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

Wait, what?

Think about it. At some point in there lives everyone has an old phone. 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.

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

  • bustrpoindextr@lemmy.worldEnglish
    13·
    1 year ago

    Yeah, a second hand old as shit hp, that’ll die on you so quick. There’s a reason that hp is selling for so cheap. HP is garbage, unless you’re buying their actual servers…

    Edit: also all the “cash grab” parts… you probably already have those parts just lying around doing nothing.

    • TCB13@lemmy.worldEnglish
      21·
      1 year ago

      Yeah, a second hand old as shit hp, that’ll die on you so quick.

      Not my experience. At all.

      Edit: also all the “cash grab” parts… you probably already have those parts just lying around doing nothing.

      Yes I sure have a proprietary adapter for their PCIe connector and a Pi case lying around. Just the case its about 30€ and suddenly it becomes as expensive as a second hand mini PC for 1/10 of the performance and reliability. See the problem now? Even with the power adapter, the RPI is picky and will require a decent thing that is usually more than your average smartphone.

      • bustrpoindextr@lemmy.worldEnglish
        11·
        1 year ago

        This is self hosting… You’re telling me you or one of your friends don’t have a printer to print a case for less than a dollar? Shit, pay for shipping and I’ll send you a case.

        PC for 1/10 of the performance and reliability.

        That’s not my experience at all. I mean the other user already posted a PC you can buy for the same price as a pi. It’s about as good as a 4, the 5 is 3x that speed.

        See the problem now?

        • TCB13@lemmy.worldEnglish
          3·
          1 year ago

          A metal chassis from an HP Mini will be always better than something 3d printed…

          That other guy could’ve done better.

          https://www.ebay.com/itm/285465761346

          HP ProDesk 600 G3 Mini Intel Intel i5-7500T 2.7GHz 8GB DDR4 256GB SSD

          US $62.99

          There are similar deals in Europe, usually from Germany.