Being a Neo-Luddite Also Means Not Using Hobbyist Software
Earlier this month, I tried running a homeserver again with an older unused laptop to create a cloud of my own for my images, notes and books.
As someone who is quickly becoming lethargic to modern software as a whole (both in learning it and use it), I aimed to make use of the easiest options there were for homeservers to drive away any nonsensical technical issue. My options landed between Ubuntu Server with Docker Compose, CasaOS (which I later learned was no longer maintained) and UmbrelOS. Kubernetes and Proxmox needing five tutorials to grasp the basics before installing an Docker image were out of the question, I know they own a dedicate audience of hobbyist people but unfortunately I don't want to become a system administrator to backup my orc romance e-books.
I started with CasaOS. I had to install Ubuntu Server onto my ethernet-portless laptop and connect it to Wi-Fi, but unfortunately, and very expected, Ubuntu Server locks the Wi-Fi (and Bluetooth) connection at a radio level by default and the package needed to enable them back wasn't preinstalled after install (nmcli and rfkill respectively). Many of the tutorials found online made use of the same software to troubleshoot my situation, so I had to manually enable it through arcane tee commands, not a great start.
Everything else was as sweet as pie after, I got CasaOS up and running with a reserved static IP address and had some docker apps already running without issues, so the only thing separating me from a cozy and automated workflow were just a few tweaks away.
The many issues that came after this however, not only made me drop the homeserver project just a month later, but also made me to revaluate what my stance on neo-luddite was and became even more critical of the software I wanted to own and use. I started wondering if my next hobby or way to achieve things had to include the usage of a computer.
After yet another failed synchronization between my Calibre-Web library and my Kobo, and days of missed photos from my Immich instance, I took the decision to turn off the homeserver and put the laptop back in the attic.
Being a neo-luddite in the popular sense is to reject or refuse the use of current and developing technologies such as artificial intelligence, smartphones, social media, and supposedly "technological improvements" that are often sold to us as things we desperately need. But in the broader sense, it can also encompass simple living, the passive abandonment of technology and the decision to simply use less of it.
After my small adventure setting up he home server and Docker Composer files, I also started wondering how I could progressively become more of a neo-luddite in this latter sense, in the simple living sense.
I couldn't become a full-blown Luddite. I like to play videogames, I like using my smartphone to send messages, I make use of Apple Music, I still like to browse other people's websites, I am an inveterate hater of social media but still had a semi-regulated usage of my smartphone. That still left me somewhere under the umbrella of the "neo" addition to the word, I assume.
But if I wanted to keep exploring more ways to become a neo-luddite, I would also have to become more critical of the software or the devices I use, including perhaps, both proprietary software and software made by people who share many of the same principles I do (open source).
There seems to be a growing trend toward adopting particular habits and lifestyles in the way we interact with technology. For neo-luddites, this might mean refusing to use social media or AI, avoiding the purchase of Ray-Ban smart glasses, or simply stopping doomscrolling.
But there is also the intersection with technical hobbyists, who are in many ways just as dedicated to using current technology to host, maintain, and manage their own stuff before.
Instead of using Google Photos or iCloud, they would rather host a home server and run a Docker instance such as Ente Photos or Immich. Instead of using Apple Music or Spotify, they would rather own an iPod or host a Navidrome instance. Instead of using Windows or macOS, they would rather learn about and install a Linux distribution.
This latter group often finds satisfaction in owning the technology and data themselves instead of giving it to corporate techlords. And there is certainly something appealing about that.
They're still using technology, but it is technology they own, maintain and modify. They can choose software made by people who share their principles rather than relying entirely on a corporation to decide how their devices and data should work. Just because they still make use of technology it doesn't ultimately exclude them from being a neo-luddite.
Many articles about the original Luddites claim they weren't simply opposed to technology itself. They were opposed to the way new machinery was being introduced and used when it threatened their livelihoods, working conditions, and way of life. What they rejected was how this newly developed technology was being imposed upon them and used against their interests.
One group would try escaping Google Photos by buying a digital camera; the other would host Immich. Both are technically owning their photographs and are part of the neo-luddite movement.
