An eye opening response I heard to the “no one wants to sysadmin servers” comment was: home wifi routers.
For many people, the word Server brings up connotations: rackmount chassis, screaming fans, unfamiliar OS, compiling drivers, configuring networks, and other endless technical rabbitholes.
But defines “Server” in the context of Web3/decentralization? Personal ownership and operation of always on computing device to provide software service’s to other personal devices, like phones or PCs.
It’s not a totally new idea. The FreedomBox project has used home wifi router as their ideal user experience. Plug it in, immediately works with reasonable defaults, and all the information you need to log in and configure it further fits on a sticker.
Yeah, there’s some issues with the current state of FreedomBox, it needs more testing and polishing. Technically not insurmountable, but it doesn’t seem to be an attractive open source project for developers at the moment. Its close enough for me not to be convinced running your own server is limited to the small percent of the population capable and willing to do corporate IT style sysadmin for a hobby.