Here's how I host my own AIM server

In high school, most days began and ended with AIM.This was before everyone had text messages (or cell phones). Everything from class projects to entire relationships took place in an AIM window. Needless to say, I have some nostalgia for it.Discord hasn't been treating me well recently, so I decided to give Open OSCAR Server a try, which lets you spin up an AIM/ICQ server and connect many old clients up to it, and I'm glad I did!I talked about this more in-depth in a recent video (YouTube/PeerTube), and my friend Kate (Macintosh Librarian) posted a video as well covering AIM in greater detail. But I figured I'd put a blog post together going into the specifics of how I'm hosting it. Maybe it'll help you try out AIM again! NOTE: this guide assumes a basic working knowledge of Linux, as well as an understanding of how to work with IP addresses or domain names. If that's outside your comfort zone, gently reach out to a friend and offer them a spot on your server. Set up a Debian Trixie…