In my case, I am sure I wouldn't want to bring a digital camera with me every single day, but I also wouldn't want to host an Immich instance on a carefully configured home server, schedule a sensible backup with Backblaze, and spend my time making sure everything continues working. So, then, what would I use?
An iCloud+ subscription.
I wouldn't carry a portable MP3 player, as I extensively discussed in a previous article, download and tag the metadata for my entire music library, download an app to play said music, and then transfer all of it onto my smartphone. So, what would I use to listen to music?
An Apple Music subscription.
In this new case, I would be giving data or my own stuff to the Apple tech lords. I would no longer be a neo-luddite because I would be using someone else’s technology, and I wouldn’t "own" the millions of songs available at my fingertips for $8. I would be part of the problem in someone else’s eyes.
And I would argue against that.
I have existed on both sides of the neo-luddite spectrum. I have tried carrying iPod players with me instead of paying for a music subscription. I have tried using a digital camera and carrying it with me to take photographs instead of using my smartphone. I tried using a flip phone and a notebook with the Bullet Journal method to force myself into a very minimal digital lifestyle. I have also tried hosting a home server of my own and running backup services to do most of these tasks.
And neither solution has made my life any better. If anything, I have fallen down many rabbit holes, chasing anything that might help me achieve an imaginary and almost impossible vision of autonomy. Because frankly, I have never been more involved with technology than when I tried to create my own cloud to escape a proprietary one.
The greatest example I could give of this is the fact that I haven't used Linux for two years and have been happier using Windows ever since. It has issues, yes, a few of them, but not as many as Linux. I turn on my computer, do things with proprietary software, and then I go to sleep. At no point do I have to update something, fix Wayland configuration files, or wonder why my laptop hasn't gone to sleep yet. I had even been eyeing a MacBook, but that would be another story.
I have stopped hosting a home server, stopped caring about replacing all of my daily tools with open-source software alternatives and would rather buy, or use the proprietary counterpart.
Why?
I am tired of hobbyist software. And I want my time back.
On my last day of trying to run a home server, I tried to set up my local Calibre-Web instance to sync books with my Kobo on UmbrelOS, after giving up on CasaOS and plain Docker Compose.
The GitHub page says I need to enable a couple of settings. After following the instructions, I click Save, but the webpage tells me that the path specified in one of the options cannot locate the kepubify binary. kepubify is a program that converts .epub files into .kepub files, in other words, it converts e-books into a format better suited to Kobo devices.
I try to find the binary in the default folder. And it is there...
So I downloaded a brand-new kepubify binary from the official page, move it to /Documents, and tell Calibre-Web the new path for the binary, but it wouldn't still locate it...
There is a suggestion from a user on GitHub with the same problem, change a couple of lines in an internal file to cover edge cases with filenames. And after several permission issues, I modify the file and restart the Calibre-Web instance. Same issue...
Apparently, Docker regenerates the file every time the container restarts. Doing anything in the terminal through UmbrelOS also gets reverted after a reboot, as it is only used for debugging. Any kind of internal troubleshooting in probably many of the Docker apps will be rendered useless after a single reboot.
I try reading more about this issue on GitHub and find the folllowing comment:
"...So there is nothing to fix in the app itself. What we should fix is the surprise, by saying plainly in the Calibre-Web docs that conversion is not included. Closing this with that noted"1.
Okay, Kobo can read .epub files just fine. It's not a Kindle, after all. I will only send .epub files then.
I skip a few instructions within the guide and end up adding a line to a configuration file that would make the Kobo listen to my local home server. But it doesn't work...
After thinking about it, I realize that if I were out of the house, which I am most of the time, I wouldn't even be able to access the library webpage or sync any book through my Kobo without first setting up a tunnel through Cloudflare or using Tailscale, which I am very sure isn't available on Nickel (Kobo native operating system).
My seedbox subscription, however, has a Calibre-Web Docker image ready to be installed. My current seedbox hosts many nonfunctional apps, except for qBittorrent, which is only seeding 100 files. All the other software available to install either hasn't worked as I wanted it to or is lackluster in features. If I install Calibre-Web here, I would be able to access it from the office, which sound fine to me.
