It’s fair to say that Google Photos has been the best thing that has ever happened to smartphone photography management. For years, it has served as the ultimate set-it-and-forget-it tool. And for the longest time, it was my go-to recommendation. It was practically free. It was unlimited. It was perfect for anyone who didn’t want to think about how to store their photographs in the long run. However, it’s been a while since the party ended and the storage limits kicked in. Suddenly, it’s no longer the obvious choice.
Like many others, I’ve also gone down the NAS route and set up my own Google Photos alternative. I’ve experimented with various self-hosted platforms like Immich and my own storage server to forgo the Google Photos tax. But lately, I’ve been thinking of alternative solutions. Looking at an old Pixel sitting in my desk drawer, I suddenly realized that I was sitting on a high-performance, battery-powered Linux server that was just waiting for a cool weekend project.
