This Week in Self-Hosted (19 April 2024)

This Week in Self-Hosted

Various topics across the fediverse dominated the self-hosted and open source news cycle this week. X continues to push users towards decentralized platforms with its recent announcement to begin charging new users for posting; meanwhile, fediverse users still can't decide whether they're okay with the privacy implications of Threads opening itself up to the fediverse – even if it means a direct line of communication to POTUS as of a few weeks ago.

Despite how everyone may feel about it, the publicity from the integration may have been the tipping point for other platforms – most notably Ghost, whose founder shared from his own Threads account this week that ActivityPub federation is one of the community's most requested features and confirmed the team is currently 'thinking about it' (feel free to share your opinions about it here).

Pixelfed – the team behind the ActivityPub-equivalent of Instagram and frequent contributors to the fediverse – also dropped PubKit this week, a platform designed to help developers with fediverse-related projects.

Oh, and the Mastodon team announced they're dropping new limited merch in the form of a stuffed toy mascot later this year.

Happy selfh.st/ing!

In the News

Announcing the 2024 Governing Board elections

Matrix, the open protocol for secure decentralised communications

Announcing the 2024 Governing Board electionsJosh Simmons

Open-source Substack rival Ghost may join the fediverse | TechCrunch

While the launch of a survey isn’t necessarily a commitment to federating Ghost, it is another signal pointing to the broader reshaping of the web that’s now underway.

TechCrunchSarah Perez

SSO tax, cut

A few weeks ago, we quietly updated one component of our identity pricing options, making Tailscale usable with any OIDC-compliant SSO identity provider on any plan. It’s a small change that reflects a bigger security principle.

General Availability | Supabase

Supabase is officially launching into General Availability.

Supabase

Software Updates

• Apprise v1.7.6 | Notifications: Support for Chantify, Feishu
• Bigcapital v0.16.0 | Accounting: Import resources from CSV/XLSX, bank service provider selection dialog, transaction categories, convert to invoice button on toolbar
• Castopod v1.11.0 | Podcasts: Trailer tags to RSS if present, transcript display on episode page, additional social and player platform support
• Dozzle v6.5.0 | Container Logs: Group containers by stack or compose when possible
• GameVault v1.9.0 | Gaming: Client APIs, custom theme support, button icons and effects, refreshed brand design, refresh library button, improved error messages
• Grist v1.1.13 | No-Code Database: New forms design and features, customizable 'Contact Support' link, import/export support for TSV and DOO files
• Hoarder v0.12.0 | Bookmarks: Raspberry Pi support, PDF uploads, new bookmark list layouts
• Kavita v0.8.0 | Books: Comic overhaul for better alignment with Comic Vine and CBL, transitioned collections from series-based to user-based, PDF settings
• Linkding v1.29.0 | Bookmarks: Remove ads and cookie banners from HTML snapshots, button for creating missing snapshots
• Morphos v0.3.0 | File Conversion: CSV-XLSX support
• NetAlertX v24.4.17 | Network Monitoring: Renamed from 'PiAlert', unlimited icons, UI tweaking settings
• Passbolt | Passwords: Stable release of Passbolt Windows Desktop Application
• seelf v2.0.0 | Deployment: Deploy applications on remote targets
• Slink v1.0.0 | Image Sharing: Authentication, user approval, image uploads, share links, upload history, support for local and SMB storage, dark mode
• Supabase Storage Engine v1.0.0 | Storage: S3 native protocol implementation, move and copy objects across buckets
• umbrelOS v1.1.0 | Operating System: Terminal access, beta program for new features, app functions from context menu, update progress display
• Watcharr v1.38.0 | Watch Lists: Sonarr/Radarr request management, country configuration for streaming providers, sort by last finished/played

New Software

• GuppyFLO: Local and remote management of Klipper printers
• PlexGifMaker: Generate GIFs using a Plex library and subtitles
• TaleCast: CLI podcast management and downloading
• Weblog: Minimalistic, plain text blog engine written in PHP

