I sidestepped all this crap by buying Synology in 2014 and upgrading 2 years ago. Sure, it isn’t FOSS, but it is very nearly plug and play.

I configured OpenVPN for when I want to use it remotely, and self host my music, video, and family photos.

Having the 4 drive RAID-6 gives me some security from the danger of losing data between backups.

I store all my scanned documents, ocr’d, and keep the paper under control.

The problem with that, is that you now have to maintain virtual infrastructure in many different syntaxes. And features of one do not exist in another.

Plus things like cash and session do not cross those boundaries.

More accurately, it’s someone else’s network of pluggable computers. “The cloud” is just a convenient metaphor for “it’s up there,where someome else keeps it working”.

The point is to free up resources in individual companies that would otherwise be used maintaining the infrastructure.

In a lot of companies that translates to having fewer employees to pay. Enlightened companies keep those people and allocate them to other, profitable, activities.

A wonderful and Powerful effect of vitualization is the idea of declarative infrastructure. Individual companies can allocate those Cloud resources in specialized ways. It’s primary value is in economies of scale.

Absolutely. My only serious problem with it comes when an individual’s only option is to use someone else’s infrastructure.

The issues you describe are primarily business issues. Individuals generally don’t have to worry about that stuff. If the software requires using a host, then it should be able to run on a host we can set up on our own hardware.

Virtualization is wonderful, and powerful. But it can also be weaponized.

This us why we all need to use and evangelize LibreOffice!