Self Hosting Alternatives

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One thing that keeps coming in our discussions is self hosting the software that we use. It is a good thing to have control over the software that we use, but many times it is not a simple task.

Let’s use this thread to discuss about the possible alternatives to cloud software that we use everyday.

  • GMail – what does it take to self host email?
  • Google Docs – NextCloud, Etherpad
  • Messaging – ?
  • Video Conference – ?

Anything else?

Has anyone here has experience with self hosting?

If there is enough interest we can have a monthly meet to discuss about self hosting.

Thoughts?

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I selfhost the following:

  1. A Nextcloud instance for syncing org-mode files with my phone and a few other important documents (both encrypted). Have connected my mailbox.org account with Nextcloud, but mostly use Thunderbird.
  2. A Bitwarden-rs instance. I think this is one of the essentials.
  3. Drone+Gitea instance for backup of (github repos, although rarely used)
  4. Fathom instance for analytics
  5. Commento for comments on blog.
  6. A Transmission web ui of parents htpc shared through tailscale.
  7. A Beehive instance for bit of automation. (rarely used)
  8. Miniflux for reading RSS feeds. Another essential.
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Since you use Thunderbird, you might want to try TB’s feedreader. It’s pretty neat and works exactly like an inbox.

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Thanks for a detailed list @rhnvrm.

I’ve created a github issue for self hosting (until we host gitea).

https://github.com/fossunited/infra/issues/1

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@knadh I used to use offline feedreaders like elfeed and TB’s inbuilt feedreader as well. But I prefer Miniflux ever since I installed it around more than an year ago since it is very minimal and very low maintenance. It solves the problem of being able to read articles on my mobile or my laptop and keeping it in sync. It has an excellent web app which I place on my phone’s home screen. It also provides Fever API so I use the Feed Me app to read. Few people also use it for the integration with Wallabag. I still subscribe to few mailing lists such as ones on Freelists on Thunderbird feeds, this way I can separate mails and general news and articles which it handles really well. Although, Miniflux has an amazing feature that automatically downloads the content of the page instead of just rendering the contents inside the feed. So I am thinking of moving these mailing list subscriptions to Miniflux as well as they don’t render properly anyways in TB.

@Anand not able to view the repo.

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@rhnvrm The repo was private and I didn’t notice that. Fixed now.

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Re. Videoconferencing, I just discovered that as an associate member I get to use my FSF credentials to host calls on their Jitsi bridge. The server is based in the US, so probably not suitable as a final solution but if y’all want to try it out to evaluate Jitsi as an option, I’ll be happy to host a call.

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Sure, I’ll ping you on email to try Jisti.

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We are planning to shift from Google Workspace to alternatives for our non-profit collective
KisanMitra.
On seeing many suggestions in the Telegram Group and also from twitter thread, I tried to install Mailinabox.

We were able to setup Mailinabox on a basic 5$ digital ocean server to try. I was able to set it up fine & create mail ids. Below are few issues I came across.

  1. Have an issue with DNS setup as we need to make the server as DNS Server, so managing with just IP Address for now.
  2. Also basic Digital Ocean server has 25GB space, but assuming we would need atleast 15GB per user, tried to add 100GB Volume at 10$ per month, it somehow wasn’t reflecting in the Admin page of MIAB. So additional space is an issue, Given Google Workspcae plans for non profits give 30Gb per user.
  3. Also looking at Nextcloud setup and how to migrate the existing Google docs/sheets/slides to it and how we could use it for collaboration. Majority of our earlier work was in Google Docs, so our team was trying to understand abt alternatives with similar experience.

Others with their experience could suggest how to best set things up for a 10 member team.

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I haven’t setup MIAB, but this page says that you can use an external DNS provider, provided you copy the DNS settings correctly.

If you skipped the DNS settings earlier, you should now go to the DNS (Custom/External) > External DNS section of the control panel and copy the DNS records into your own DNS control panel.

The additional volume is probably mounted in a different location. Take a look at this thread in MIAB discourse.

I haven’t done a migration to Nextcloud either, but this page from Nextcloud’s blog suggests something. Did that work for you?

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  1. Have an issue with DNS setup as we need to make the server as DNS Server, so managing with just IP Address for now.

You don’t need DNS Server. You can use Digital Ocean DNS. Say you have hosted Email server whose IP is 172.1.1.1 then set this IP as MX Record of your domain (FOSSUnited.org). All mails for FOSSUnited will reach your email server.

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