This comment is so good an upvote won’t do justice (without awards, a classic comment such as this now has some merit.. it’s a new day boys & girls, a good day)

Do use Linux tho the rest is not suggested

Honestly the term federate feels like something I’d read in r/DeathStranding and similarly not ever understand the true meaning

Also it’s not personal but if we start looking at admins or hosts or owners of Lemmy/any Fediverse like you’re Darth Vader.. it’s cuz we been through some stuff with our last all-powerful (head of Reddit) who caused everyone to want to leave the platform. Became a power-tripping and profit-based situation on Reddit and we just don’t want it to happen again! Nothing personal FR a lot of the members on Reddit who are leaving are good people (imo)

Do you know what happens if the server of the chosen instance goes down? Does the account still have access to the Fediverse? Another frame: If somehow the admin / server decides to somehow shut off, would I lose all the content I have linked my account? Would the content from the server be lost/in limbo?

Thanks for all your responses!

I realize some of the questions I asked are kind of like asking for a ”For Dummies” book on so many things - so I appreciate you taking the time to provide some of the main info!