How can I use open source software if I don't want to manage a server?
45 comments \ @ad 16 Aug 2023 techAD
There are a lot of great tools available for managing open source software on your own server, but they all require an ease with the command-line, the ability to work out problems when they arise, figuring out backups, and how to harden your server against internet threats.
https://www.reddit.com/r/cloudron/comments/tdsg3t/i_have_been_hacked_but_do_not_know_how_to_fix_it/
With Federated Computer you can use Open Source software without the need to be a system admin. If that bugs you, sorry. Lot's of people have better things to do in life than learn how to run and manage a server. For $39 a month per domain USD/BTC (that's 132,711 sats today) you get a private server (automatically managed by Federated), Nextcloud, Collabora, Jitsi, Element, Matrix, email server setup up for your domain, all the spam and blacklist protection built in, Listmonk, Vaultwarden, Baserow, Wireguard (configured for teams), Gitea (with pipelines to Caddy for publishing static websites), Castopod, Wordpress, and system wide user management. Backups are included. Human support is included. Federated Computer provides the convenience of SaaS with the freedom and flexibilty of open source.
If you have stacked 50,000 sats on Stacker News, we'll give you free service for 12 months. No cost.
Find out more: https://www.federated.computer/stackernews/
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305 sats \ 1 reply \ @m00ninite 16 Aug 2023
Honestly? Great idea. I host a lot of my own infra and I often lose sleep over it. "x probably isn't secure enough, y doesnt have a good enough backup, if z goes down when I'm not home, I can't get it back up"
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1 sat \ 0 replies \ @federatedcomputer 16 Aug 2023
Thanks. https://www.federated.computer/stackernews/ Please reach out if you have any questions.
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10 sats \ 8 replies \ @nullcount 16 Aug 2023
I'd argue this is not "using open source" tho.
The source code of whatever app I'm interacting with is not open to me to inspect and ensure that the service provider hasn't altered it in some way.
The UI may be identical to other open source projects, but without the ability to verify the code that's actually running, I can't call this open source.
In reality, this is just the cloud (someone else's computer) with a skin that looks like self-hosted apps.
If this is "using open source" then using Google is also "using open source" because Google uses some open source software in their cloud too.
Its misleading to advertise as "use open software" when you deliver it in a proprietary and opaque package (via a webserver with whatever custom tooling you have around it).
Whether you use this or Google, the trust model is the same. Its unfair to compare this as an alternative to self-hosting.
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100 sats \ 7 replies \ @federatedcomputer 16 Aug 2023
How do you know you're using "open source" when you use Stacker News? You can see the project on Github, but, by your own argument, you can not inspect what is running here on "someone else's computer" where https://stacker.news is the "service provider". Stacker News is "not" open source.
You may inspect the open source projects for every part of Federated Computer. You trust Federated Computer to run those projects for you on a computer.
Best wishes. BTW: you're eligible for free service. Congratulations for stacking more than 50K sats!
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0 sats \ 6 replies \ @nullcount 16 Aug 2023
Granted. But I could in theory self host my own SN clone, thats what makes it FOSS.
Where is the source that lets me run my own federated.computer?
The security model around SN is not the same as hosting my email, cloud storage, etc.
If SN were tampering with the production code, it wouldn't change much. SN can already steal my sats and everything is public by default. Furthermore, there is little benefit in self-hosting SN without the network effect of stacker.news
Self-hosting private data is not comparable to using a cloud offering whether the underlying code is FOSS or not.
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100 sats \ 5 replies \ @federatedcomputer 16 Aug 2023
Do you really want us to list out the repos for Nextcloud, Jitsi, Matrix, etc? That's how you run your own Federated Computer.
