James R Kirk

Ah ok, so ignoring Calibre for a moment, what’s the difference between Calibre-Web and Calibre-Web Automated? The ReadMe does not contain a list of the differences.

This is explaining the difference between Calibre and Calibre-Web.

The person you replied to asked what the connection is between “Calibre-Web” and “Calibre-Web Automated”

The LinkedIn-styled writing here is hard for me to get through, but I think the general gist is that for profit platforms are easier to onboard which I agree with. This line stands out:

And what do we get in return? A worse experience than cloud-based services.

I have to disagree somewhat, it’s a different experience that is absolutely more difficult in many ways, but for those of us who value privacy, control over our data, and don’t like ads, the trade-off is worth it. Also it goes without saying that the usability of selfhosted apps has exploded in the past few years and it will likely become less and less of an issue.

Using recycled parts is the best advice. As you said, it’s almost certainly overkill and the price can’t be beat.

Jellyfin is great, but in defense of Plex, they announced that remote streaming would require one of the two parties to have a Plex pass was coming back in March so I don’t know if it’s fair to say they are holding anything hostage.

A Fedi instance requires a time commitment, there are some good suggestions in here but I recommend some alternative frontends.