As someone who tried to self-host it like a month ago (and seemingly still hasn’t got it fully working), I’ll just write out the overview of what I’ve done and let you (and others) comment on how correct and feasible it is.

Since my ISP doesn’t allow me to get a static IP address, I rented a VPS connection and made a wireguard tunnel from the VPS to my computer. This tunnel forwards traffic at all the necessary ports between the two machines. I really wasn’t familiar with all the necessary components for an entire mail server, so I chose mailcow since it packages everything into one single software (well, more like a bunch of docker containers). Another reason I went with mailcow was that I could easily find a github tutorial for how to set up mailcow with wireguard tunneling (it’s a bit outdated IMO, but the changes are minor). Mailcow also gives a nice portal interface listing out all the DNS entries you need to put in place to get it working perfectly.

In the end, I still see a few incoming emails getting dropped and reception time being an hour or so, and I’m not sure if it’s a problem with my tunnel or DNS or something else. But overall, I’d say it was much easier than setting up all the individual services myself.

That may be exactly what I need when searching for some highly technical problem lol

Huh I didn’t notice that. That does sound a bit weird :/

While I somewhat agree with your point about the upcoming wave of invasive AI, I don’t think adopting a digital hermit lifestyle is the best way through this. Think of it as the wave of PCs and smartphones: did a lot of people get negatively impacted by it? Sure, but did all (or even most) people who completely shunned the technology come out any better? Not necessarily. As this new technology became a central part of society in the past decades, the people who did the best were the ones who actively used it while simultaneously preventing themselves from…idk, developing a sort of mental dependence on it (though the degree to which most have succeeded in doing the latter is variable, the point still stays).

Now, is the upcoming AI wave the same as the smartphone wave? Well, not really. But are our options of tackling it the same? I’d say, basically yes. And that’s my point: it’s better to make use of this technology in ways that are less likely to backfire. Since the premise of your captology argument is that more invasive AI will be better in convincing us to buy products, this is, I’d argue, one of the perfect spots for FOSS alternatives. What if we do end up becoming addicted to some new AI app(s) that we know is (/are) manipulative? Look for alternatives not controlled by a corporation. It’s not the perfect option, but in my opinion it’s certainly better than completely boycotting the technology.

4 might be pushing it, it’s still just GDDR7

Been using it for about a month now, and I quite like the repertoire or keys it gives. The only feature I personally find missing here is a clipboard history (it has its own buffer for copying text as far as I can tell, but users can only copy and paste through it, not see its contents)