Re: "private data". If you're a pilot, you can fly a plane. If you're a sys admin, you can run a server. If you're not a pilot, you will kill yourself in a plane. If you're not a sys admin, you will lose your private data. I'm happy to offer examples. Here, again, is the one offered in today's post: https://www.reddit.com/r/cloudron/comments/tdsg3t/i_have_been_hacked_but_do_not_know_how_to_fix_it/
You have clearly earned your right to self-sovereignty and self-reliance. Most others aren't so lucky. You do a disservice to them but suggesting if they are NOT a sys admin, well, then what? Just use the Google? What's the solution?
Best wishes.
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0 sats \ 2 replies \ @nullcount 16 Aug 2023
Yes, they should probably just use google. Unless they know you personally and trust their "uncle jim/pilot".
My issue is with your messaging comparing your cloud to self-hosting as if you get all the benefits with less effort. You are just a different cloud provider, own it and don't pretend otherwise.
I presume you have lots of tooling to make hosting these services easier for you, why not open source your tooling to make self hosting easier for others?
I understand you're a profit driven company, and opensourcing your backend wouldn't be profitable, which again supports my claim that you're just another cloud.
Maybe you're a bridge to sovereignty. Once users migrate their proprietary cloud data to these OSS solutions, it becomes easier to export that data to a self-hosted solution or a competing cloud down the road.
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0 sats \ 1 reply \ @davidpaulyoung 16 Aug 2023
"they should probably just use google." thanks for the clarity.
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @nullcount 16 Aug 2023
Google is very Lindy and has worked well enough for a billion people and it doesn't charge them $40/mo. The onus is on any competitor to make the case, "why not google?". And its incredulous to claim, our cloud is better because we run Open Source.
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0 sats \ 1 reply \ @4twenty 17 Aug 2023 freebie
How the fuck are you putting this on a bitcoin minded forum, is unreal to me, we all preach self-sovereignty and you want us to just believe a random guy on the internet to have a private,secure place where I can put my most-sensitive data, yeah no thanks buddy, stop spamming SN plz. Third time I've seen this shitpost, nobody likes it, gtfo
30 sats \ 1 reply \ @02a0eb55b5 17 Aug 2023
I can't find the DOANLOAD button. Where's the community fu*king-FOSS self-hostable version?
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @nullcount 17 Aug 2023
Seeing Ads sucks, try blocking them: #227410
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55 sats \ 20 replies \ @wrangler 16 Aug 2023
Three posts in three days. This is borderline spamming Stacker News
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356 sats \ 2 replies \ @mallardshead 16 Aug 2023
But with that 100k sat boost he paid? 😋 This is advertisement, and benefits us all in the redistribution. All good.
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133 sats \ 0 replies \ @kr 16 Aug 2023
exactly, stacker news users across the board are earning way more as a result.
not to say that everyone will want to see ads on SN, but there is a very tangible benefit for many users.
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100 sats \ 0 replies \ @federatedcomputer 16 Aug 2023
And you @mallardshead are eligible for free service since you're stacked more than 50K sats on Stacker News!
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245 sats \ 13 replies \ @premitive1 16 Aug 2023
It is literally an ad
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33 sats \ 11 replies \ @kr 16 Aug 2023
one thing worth noting though, even though the account is called @ad, it’s just a regular post.
there is no special treatment applied to it… zaps, boosts, comments, and time all affect this post in the same way they affect all other posts.
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146 sats \ 7 replies \ @franzap 16 Aug 2023
Would it be possible to block @ad and decline that part of the reward?
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23 sats \ 5 replies \ @kepford 16 Aug 2023
Why would you want to? I'm just curious.
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10 sats \ 4 replies \ @premitive1 16 Aug 2023
To not see the ads, obviously
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17 sats \ 2 replies \ @kepford 16 Aug 2023
Don't get me wrong, there are many things I don't like but I don't see a rational way of solving your problem if this is it. I mean there is a lot of content on every site I don't like.
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13 sats \ 1 reply \ @franzap 21 Aug 2023
There is a very rational way of going about it, allow people to hide what they don't want to see even at the expense of not receiving certain share of rewards.