I do a quick setup and reach the configuration menu from earlier. It doesn't complain about not finding the kepubify file and it is in fact, able to convert books on the go. This is a good sign...
I make a simple synchronization test with a book file and click the "Sync" button on my Kobo. The book reaches my library, but it doesn't load the book cover.
It's sitting in my library with placeholder text for the title and author. I read on GitHub that I need to click a "Force Sync" button. I do this, but nothing changes...
Two minutes of frustrating thinking later and I am now deleting all apps from my seedbox's panel, Calibre-Web, Prowlarr, qBittorrent, Navidrome, WireGuard, Audiobookshelf, Jackett, Sonarr; all the software that have had their own singular, papercut-like issues, along with limitations and missing customizations that I haven't been able or bothered to fix.
I realize I can install qBittorrent and plain Calibre on my computer and that I don't need any of the arr-suite nor do I need to fiddle with Docker Compose files.
This is one example of many open-source, hobbyist software projects that have either failed on me or required an entire weekend to properly fix or set up. I could give Calibre-Web more of my time so I could read the documentation and give it a proper attempt. After all, Kobo Sync is an experimental feature, so I should expect this. I could also give Linux just a little bit more of my time, to smooth any issue with my laptop not being able to go to sleep, after all, most software found on Linux can be considered experimental or bleeding edge.
But I also no longer want to give hobbyist software any more of my time, if using it means spending a weekend reading documentation and then endlessly guessing how it is going to handle an update, a stable release, or an unfixable issue in the future, just to do something as simple as syncing books, archiving stuff, playing music from a library, or even pulling the latest articles from an RSS feed.
I am done tinkering with it.
I have never felt less like a neo-luddite than when I was trying to get most of my tech stack to work in order to "escape the techlords."
The more alternative, hobbyist software I tried to employ in order to escape proprietary technology and gain some sort of autonomy, or, in the case of "leaving subscriptions", install home servers and alternatives, the more I found myself dealing with technological idiosyncrasies that nowadays barely meet the same level of reliability as their proprietary counterparts. The irony here is that the proprietary software seem to work most of the time.
I don't remember hobbyist software being this needy when it came to tweaking and troubleshooting. I am still using some of it, but nowadays I would rather stay away from the ones that promise many new things.
Back then, there used to be less software to choose and make usage from, partly because there was a higher barrier in developing, distributing it and using it. Making something from scratch required a certain amount of knowledge and effort from the developer.
This obviously didn't prevent bad software from existing, there has always been software that needed to be tweaked or configured from scratch, but there were also fewer layers of abstraction, dependencies, frameworks, and services that had to work correctly within a program just so it could perform a relatively simple task. Sometimes it was simply an executable binary that did what you expected it to do and nothing else.
Now that the barriers of distributing software have permanently been lowered and aided thousands of times with AI, it seems that every developer paradigm-shifting prompt-engineer stacks yet another new framework and abstraction layer to their Hello World test2 which results in software being barely functional compared to its predecessors, long were the times where we had a simple executable binary, now we're lucky to get a terminal program that needs arcane arguments similar to ffmpeg's because most of the time it will be a JavaScript and Electron webpage that will strangely need to be hosted only through Docker, on top of needing either npm or pip installed on path.
While I did gain some invaluable skills in troubleshooting technical issues with most of this software, both through the terminal and configuration files, I also can't stop thinking that hobbyist software has taken a hit to its core fundamentals over the past decade, making it increasingly insufferable to deal with compared to its proprietary counterparts. Yes, I would rather buy an iCloud+ subscription or even a Proton Drive yearly plan rather than hosting and maintaining a docker image that will probably break the next Thursday.
I do have a disdain for how proprietary software has moved from being the convenient option to becoming a predatory sales pitch. There's a lot of criticism to be made of iCloud, but I have a greater disdain for hobbyist software that refuses to work for simple tasks unless I read thirty pages of documentation and install vulnerable npm dependencies.
On the other side of the neo-Luddite umbrella, the one focused on not using a smartphone or a full-blown computer, is where I find myself a little more accustomed to. I could still learn from it and make more use of its lessons, but I would rather keep some of my stuff digital rather than fully committing to it.
