QHC

Namecheap API works just fine with Certbot DNS challenges for me, FWIW.

I don't use Haier products but a similar thing happened with Chamberlain when they blocked the MyQ integration even though it was using the legitimate API and not breaking any rules. No attempt to work with anyone in the HA community at all, just shut everything down.

On one hand, this means projects like Home Assistant are getting popular enough to have enough usage to effect these companies. So that's great! In the long term, we'll all figure out solutions, but in the short term it feels like an increasing fight between corporate and open-source control over smart devices.

IMO, it's also worth the yearly cost for voice integration with Google Nest/Home or similar devices. Both can be done without paying but it's so much easier and I know it'll be supported over time.

There's also a third audience most people don't consider: everyone reading the thread that isn't engaging directly.

You might not convince the direct 'opponent' in an internet debate, but can still make an impact on others that might be more open to listening to a new perspective.

I have a DS418play which is several generations behind and it runs a dozen Docker containers, including all of my media automation, just fine. I even host a Minecraft server for my nephews!

And fully supported by Synology, too! They are pretty good at embracing the community while still keeping security as a priority.

How would such a thing be financially viable? Once the ability to connect to any website exists, the physical cost to access everything else is essential nothing.

That video is included in the article, it's just at the very bottom for some reason.

I should just start over and try again, probably did something silly that screwed things up.

Do you have personal experience with Nextcloud or Owncloud? I have tried the former and it's been a general nightmare. I'm using Docker and have a dozen or more other containers that all work just fine, but even once I got Nextcloud installed and working it had all kinds of permission problems or just wouldn't install things from its own built-in app store. Never did get any kind of document collaboration working.

The top of Immich's home page says "Do not use it as the only way to store your photos and videos!" Is that hyperbole or a realistic warning?

Nice start and solid choices so far!

Definitely recommend looking into Docker, it'll make cross-platform conflicts and migrations near effortless. Repurposing unused hardware is great, but can also be inefficient or bulky, so a hardware upgrade might be in your future eventually. ;)

If you are interested in automating any media retrieval and/or organization, which I gather you might given you have Plex, look into the *arr ecosystem: Sonarr for TV, Radarr for movies, plus others for books and music and pretty much anything else you can imagine!

My setup is based on Docker and a Synology NAS as the hardware. I recently set up a Minecraft server so my nieces and nephews have somewhere to play together, but may need to move that to my PC as the NAS is not very RAM or CPU heavy.