Recently Added – selfh.st/apps

• Circled.me: Community server for photo sharing
• Counter: Web analytics and statistics
• Maintainerr: Tool for monitoring and removing unwatched Plex media
• MeTube: Web UI for YouTube-DL
• Pinchflat: YouTube media downloads and management
• RSS Translator: Translation tool for RSS feeds
• Slink: Image sharing platform
• SonarQube: Code quality and security solution
• Wing: Open-source programming language and infrastructure

Self-Hosted Applications and Alternatives

A directory of self-hosted software and applications for easy browsing

selfh.stEthan Sholly

Community Content

• Federating Ghost | Community Survey

Virtualize OPNsense on Proxmox as Your Primary Router

Going beyond the basics of home networking

Dustin Casto

Content Spotlight: HeyForm

Meet HeyForm, a conversational form builder for creating modern surveys, quizzes, polls, and questionnaires. HeyForm sports the usual variety of input types (plus more) and conditional logic for robust and dynamic forms, as well as support for third-party integrations including email, webhooks, and a selection of hosted services. Live reporting, analytics, and export capabilities also allow facilitators to monitor survey results and perform post-analysis using their preferred external tools.

HeyForm can be installed via Docker and requires MongoDB for persistent data storage and Redis for caching.

Links: Website, GitHub, Docs

What We're Watching

• Building a Budget DIY Home Surveillance System | Hardware Haven
• Your New HOMEPAGE Dashboard on a Raspberry Pi 5! Full Setup for Homepage + Docker + Portainer | Digital Mirror
• Deploy and Manage a VPN for your Docker Containers via CasaOS! | DB Tech
• Advanced Kubernetes Networking with Multus (It's easier than you think) | Techno Tim
• ZFS Snapshots Explained: How To Protect Your Data From Mistakes, Malware, & Ransomware | Lawrence Systems

What We're Listening To

Get to Know Tom Lawrence of Lawrence Systems: Part 1 - The Uncast Show

In part 1, Tom Lawrence of Lawrence Systems joins us for a wide-ranging discussion about how he got started in tech and on YouTube and gives a master class on network security and pfSense.Look for Part 2 coming very soon as Ed and Tom talk ZFS, an…

Buzzsprout

Forbidden Fruit

Special guest Casey Liss from the Accidental Tech Podcast joins the show to discuss his homelab, how he uses HomeBridge, and his delightfully complex garage door sensor system.

Self-HostedJupiter Broadcasting

What Made Us Giddy

Bubble Card v2 is officially in beta. Time to start my Home Assistant configuration from scratch in preparation for the stable release...

Privacy

How to protect yourself against deepfake scams in video calls - Nextcloud

Read out guide to learn what deepfake scams are, how spot a scammer, and how to protect yourself with the right techniques and software.

NextcloudMikhail Korotaev

Upcoming Events

• 20 April 2024 | State of the Open Home 2024 (Home Assistant)

Nextcloud Hub 8 launch event

Nextcloud Hub 8 will be launched on April 24th in an online event. Register now to participate in the live prentation and be among the first to experience it!

Nextcloud

Command Line Corner: head

Use the head command to view the first 10 lines of a file, or utilize the -n flag to specify a number other than 10:

/$ head example.txt
  Thanks
  for
  reading
  This
  Week
  in
  Self-Hosted,
  the
  latest
  in
/$ head -n 3 example.txt
  Thanks
  for
  reading

Click here to view an archive of commands shared in previous newsletters.

Related News and Content

Tell the FCC It Must Clarify Its Rules to Prevent Loopholes That Will Swallow Net Neutrality Whole

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has released draft rules to reinstate net neutrality, with a vote on adopting the rules to come on the 25th of April. The FCC needs to close some loopholes in the draft rules before then. Proposed Rules on Throttling and Prioritization Allow for the…

Electronic Frontier FoundationChao Liu and Kit Walsh

Meta releases Llama 3, claims it’s among the best open models available | TechCrunch

Meta has released several models in its new Llama 3 family, which it claims improve across the board in terms of performance versus Llama 2.

TechCrunchKyle Wiggers

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