Used "1-liter" business PCs which come with a modest amount of RAM+storage (assuming you're likely to replace/upgrade after buying anyway) and an 8th gen Intel CPU should run between ehhh like $125 to $250 depending on which model CPU, how much RAM etc. Totally worth it IMO, I use one with an i5-8500T as a Proxmox host for my web services and so far I'm quite happy with it. Snagged a deal on it a couple months ago, $110, shipped with 8GB RAM and a 256GB SSD which I immediately replaced.

Intel ended up changing their mind and sold the product line to Asus, who will continue producing NUCs!

The one advantage of using megacorp "1-liter" business PCs from Dell/HP/Lenovo over brands like Minisforum is that parts commonality / availability is likely to be a lot better for the big brand boxes.

This will make little or no difference to a lot of people of course :) in my case it's a big factor because I'm trying to do everything on a shoestring budget and I want the hardware to be physically small but still as repairable/upgradable as possible, and to last as long as possible. So I ended up going with used 1L PCs even though you get a bit less CPU capability per dollar spent, as right now these PCs are the smallest platform that I know of that tends to be upgradable (no soldered RAM etc) and have lots of parts available.

I've had good luck running more intensive loads on more recent models of these systems, say 3 to 5 gens old ... multiple desktop OSes running concurrently on Proxmox, etc. The "1 liter" class of PCs is really quite capable these days!

Damn, the last time I thought about this (20 years ago) I was able to buy a tape drive for a PC for like ........ I wanna say $250-300?? I forget the format, it was very very common though and tapes were dirt cheap, maybe $10-12 a pop. Worked great, if you were willing to sit around and swap tapes out as needed.

Syncthing's file versioning has got me out of many a jam

Wait, Proxmox Backup Server runs on ARM?

For a long time I did 1 hot copy (e.g. on my laptop), 1 LAN/homelab copy (e.g. Syncthing on a VM), and 1 cloud copy ... less a backup scheme than a redundancy scheme, albeit with file versioning turned on on the homelab copy so I could be protected from oopsies.

I'm finally teaching myself duplicity in order to set up a backup system for a webdev business I'm working on ... it ain't bad.

Runbox accepts crypto thru a third-party integration, although not XMR last I knew ... BTC, LTC etc

I use NoMachine, but that's in a Linux-to-Linux environment.

Did a test last weekend sitting in a department store parking lot on the store's public wifi, wifi bitrate about 50Mbps both ways, 50ms between me and my homelab ... very very usable experience with quality set at 6/10.

I use individual Turnkey Linux VMs sometimes ... Yunohost is a cool project but I like one VM per service

I consider selfhosting to be both. VPS or homelab. The latter has more 'cred' but is also a much bigger investment and not everyone can do it. Granted I'm living in a difficult environment but as somebody using Linux since 1994 it took me 3 years to recently get a homelab to where I could credibly serve the wider internet from it, and I still use a VPS as reverse proxy anyway! Meanwhile, offloading your physical plant to a mom-n-pop platform-as-a-service provider isn't the worst thing in the world. Some operators started out selfhosting and grew their little VPS provider from that, those guys need business too!

FWIW, I ended up just using a VM when probems like this would inevitably crop up with LXCs running software which goes too far off the garden path so to speak. My knowledge is a lil dated as I set most of my shit up about 2 years ago but at that time I got the distinct impression that LXCs were not fully-baked for running a number of things. Mostly I absorbed that info from reading the Proxmox forum. I'd love to hear if it's improved since 2021.

Just here to say, I see you lol, even if I don't have answers.

I just started using Nextcloud once they finally released a credible wiki app. It's super useful and I'll likely use it for years into the future. But the UI is definitely a low point.

Just get a used ultra-small form factor PC a la the Tiny, Mini, or Micro series. A higher-end one which is 7 generations old will still absolutely destroy the Pi in terms of performance.

Once I gave up (for now) on doing all this on ARM and switched back to x86, everything got way easier to actually accomplish.

Check out ServeTheHome's "Project TinyMiniMicro" on Youtube for a great overview of ultra-small form factor ("1 liter") business PCs.

The big three PC makers each have standardized products in this form factor with (relatively speaking, compared to smaller manufacturers) tons of spare parts available.

Personally I'd go for as big a UPS as I could afford, but I serve some public-facing stuff from my homelab and I live in an area with outdated infrastructure and occasional ice storms. I currently have a small UPS and have been too tired/overwhelmed to set up automated shutdown yet. It's not too hard though, I've done it before. And even without that in place, my small UPS has kept things going thru a bunch of <10 minute outages.

I would never open those types of services to the Internet. Wrap it in a VPN first yeah?

I have this exact model machine as a web app server running Proxmox btw. Works great. I did need to get a genuine power supply for it as it refused to run above 800MHz with a generic!

There isn't a guide yet that I've found. I slowly & painfully assembled all the info and beat my head against the task until I had something working & stable.

I'm currently building a comprehensive one, but due to circumstances beyond my control, it's taking forever.