I can't fully go back to the single-purpose-device lifestyle, or what some people call, the analogue lifestyle. I have also been there. It's not convenient, and I don't find satisfaction in that lack of convenience.
People who swear by this lifestyle will argue that making use of analogue devices is a much better experience because it's tactile, grants focus and presence, and, more importantly, reduces cognitive fatigue. But I think many of the tasks needed for the average person to get through their work and social life can be greatly aided by a smartphone without being permanently stunted by, let's say, a feature phone.
You can still retain a social life and healthy relationship with a smartphone.
I wouldn't dare to use a dumbphone that is still stuck on 2G or spend $800 USD on a dumbphone, but I also wouldn't install LineageOS or GrapheneOS on an Android device of my choice just to achieve a supposedly healthier relationship with it. I am keeping the proprietary and "cursed" iPhone because with the simplest mindset about how to use a smartphone, I can relatively easily keep myself away from the worst aspects of current technology, or more specifically, social media.
My iPhone has only a few purposes: taking photos and syncing them to my laptop through iCloud+, making a transfer on my bank account, working as navigation with a simple map app, replying to emails, bookmarking and sending videos of my dogs to my cousin, and listening to music on a paid platform.
All of these activities would come with a footnote in functionality if I used a dumbphone or GrapheneOS.
Or, I could refuse to do any of those things, keep all the analogue devices, refuse to use a smartphone, only contact my colleagues through phone calls (all thirty of them), never agree to do anything in a timely manner and live in permanent isolation.
Returning to my smartphone, there are no social media apps installed on it. No YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, or TikTok. It has a black and white color filter applied to it except when I am checking Google Maps (iPhone Shortcuts), and it has an almost empty home screen. I unlock the phone, do my task, and lock it again.
I still carry a small notebook for my usual written notes, as I believe it's better to write them by hand rather than in an app. I mostly use the notes app to bookmark articles instead, so there's no need to host Wallabag or pay for Instapaper!
I use Kobo to read my ebooks with its native Nickel reader instead of KOReader, as I also mentioned in a previous article of mine on why I don't like to use it.
A lot of people would argue that perhaps all the things I do with this proprietary software do not belong to me. The music I listen to is not mine, the photos I take are property of the Big A, and the books I get from the Kobo or Kindle stores aren't really mine, either. I'm only buying a subscription or a rental period.
But I digress, because this is where I also make use of the computer for the following and most important task. Backups and local files.
If I no longer wanted to pay for iCloud, I would manually make backups of my photos to my laptop with the humble Lighting cable and the USB port of my computer. Most of my ebook library is permanently stored on my computer, and I only purchase new ones if I know the store will give me an e-book file. All the music I listen to on Apple Music is music I already own, can easily download or buy from other platforms in the case I wanted to stop paying for the subscription. I only use the Apple Classical app anyways. All the notes or bookmarks made in note apps have been and can easily be exported and moved to Obsidian and if I wanted to, Simplenote.
When the time comes that I no longer want to pay for these subscriptions or want to become Edward Snowden, that will be the time when I put up with the technology required for backups. I would use Duplicati, Syncthing, or even transfer everything by hand to an external hard drive, burn it to Blu-ray discs, or move it to Proton Drive, always following the 3-2-1 backup strategy.
I won't make use of a suite of programs that semi-work half the time.
The last frontier of being a neo-luddite, I believe, is to never rely entirely on technology and, even less so, to spend much of your time with it regardless of the purpose. You should only employ technology when it is convenient enough that it's easy to forget it is even there.
So much of it, both proprietary and hobbyist, requires much of our time for either enjoyment or maintenance that it's becoming quite ridiculous. Which is why I would advise in scaling down your usage o reliance to it just below the threshold where reducing your use of it becomes inconvenient. Or, at the very least, stop making most of your hobbies rely on the constant use of a computer.
Neither being a maximalist of proprietary software, subscribing to every service that offers one specific feature, nor becoming a full-time system administrator and user of open-source software that requires constant attention to keep working.
Every dumbphone user needs to watch this.
References
🚀 hello-world.rs 🚀 This is a satire repository, but it's almost undistinguisable from many other projects.↩