Self-Host Weekly (12 December 2025)

Weekly Highlights

A few weeks ago, we learned via GitHub's annual Octoverse report that around 230 new repositories are created on the platform every minute. And while this newsletter is an attempt to eliminate as much of that noise as possible, I still receive regular feedback that my lists can be a bit overwhelming at times (I'm currently on track to have covered more than 1,000 new projects in 2025, which equates to ~19/week).

If you're one of those people, you'll likely be interested in a post I published this week outlining my favorite self-hosted software launches of 2025 (link below). As are all lists, it's a bit biased towards my own interests, so I'd encourage everyone to continue exploring new software and not write off any that didn't make it (like Termix and NetVisor).

My Favorite Self-Hosted Apps Launched in 2025

A look back at some of my favorite self-hosted software and applications released in 2025

selfh.stEthan Sholly

On the topic of new software, it's become somewhat of a trend over the last several months for new projects to describe themselves as 'modern'. Not only is this not a helpful descriptor (What is 'modern'? Is the design modern? The codebase?), but a good portion of the time it's simply not true. Please stop.

Other Highlights

• Linkwarden (bookmarks/read later) now has mobile apps for Android and iOS, making it easier to access saved content on-the-go (with offline support!)
• Bitwarden Lite (previously Unified) is officially out of beta for those who aren't comfortable spinning up the popular community fork Vaultwarden
• Ente, best known for their open-source photos app, recently received a $25,000 FLOSS/fund grant and launched a beta for their latest platform, Locker (secure storage for passwords, documents, notes, etc.)
• The 1st and 2nd gen Nest thermostats reached end of life for support from Google back in October. A new open source project called No Longer Evil has now popped up for users who aren't quite ready to retire the older hardware.
• Plex got a nod from the satirical online publication The Onion, who joked the project made a $35 bid for Warner Bros. after a bidding war broke out this week between Netflix and Paramount (and Plex responded)
• The Home Assistant community is up in arms over the recent removal of the Dominos integration (and a new meme/copypasta was born)

Off-Topic

• Oxford announced their 2025 word of the year: rage bait
• This interesting piece from the head of Kagi's machine learning group on the difference between lying vs bullshitting within the context of LLMs

Happy selfh.st/ing!

Newswire

Announcing Linkwarden for iOS & Android | Linkwarden Blog

Announcement Banner

LinkwardenDaniel

Over 10,000 Docker Hub images found leaking credentials, auth keys

More than 10,000 Docker Hub container images expose data that should be protected, including live credentials to production systems, CI/CD databases, or LLM model keys.

BleepingComputerBill Toulas

Lightweight and flexible: Bitwarden lite self-host deployment is now generally available | Bitwarden

Bitwarden lite self-host deployment, formerly unified, is now generally available! This self-host option is a more lightweight and flexible deployment alternative, ideal for homelab enthusiasts and community members who want to get started quickly with self-hosting Bitwarden.

Bitwardenauthored by:Kasey Babcock

Plex Submits $35 Bid For Warner Bros.

LOS GATOS, CA—In an attempt to fend off growing competition from Paramount and Netflix, Plex CEO Keith Valory announced Monday that the streaming platform had submitted a $35 bid for Warner Bros. Discovery. “We believe the Harry Potter and DC universes will prove excellent additions to our slate of free-to-stream titles including Petticoat Junction and […]

The OnionThe Onion Staff

More devices, more choice: celebrating a massive year for certification

A look back at a big year for Work with Home Assistant certifications

Home AssistantMiranda Bishop

Guarding My Git Forge Against AI Scrapers - VulpineCitrus

A summary of the techniques in place to protect my git forge

VulpineCitruslymkwi (lux)

Proxmox delivers its software-defined datacenter contender

: New ‘Datacenter Manager’ manages VMs across multiple sites or clusters

The RegisterSimon Sharwood

Chamberlain blocks smart home integrations with its garage door openers — again

More cause for RATGDO

The VergeJennifer Pattison Tuohy

More From selfh.st

dockcheck: A CLI Tool for Updating Container Images

An introduction to updating container images from the command line with dockcheck

selfh.stRobin Ivehult

Building Slink: Lessons from Creating a Self-Hosted Image Hosting Platform

Challenges and architectural decisions while building a community-driven image-sharing platform

selfh.stAndrii Kryvoviaz

Content Spotlight

Meet wastebin, a lightweight and minimal self-hosted pastebin platform. With wastebin, users can easily and securely share code snippets and text with others from the comfort of a web interface and without the unnecessary hardware requirements of popular alternatives. Features include deployment via a single binary, syntax highlighting for 170+ languages, color themes, password encryption, auto-deletion after expiration, and QR codes.

wastebin can be easily deployed via bare metal or Docker and requires a SQLite database for storage.

Links: Source Code, Demo

Videos and Podcasts

• BentoPDF Tutorial – Edit, Merge, Compress & Convert PDFs in Your Browser! | SYNACK Time
• Installing Tracktor on TrueNAS Community Edition 2025 | Servers@Home
• I Moved to Immich… Can It Really Replace Google Photos? | Lawrence Systems
• Labdash - a powerful, simple, dashboard. | Awesome Open Source
• Build a Beautiful Adventure Map on Your Unraid Server | AlienTech42
• How to Build a Home Server in 2026 (without going insane) | Wolfgang's Channel

Command Line Corner

Use stat -c %y <file> to view a file's most recent modification date and time from the command line:

$ stat -c %y example.txt
  2025-12-12 07:01:56 -0500

Executive Sponsors

Thanks to following executive sponsors, whose continued support makes this newsletter possible:

• Servers@Home
• tirreno
• Vigilant

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