The future of selfhosted services is going to be… Android?

Wait, what?

Think about it. At some point everyone has had an old phone lying around. They are designed to be constantly connected, constantly on… and even have a battery and potentially still a SIM card to survive power outages.

We just need to make it easy to create APK packaged servers that can avoid battery-optimization kills and automatically configure an outbound tunnel like ngrok, zerotrust, etc…

The goal: hosting services like #nextcloud, #syncthing, #mastodon!? should be as easy as installing an APK and leaving an old phone connected to a spare charger / outlet.

It would be tempting to have an optimized ROM, but if self-hosting is meant to become more commonplace, installing an APK should be all that’s needed. #Android can do SSH, VPN and other tunnels without the need for root, so there should be no problem in using tunnels to publicly expose a phone/server in a secure manner.

In regards to the suitability of home-grade broadband, I believe that it should not be a huge problem at least in Europe where home connections are most often unmetered: “At the end of June 2021, 70.2% of EU homes were passed by either FTTP or cable DOCSIS
3.1 networks, i.e. those technologies currently capable of supporting gigabit speeds.”

Source: https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/library/broadband-coverage-europe-2021

PS. syncthing actually already has an APK and is easy to use. Although I had to sort out some battery optimization stuff, it’s a good example of what should become much more commonplace.

cc: @selfhosted
#selfhosted #selfhosting

  • AbidanYre@lemmy.worldEnglish
    41·
    9 months ago

    You can get a wyse thin client on eBay for $50, and if you’re clustering the pis it’s not $50 anymore, so you can get a real computer on woot in the $150 range.

    Either of those options will run circles around a pi/pi cluster.

    • MonkCanatella@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      1·
      9 months ago

      holy shit I haven’t thought about that webside in over a decade. Do you have personal experience purchasing self hosting stuff from there?

      • AbidanYre@lemmy.worldEnglish
        21·
        9 months ago

        I’ve bought a couple old SFF PCs and tablets from there for low powered workstation stuff.

        For self hosting I end up with rack mount dell servers when the prices fall off a cliff; right now it’s the 13th gen stuff that’s super cheap.

    • bustrpoindextr@lemmy.worldEnglish
      14·
      9 months ago

      Please learn to read. Again. I thought I wasn’t on Reddit anymore.

      $50 for a pi. Not for clustering. For one. That’s it.

      An X86 PC is gonna cost you hundreds. That’s how I can cluster rpi, for the same cost. I hope you now know how to do basic math.

      • AbidanYre@lemmy.worldEnglish
        41·
        9 months ago

        Insulting my reading ability and math skills would work better if you weren’t making a fool of yourself.

        I gave you an example of a $50 x86 PC and mentioned the more expensive options because you brought up building a pi cluster in your first response to me, at which point you’re not talking about spending $50 anymore.

        The main point is that either the thin client or the slightly more expensive computer will runs circles around your pi(s) for the same price.