If someone has an obsessive personality they could hide everything, up to them. I would simply hide 2 or 3 annoying accounts here on SN.
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116 sats \ 0 replies \ @nemo 16 Aug 2023
deleted by author
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35 sats \ 0 replies \ @kr 16 Aug 2023
Good idea!
https://github.com/stackernews/stacker.news/issues/417
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76 sats \ 2 replies \ @premitive1 16 Aug 2023
Yes, but the account is controlled by SN, right? I just want to differentiate between spam, which I don't like, and ads, which I don't like, but which aren't the same thing.
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100 sats \ 1 reply \ @kr 16 Aug 2023
the @ad account is controlled by SN, but again there’s nothing stopping anyone from running their own ad from their own account.
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161 sats \ 0 replies \ @kepford 16 Aug 2023
This is a very good point. Hadn't thought about it like that. The boost is the incentive for the rest of us :)
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21 sats \ 0 replies \ @mallardshead 16 Aug 2023
Yes, I don't think I've seen a 100k boost yet.
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @nullcount 17 Aug 2023
Block the ads. Stop the spam on our beloved SN feed: #227410
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0 sats \ 1 reply \ @DarthCoin 17 Aug 2023
No is not spam. Is a paid ad. And is welcomed. In this way users can review and comment directly to the OP and they can learn more from the feedback.
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @wrangler 17 Aug 2023
Much better now with the ad box on the left.
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100 sats \ 6 replies \ @TheL0wner 16 Aug 2023
why upvote the ad?
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0 sats \ 5 replies \ @nullcount 17 Aug 2023
Why not block the ad? #227410
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0 sats \ 4 replies \ @TheL0wner 17 Aug 2023
no need for me, one line on the screen doesn't bother me. just seemed weird that it could be zapped. looks like that has changed though.
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0 sats \ 3 replies \ @nullcount 17 Aug 2023
Enjoy being the product!
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0 sats \ 2 replies \ @TheL0wner 17 Aug 2023
eh, not like I'm actually going to buy what they're selling. they're free to waste the sats if they like.
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0 sats \ 1 reply \ @nullcount 17 Aug 2023
And you're free to waste time reading and scrolling past them
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @TheL0wner 17 Aug 2023
that's essentially the use case for most sites. wasting time.
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10 sats \ 0 replies \ @AllCatsAreEvil 17 Aug 2023
I can see this being useful for remote needs, but are you able to provide a custom stack? I'm out on a boat most of the time, I can't keep my main PC there and have to remote in. I also don't have tech support, because if anything goes wrong I have to get off and deal with it myself. I'm not sure this is the service for me but I can definitely see the upsides.
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @kevin 17 Aug 2023
Go with coolify instead. It’s actually open source.
https://coolify.io/
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0 sats \ 1 reply \ @nullama 16 Aug 2023
How many hours per month of support are included?
Federated Computer provides the convenience of SaaS with the freedom and flexibilty of open source.
If I'm not managing anything, then how do I get the flexibility of Open Source?, do you include customization of all those software you listed in the price?
I'm mentioning this because anyone can just grab a $5/month linode and simply install whatever software they need using free guides on the web.
$39/month is quite a lot, it must include a proper service.
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10 sats \ 0 replies \ @federatedcomputer 16 Aug 2023
Re: hours per month of support: as many as you need.
The flexibility comes from, in part, being able to leave. If you don't like our "Nextcloud" do Nextcloud on your own. FOSS gives you that flexibility. If you want customization, Federated isn't the right solution for using FOSS. However, we do include PowerDNS and Traefik in the stack, so you've able to combine Federated Core with lots of additional services run/managed elsewhere.
BTW: a $5 Linode VM would definitely not be able to run all the software included and with the support, the backups, the monitoring for threats, upgrades. Many are not capable of installing and managing Jitsi, just to mention one example, or to optimize it so that it works reliably. Others won't be able to start with step one on that $5 Linode VM. What then for them?
Best wishes.
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