebook

2024-05-28T00:00:00-07:00

The book is done and I’m excited to set it loose!

I wanted to share paper copies first but printing this baby is challenging. It’s probably me: I want it to look great, I’m self-publishing, and I’m doing all this for the first time. So yeah, it’s taking a while longer than I expected. Shouldn’t be much longer now though, probably about a month.

While I’m working on printing, I published digital copies. Please buy one today. I don’t want money to be a barrier here; if you can’t afford to buy it you can get it for free.

⁉️ FAQ

2024-05-28T00:00:00-07:00

Great job!¶

Thank you!

How much is it? Where do I get it?¶

See 💵 Buy.

I found a bug / typo¶

You rock. Will you please let me know about it and/or send me a patch?

I added ten services to mario¶

You rock. Will you share what you did here?

Why can’t I get the book on my bookseller/platform/device?¶

Because I have issues. It’s lot of work, some promote DRM, they track you, it costs money, stuff like that.

When can I get one printed on actual paper?¶

Now. See 💵 Buy.

Where’s the party?¶

We should do one! I was kinda waiting for printed copies to be ready; those would be really handy for in-person gatherings.

Who’s the superhero on the cover?¶

They don’t have a name yet! Maybe suggest one to me? They are described in an image alt attribute for book-cover.png like so:

Book cover art with title text, author name, and featuring our Steadfast hero in a cartoon fantasy rolling-hills landscape on a partly cloudy day, holding up their hand in triumph with the apps they successfully self-host magically extending into the air. Our hero has brown-skin, a half-shaved head of dark hair, purple cape, teal shoulder puffs, white sleeves, blue gloves, brown shirt, tan equipment strap and belt, red upper leggings, teal lower leggings, and light brown boots.

Thanks to my daughter for colorfully bringing them to life.

Yay, AGPL / ugh, AGPL¶

Yep, I hear you!

I bought the book, it is rad, what next?¶

Buy one to share with a friend. Talk to your local school or public librarian to request a copy or buy one for them.

I don’t like the book¶

Dang! I tried my best. Please let me know why you didn’t like it. Consider sharing your thoughts publicly. You can also improve it or write a better one.

I can translate this, and I want to!¶

Great! See 💻 Code.

Wait, it is FOSS, I can pay for it and it is free? Why are you leaving money on the table? How can you afford to do this?¶

Those are excellent questions. Briefly:

Yes it is FOSS and you can pay what you’re able & willing to to buy it, hopefully I’m not leaving money on the table
if I am leaving money on the table it’s because I’m prioritizing distribution over profit, and
I kinda can’t afford to do this. 😆 But it sure is fun!

The detailed explanation is, well, detailed. If you’re interested I could explain it over coffee or on a podcast or something.

Where has this been mentioned?¶

Lemmy
Hacker News
LinkedIn
Mastodon: me, Deb, jcrabapple, Darnell Clayton
Reddit r/selfhosted
#selfhosted:matrix.org chat
Facebook
𝕏

🎙️ LibrePlanet

2024-04-17T00:00:00-07:00

I will be delivering my talk, “Steadfast Self-Hosting” on Sunday, May 5, 2024, 16:00—16:45 EDT (20:00 UTC), at the LibrePlanet 2024 conference, and I hope you’ll check it out!

LibrePlanet is a conference about software freedom, happening on May 4 & 5, 2024. The event is hosted by the Free Software Foundation (FSF), and brings together software developers, law and policy experts, activists, students, and computer users to learn skills, celebrate free software accomplishments, and face upcoming challenges. Newcomers are always welcome, and LibrePlanet 2024 will feature programming for all ages and experience levels.

Please register in advance at https://libreplanet.org/2024/.

👀 Beta

2024-02-14T00:00:00-08:00

Early access to Steadfast Self-Hosting¶

The beta is now full and closed to new participants. Thank you for your interest. Original invite text preserved for posterity, below.

You’re invited! Be a part of a select group of individuals with the power to make a great book excellent. This is a unique opportunity to influence the direction of the book prior to printing, publication, and general availability. I’m calling this my “beta”. As a beta reader you’ll get:

early access to EPUB, HTML, and PDF versions of the book
all source code and access to source control
access to chat and email with the beta group and one-on-one with the author
deep gratitude from the author

Beta readers are expected to:

read the book
read the source
run the source
provide feedback on all of the above
join the chat and mailing list

You may seek an exception to these expectations; just ask.

Please contact me and let me know you want to be a beta reader.

How it works¶

Yep, I really want you to read my book for free! I’m doing this to perfect the pre-print book and raise awareness about it.

Joining the beta is free (gratis) and anyone may ask to join.

All members of the beta must follow our rules.

The beta book is available in US English only.

📑 Content

2024-01-12T00:00:00-08:00

Table of contents¶

Introduction

Welcome, copyright, prerequisites, style.
Background

Reasoning, inspiration, motivation, author info, deeper meaning.
Your journey

Why you should or should not self-host.
Practical examples

Examples validating self-hosting.
Plan

Budget, resources, schedule, transition, user support.
System design

Service stack, security, operating system.
Implementation

How to prepare your server for mario and perform maintenance.
mario

How to provision your server (prepare it for running services).
Services

How to run Nextcloud and a few other self-hosted services.
What's next?

Ideas for future learning, homelab projects, improvements.
More resources

Source code, contact info, support, alternatives to this book.
Discussion topics

Conversation starters for a group of readers.
Exercises

Applied usage ideas for a group of readers.

Sample pages¶

See screenshots on the ebook product page.

🎙️ SeaGL

2023-11-04T00:00:00-07:00

I talked about my book at SeaGL 2023.

Similar to FOSSY, I felt great about it and audience feedback was positive.

📻 Sustain

2023-10-20T00:00:00-07:00

Richard Littauer interviewed me at FOSSY 2023.

Check it out!

🎙️ FOSSY

2023-07-15T00:00:00-07:00

I talked about my book at FOSSY 2023.

I felt great about it and audience feedback was positive.

🚀 Start

2023-02-15T00:00:00-08:00

I’m going to write a book! Wish me luck.

I got a server running (thanks Rob!) and it has been working well for a few years now. I’m experimenting with a bunch of self-hosted services. Mostly Nextcloud, Jellyfin, and Wallabag.

Seems worth writing about.

Steadfast Self-Hosting

🇩🇪 Deutsch

Table of contents¶

Sample pages¶

🌲 Evergreen

🙏 Reviews

🏋️ Strong

🗃️ Resources

selfh.st¶

videos¶

How to create a test VM for your self-hosting homelab¶

🛠️ Workshops

🌏 Global

📖 Paperback

Quality¶

📖 Ebook

⁉️ FAQ

Great job!¶

How much is it? Where do I get it?¶

I found a bug / typo¶

I added ten services to mario¶

Why can’t I get the book on my bookseller/platform/device?¶

When can I get one printed on actual paper?¶

Where’s the party?¶

Who’s the superhero on the cover?¶

Yay, AGPL / ugh, AGPL¶

I bought the book, it is rad, what next?¶

I don’t like the book¶

I can translate this, and I want to!¶

Wait, it is FOSS, I can pay for it and it is free? Why are you leaving money on the table? How can you afford to do this?¶

Where has this been mentioned?¶

🎙️ LibrePlanet

👀 Beta

Early access to Steadfast Self-Hosting¶

How it works¶

📑 Content

Table of contents¶

Sample pages¶

🎙️ SeaGL

📻 Sustain

🎙️ FOSSY

🚀 Start

selfh.st ¶