hai

I prefer docker because it is comfortable for me and I run all my services on one server, but it is indeed a bit less easy.

Reading all of these replying I'm starting to think that maybe my problem was assuming that because add-ons are Docker container they should be treated as such.

Yeah, that's why I finally ditched it, (I said this in another reply) but it was intended to be something the family could figure out if I wasn't available or something did happen to me. There's no way they could figure all of that out, doubly so with everything that felt "hackish" just to get Home Assistant and Jellyfin running.

I'd rather them have a usable experience now, that I setup with the least amount of hacks and cloud services. I know it's kinda weird and an unhappy reason, but it also (hopefully) will make my life easier.

Yes and no. If you want a really simple setup HAOS add-ons are amazing, but as soon as you want to run something someone else hasn't created a container for you're stuck doing extra work than just writing a Dockerfile or docker-compose. Plus, you can't setup networks between them and (as mentioned in the original post) sharing drives can be hackish as well.

The (grim) reason had I tried HAOS was because of the promise of something really simple that my family could figure out if something ever happened to me.

I'm (currently) on Raspberry Pi OS (as I need something that "just works"). Home Assistant is running in Docker like everything else.

A lot of apps use hard coded paths, so using a subdomain per app makes it much easier to use them all. Traefik has middleware, including stripPrefix, which allow you to strip a path prefix before forwarding the path to the app, though - have you tried that approach?

I should've mentioned this, but I'm using Nginx (I really enjoy the simplicity of just having to add a section to a file whenever I want to add something). Before running HAOS I was running RPIOS again and used Traefik, it worked (but felt like a lot more work to setup than just a plain Nginx setup).

Edit: I forgot to mention, but there are things like stripPrefix for Nginx, I'm going to look into them. Although, this is what I meant, when you start to do things that are "advanced" with Home Assistant they turn into "hacks," and the barrier for advanced things feels a lot lower than with other self-hosted services (and I get that Home Assistant is very complex under the hood, it's just frustrating).

I am a happy openHAB user for 5+ years. Have you considered switching to see if you like it?

I actually have considered it, and I'm still thinking about it.

I run stuff locally and can connect over VPN to my home and operate as if I am inside the home. I have not looked into these other cloudflare tunnels or tail scale as I don’t think it would provide any advantage to my current setup.

I have a strange setup. My ISP is Starlink (so I'm behind a CGNAT), meaning I kinda need another service to access them outside the network, but (as mentioned) I mainly host for my family who wouldn't know how to work another app or VPN.

They added a casual game mode, that I think is offline.

So, it's an app for Ubuntu Pro. Just what I needed.

I think it’s more that there really isn’t a need for this. If I’m not sure what a tab is I can always click on it. Chromium got this a while back and (even with minimal exposure to Chromium) I didn’t like it, it weirdly felt annoying and unnecessary.

I’m gonna start comparing all my options today or tomorrow. Thanks a bunch for you help, I hadn’t seen that thread before! I also hadn’t seen Posteo yet, but it looks pretty good.

Honestly, I just need something that works and is standardized. Also, I just want email — I thought Proton had an email only plan, but they must’ve removed it or something. I have my own VPN, and don’t torrent or do other things that I need to hide from my ISP (who are pretty lazy anyway).

Thanks for the information though! Cool that they have a way that you can still use the apps you want (that was my biggest problem with Skiff tbh).

I might take a break from these encrypted ones, I’m thinking about trying to find a plain old IMAP/POP provider.

My problem is with annoying advertisements within a productivity suite for something I don’t want.

I would’ve been fine if all they did was add AI, but there seemed to be a new one every time I logged in.

Edit: it is also kind a privacy thing.