this post was submitted on 22 Oct 2023
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Selfhosted

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The future of selfhosted services is going to be... Android? (packmates.org)
submitted 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) by Wander@packmates.org to c/selfhosted@lemmy.world
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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

(page 2) 47 comments
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[–] Decronym@lemmy.decronym.xyz 3 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

Acronyms, initialisms, abbreviations, contractions, and other phrases which expand to something larger, that I've seen in this thread:

Fewer Letters More Letters
NAS Network-Attached Storage
PCIe Peripheral Component Interconnect Express
Plex Brand of media server package
RPi Raspberry Pi brand of SBC
SBC Single-Board Computer
SSD Solid State Drive mass storage
SSL Secure Sockets Layer, for transparent encryption

6 acronyms in this thread; the most compressed thread commented on today has 5 acronyms.

[Thread #231 for this sub, first seen 22nd Oct 2023, 22:25] [FAQ] [Full list] [Contact] [Source code]

[–] herzenschein@furry.engineer 2 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (2 children)

@Wander @selfhosted This sort of setup is very attractive IMO because of the low power usage. Android phones use much less power than old PCs.

The main con I see is not having ethernet (maybe there's some sort of MicroUSB/USB-C to ethernet adapter, but I didn't look into it yet). That, and there being only one port.

[–] TheHolm@aussie.zone 1 points 2 years ago

Ethernet is not a problem. Plug USB-to-Ethernet adapter to your phone ( there are some requirements to both) , and you will be surprised.

[–] marcus_grant@fosstodon.org -1 points 2 years ago

@herzenschein @Wander @selfhosted with a cluster, even in WiFi you could mitigate some of those problems, but for home use clusters is potentially asking too much

[–] dugite_code@mastodon.social 1 points 2 years ago

@Wander @selfhosted Unlikely, the biggest issue android devices have is hardware support due to the ARM CPU architecture. It's just not as useful as old x86 hardware, you're stuck with old outdated and vulnerable firmware. My opinion is that one of the selling points of ARM hardware for device vendors is it's relative impossibility to get open source driver support. You may see some use of Apple M1 and M2 simply because it's a smaller FOSS support target, but android devices vary too much.

[–] southsamurai@sh.itjust.works 1 points 2 years ago

I mean, android is fine I guess, but it's being pushed to be less and less able to be separated from Google. I think for a lot of people interested in self hosting, there's a low amount of interest in it because of that.

[–] sir_reginald@lemmy.world 1 points 2 years ago

I'd rather use a real OS, thank you

[–] AMS@infosec.exchange 0 points 2 years ago (1 children)

@Wander @selfhosted I in fact already use android for syncthing.

[–] Wander@packmates.org 1 points 2 years ago

@AMS @selfhosted yes, hopefully we'll see an explosion in self-hostable alternatives that can be installed as easily as syncthing.

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