This Week in Self-Hosted (19 January 2024)

Sponsored by Tailscale

In the News

The Broadcom Touch

Earlier this week, technology company VMware confirmed End of Availability for a number of free license products in anticipation of a switch to subscription model pricing. The change comes hot on the heels of Broadcom's acquisition of the company late last year and will likely impact a number of self-hosters who leverage VMware's hypervisors to deploy their own infrastructure. Fortunately, community-endorsed alternatives like Proxmox, Xen, and XCP-ng exist for those looking to make the jump and avoid a subscription-based product.

Enter the [Matrix]

Due to publication timing, I often don't include updates from the Matrix Foundation in this newsletter (they typically post on Friday afternoons – too late for the current newsletter, too stale for the following week), so I'm giving them a little extra love this week. Late last year, the foundation announced they're electing a Governing Board to oversee and support the project's goals. The board will consist of representatives from the foundation, ecosystem contributors, organizations using Matrix, and community members. This is a huge step towards community governance and ensuring the project continues to meet open-source standards as it evolves (hopefully setting a precedent for other large projects as well). Unrelatedly, they also publish a weekly newsletter titled This Week in Matrix (❤) for those looking to stay up-to-date on the project.

I Can't Even

In unrelated and unsurprising news, Plex is rumored to be launching a store for television shows and movies next month. If this gives you déjà vu, it's because this isn't the first time we've been through this. In the past few years, the company seems to have pivoted away from a focus on self-hosted media and instead has doubled down on features that draw other paying customers in. All of these changes likely indicate the existing Plex Pass subscription model funded primarily by self-hosters just isn't profitable enough for the growing company.

Stand and Read No More

Self-hosted comic and manga readers were disappointed to learn this week that Tachiyomi – the well-known open-source reader for Android devices with integrations for Komga and Kavita – will no longer be developed due to legal issues with application extensions that made it easy for users to access pirated material. The news was particularly surprising given the project's recent announcement that extensions were being removed as they transitioned to a bring-your-own-content model (à la Plex). As with all open-source initiatives, it's likely that viable projects will begin popping up in the coming weeks to fill the new void.

Software Updates

• AudioBookshelf v2.7.2 | Audiobooks/Podcasts: ePub and comic metadata/cover art extraction, shortcut for adding latest episodes to playlist, tooltips for truncated titles
• Bigcapital v0.13.1 | Accounting: Export general ledger and journal to CSV/XLSX, auto re-calculate item rate after changing invoice exchange rate
• Dockcheck v0.3.5 | Container Updates: Progress bar for registry checkup
• Dozzle v6.0.8 | Container Logs: New option to display all containers on the home page
• Ghost v5.76.0 | Content Management: TK reminders feature, updated editor layout to be more mobile friendly
• Homarr v0.14.4 | Dashboard: Deeper integration with Home Assistant, improved layout and performance for certain widgets, new JSON API, availability of media requests
• Immich v1.93.0 | Photos: Improved face grouping for facial detection, usage quotas, improved deletion/faster map rendering on mobile
• Leantime v3.0.0 | Project Management: New plugin marketplace, navigation/widget updates, updated design, calendar imports
• Lightwhale v2.1.0/.1 | Server OS: Combined BIOS and EFI images into single ISO, added missing kernel config for Docker Swarm support, added networking and filtering modules required for Docker, bash completion, Docker Buildx support
• LinguaCafe v0.4 | Language Learning: Improved German lemmatization, simplified dictionary imports, Docker images now available on GitHub Container Registry
• LubeLogger v1.0.5/6 | Vehicle Records: Support for multiple users and collaborators, tab for supplies, create/restore backups
• Mailcow v2024-01 | E-mail: ARM64 compatibility, server-side processing for loading domain/mailbox tables, revised translations
• Memos v0.18.2 | Note-Taking: Improved user interface and dark mode, new timeline page, upgraded Markdown parser for additional syntax support (including table and LaTeX)
• Paperless-ngx v2.4.0 | Document Management: Remote user auth against API, help tooltips, app branding, additional caching support to suggestions and metadata
• PiAlert v24.01.18 | Network Scanner: MQTT Home Assistant integration, simplified notification management, new/updated settings, ARMv6 support
• ShotShare v1.7.0-1.8.0 | Image Sharing: Delete own shots, set name, add footer, masonry layout for shots index, ShareX support, API key management via profile page
• Tandoor Recipes v1.5.11 | Recipes, Lists: New styling/theme options, additional admin functions, documentation page for all configuration parameters
• Teemi v0.8.2 | Manga Reader: Multi-language support, various UI fixes

New Software

• Carbon: Open-source, single tenant ERP platform
• Cloudflare CAPTCHA Bypass: Detect and bypass Cloudflare CAPTCHA challenges
• Cloudflare DNS Updater: Node.js service for updating Cloudflare DNS records
• Loupedeck-HomeAssistant: Plugin for controlling Home Assistant entities with a Loupedeck
• Maker Management Platform: Digital asset management for makers (3D printing, laser engraving, etc.)
• Privy: Open-source alternative to GitHub Copilot
• RSS Funnel: Configurable RSS processing pipeline

Community Content

Migrating from Substack to self-hosted Ghost: the details

I migrated Citation Needed from Substack to self-hosted Ghost. Here is exactly how I did that.