I think civilization just hasn't gotten there yet, but I suspect I'm not the only one working on this, so I bet the reverse proxy tunnel HOWTO situation will be way better in a year or two..

FWIW I use nginx on the front end, and rathole for my tunnels - the latter is a very straightforward way to set up the tunnels.

Currently I have a bastion host running a hardened distro, which establishes a reverse proxy tunnel to its ssh port via my $4/mo VPS using rathole, an excellent reverse proxy utility I switched to from frp.

I also maintain a Tor hidden service pointed at the bastion host's ssh port and another on a different internal host. These are so that I can still get in if the bastion host, my VPS, or certain aspects of networking are down for some reason.

Eventually I will implement port knocking / single packet authorization by deploying fwknop on some or all of these services to further enhance security.

But my hate for Snap runs so deep that I’ve started using Debian w/ GNOME more and more often over the last year or so.

As a Linux Mint user I've seen the writing on the wall and will be switching to Linux Mint Debian Edition next time I reinstall my desktop.

so far not been disappointed by Ugreen

And also seemingly a lack of understanding of the word federation.

All this can be solved easily if you just go somewhere else.

no u

You aren't even a user of SDF Lemmy. So why are you spamming everyone here with your irrelevant opinions?

Do you have the same level of confidence in children and people who are deeply mentally ill?

This instance, which you are not a member of, is for adults who can decide what they want to read for themselves.

Maybe you should stick to discussing issues about the instance you're actually on, instead of wasting people's time in discussions which don't involve you.

If you don’t like the decisions of an instance you go to another one. If this instance defederates from rammy.site I’m staying, if not I’m leaving. You’re free to leave if they defederate too, and if you felt the need to leave because of it I’d be happy to have you gone.

Please stop drawing the process out and find somewhere better suited to your preferences.

It's okay, not great, still needs UX work. That being said, it stores all its files in Markdown and they are also accessible in the Files app.

Not actually sure if it can be made public, they grafted some unnecessary features onto it in order to call it "Collectives" which might make it a bad fit for such, but I haven't actually looked to see if it's possible.

Thanks for posting this. It’s nice that people are working on more accessible ways to do this, every way I’ve done it so far has been pure command line. And while that’s fine, it takes longer to understand and set up for simple installs.

Edit: posted to wrong tab, doh

however their content will reach and radicalize fewer people if they are defederated

The bullshit part of this purity ideology is where "people" are presumed to be innocent rubes who can't think for themselves and who will be forever tainted if they are contaminated by even a drop of Wrongthink.

I'm not interested in having my information environment manipulated by technocrats for "my own good."

And then there's the other not-small issue: if "their" "content" is so good at "radicalizing" "people," maybe you should be addressing the substance of the content instead of engaging in definitionally futile campaigns to conceal its existence.

lemmygrad is actually pretty far up the rankings in the defederated-by stats I saw a couple weeks ago 😅

funchords, ha, we don't know each other but we've bumped into each other before on reddit long ago and I remember your name and that you were in a barbershop quartet. looks like you picked a good instance as home, be well man :)

Maybe try making a better argument.

it’s active disinformation campaigns and propaganda.

That's for me to decide, not for you to decide on my behalf.

Edit:

Their instance continues to exist without us, their free speech continues, but by remaining federated we are giving them a platform.

This entire ideology is bullshit and I am not interested in being on instances run by people who believe it.

Maybe because of the literal content of your post?

I scrolled through some of their posts and comments and it’s full of ridiculous anti-left propaganda, for example a post where some liberal Florida family fleeing the state when some child protection laws got passed, implying liberals abuse children and won’t live in a state that doesn’t allow them to.

I've got news for you: the entire planet has not taken up American political idiocy. Nobody outside of the USA (and many of the people in it) gives a fuck about American political slapfights.

If you want a safe space instance for one or another American "team," find it somewhere else or start one yourself.

When Nextcloud finally shipped a credible wiki (the somewhat absurdly-named "Collectives" app), this was finally enough to get me to install it for myself and my business partner. So, currently, Collectives plus the Sync feature ... other apps may draw me in later.

Good question, I'm not entirely sure as I have never used mesh features per se.

I do currently use a GLi Creta as a wifi extender to a GLi Slate AX, but that's likely not what you're asking about (I believe it's a layer 3 (?) bridge from WWAN to WLAN/LAN). It does work pretty well in this role, all factors considered.

Just wanna put in a good word about GL-iNet routers ... they are more travel- and pro-sumer focused than a lot of what's been mentioned here. They run a proprietary front end on top of OpenWRT, but if you don't like that, most of them have full support in vanilla OpenWRT.

These are definitely more for the tinkerer market, their documentation and firmware can have quirks, but that being said (and as somebody who wouldbe wary at that caveat) I have been using GLi routers with manufacturer firmware as a daily driver for 3+ years and once you get them set up they are very solid.

Might be a good option for the digital nomads among us who need a smaller device which can connect to a host network and then send all traffic over a VPN with very easy setup.

I'm not in favor of defederating over political preference at all. I don't come to this instance expecting an echo chamber, and an echo chamber is precisely what I do not want.