Citation NeededMolly White

Nextcloud for bands - Jim Willis

Playing in a band generates all sorts of files that you want to share with your band mates, from live show recordings, videos, promo materials, charts, etc. Some of us were getting tired of shelling out the money to Dropbox to accommodate this sharing. So, this past weekend I spun up a self hosted Nextcloud […]

Jim Willissjwillis

Immich Logo Design Contest · immich-app/immich · Discussion #6318

Hello, Immich fan! As Immich started as a personal hobby project, I didn’t expect it to grow as big and as fast as it is. The logo and the font for the name were quick iterations to develop somethi…

GitHubimmich-app

Content Spotlight: wg-easy

Meet wg-easy (WireGuard Easy), a WireGuard container that simplifies the configuration and administration of clients with a web interface. Once installed, wg-easy can be used to easily create, edit, and delete clients while also providing a toggle to enable and disable them as needed. Other functionality includes QR code viewing for easy pairing, configuration downloads, and statistics with TX/RX charts for connected clients.

Installation is limited to Docker container deployments and does require basic networking knowledge about your infrastructure (network device name, public hostname).

Links: GitHub

What We're Watching

• Unbound in Docker with PiHole - Regain Your Privacy - Cybersecurity at Home | Jim's Garage
• EASY Budget Minecraft Servers With Crafty | Hardware Haven
• I Made A More Affordable Smart Home Presence Sensor | Everything Smart Home
• Is it time to switch from Docker to Podman? | Christian Lempa
• Meet Homepage - Your HomeLab Services Dashboard | Techno Tim

What We're Listening To

Unintended Consequences

We kick off the new year with new apps in our home lab you’ll want to try and a new way to do networking.

Self-HostedJupiter Broadcasting

Smart Home and Automation

Best Presence Sensors for Home Assistant

Dynamic overview of the best and worst mmWave Human Presence Sensors for Home Automation, all tested in Home Assistant via Zigbee or Wi-Fi (ESPHome).

SmartHomeScene.comSHS

Building a fully local LLM voice assistant to control my smart home

I’ve had my days with Siri and Google Assistant. While they have the ability to control your devices, they cannot be customized and inherently rely on cloud services. In hopes of learning something new and having something cool I could use in my life, I decided I want better. The premises are simple: I want my new assistant to be sassy and sarcastic. I want everything running local. No exceptions. There is no reason for my coffee machine downstairs to talk to a server on the other side of the country.

John's Website

Upcoming Events

Voice Assistant Contest - Let’s build and win some prizes!

We are organizing a voice assistant contest between the 17th of January and the 10th of March. You can win some Home Assistant Green, some Home Assistant SkyConnect, and a chance to be on a livestr…

Home AssistantJean-Loïc Pouffier

Creative Freedom Summit - Hosted by the Fedora Design Team

The conference dedicated to the features and benefits of Open Source creative tools. Be inspired and learn how you can enjoy more creative freedom!

Creative Freedom Summit

FOSDEM 2024 - Home

fosdem-2024

Webinar on Nextcloud Hub 7: featuring advanced search and global out-of-office features - Nextcloud

Join us in this webinar about Nextcloud Hub 7!

NextcloudAuthor Neha Mishra

Fediverse Chatter

Privacy

Reddit must share IP addresses of piracy-discussing users, film studios say

Reddit says First Amendment rights protect it from having to disclose users’ info.

Ars TechnicaScharon Harding

Command Line Corner: yes

In Linux, the yes command outputs a string of characters until stopped ('y' by default if a string isn't provided). This is helpful when executing recurring tasks or writing scripts that include commands with prompts for user input.

And while this can be useful for those times you'd like to step away while a process runs, there's a reason many commands require manual user input – so be cautious when using yes to automate those you aren't familiar with.

/$ yes This Week in Self-Hosted
  This Week in Self-Hosted
  This Week in Self-Hosted
  This Week in Self-Hosted
  This Week in Self-Hosted
  ...
/$

/$ yes | bash docker_restart.sh
  Restart Docker service? y
/$

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

Other News in Tech

Pushover Updates- Upcoming Discontinuation of SMS Backup Delivery

Upcoming Discontinuation of SMS Backup Delivery

Samsung is making a smart ring

Details on the Galaxy Ring are still slim.

The Verge

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