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My Favorite Self-Hosted Apps Launched in 2024

119 points by beardicus 2y ago

c54 2y ago
I’m interested in the alternative YouTube front ends like Pinchflat and Glance mentioned here. Ideally I’d avoid scrolling the YouTube homepage while still giving views and likes/subscribed to the creators I watch, because it helps support them (to what degree exactly I’m not sure but it seems like the right thing to do). I do find the archiving/downloading case meaningful as well, since a few yt vids that I enjoyed have been taken down over the years. But.. reducing mindless scrolling while still giving me a way to follow content I care about seems good. Does anyone have experience with using these? Are there alternate tools which are better than the ones listed here?
- carlosjobim 2y ago
  > (to what degree exactly I’m not sure but it seems like the right thing to do) It doesn't help them very much, or at all. If you want to support them, you can pay them.
- wongarsu 2y ago
  I use pinchflat mostly for archiving channels that occasionally take videos down. It technically has an inbuilt video player, but that's more for "debugging". The intended non-archival usecase is have the download folder picked up by your Plex or Jellyfin and watch it there. Of course that deprives you from interaction with the actual youtube content. But for support, $1/month on the creator's patreon goes further, and for engagement you can join the creator's discord. The only thing you are really missing out on is feeding the youtube algorithm.
- kevinfiol 2y ago
  > But.. reducing mindless scrolling while still giving me a way to follow content I care about seems good. My solution [1] to this was to create a static site that is built by a Github Actions workflow that runs every hour. The script just pulls RSS feeds I have listed in a .js file, and uses that to build the site [2]. The result is I'm more deliberate in what videos I watch, and I discover new creators organically (a friend recommends one, or I find them while doing a search). For "favoriting" videos, I just add them to a folder in Firefox bookmarks manager. My newest "feature" is a "Picks from your subscriptions" thing that uses an external Deno service [3] to grab a random video from one of my random subscriptions. This helps me discover old videos from my subscriptions I may have never seen. [1] https://github.com/kevinfiol/youtube https://github.com/kevinfiol/youtube [2] https://kevinfiol.com/youtube/ https://kevinfiol.com/youtube/ [3] https://github.com/kevinfiol/youtube-random https://github.com/kevinfiol/youtube-random
cowmix 2y ago
I love, love all the energy in the ‘self-hosting’ space. These apps are all that stand between us and the cloud hegemony goin' on.
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
xnx 2y ago
Self-hosting is such a crapshoot. The installation/setup process is completely bespoke for each different app. Self-hosting apps could have a real impact on overpriced SaaS if installation could be made as simple as installing a mobile app.
- elashri 2y ago
  There are many tools that provide this experience but you then lose some of customization. Some examples are Cosmos (https://github.com/azukaar/Cosmos-Server https://github.com/azukaar/Cosmos-Server) Younohost (https://yunohost.org/ https://yunohost.org/) Runtipi (https://github.com/runtipi/runtipi https://github.com/runtipi/runtipi)
  - xnx 2y ago
    Thanks for the list. I hadn't heard of some of those.
    - ryandrake 2y ago
      I feel so old, I haven't heard of any of them. When I think of installing software, my mind goes to things like "apt-get install" and maybe opening /etc/xyz.conf in "vi". Who knew installing software needed so much support? Even docker seems so overboard for 90% of "single home lab machine" use cases.
      - gf000 2y ago
        That apt-get install never actuay worked properly - what if packageA uses version A of a dependency, but packageB uses version B of that same dependency? Sure, debian/Ubuntu maintainers did the painstaking job of making an environment where most packages can happily live together, but that only worked until you had to use this new version of program C that requires a newer dependency for this and that and that. Also, it always left behind orphaned packages, a good test was/is to install the whole of gnome, then the whole of plasma, and remove them both. Ideally, nothing should be left alone. The only package manager capable of that is Nix (and those that use the same fundamental model). A second best option is to simply ship your whole work machine, a la docker.
aendruk 2y ago
What’s the purpose of appending ?ref=selfh.st to every outgoing link? Generally you can’t just make up parameters for other people’s websites.
- derN3rd 2y ago
  To allow the maintainers of the projects to see in the traffic analytics where an influx of stars comes from, I guess https://docs.github.com/en/repositories/viewing-activity-and-data-for-your-repository/viewing-traffic-to-a-repository https://docs.github.com/en/repositories/viewing-activity-and...
  - aendruk 2y ago
    Surely that must use conventional HTTP referrer data—for which we have well established standards, decades of experience managing interactions and edge cases, and norms for respecting user consent—and not some apparently wishful query parameter?
    - mrngm 2y ago
      https://httpwg.org/specs/rfc9110.html#field.referer https://httpwg.org/specs/rfc9110.html#field.referer A user agent SHOULD NOT send a Referer header field if the referring resource was accessed with a secure protocol and the request target has an origin differing from that of the referring resource, unless the referring resource explicitly allows Referer to be sent. A user agent MUST NOT send a Referer header field in an unsecured HTTP request if the referring resource was accessed with a secure protocol. In other words, it's not guaranteed that this Referer header is set. One can of course choose to remove the query parameter.
      - aendruk 2y ago
        Yes, that’s the part about interactions and consent. The intent then is to circumvent that? A case of those pesky matters of security and respect for human dignity getting in the way of SEO?
broknbottle 2y ago
I’ve found Home Assistant and i’s add-ons systems a good way to self host without the fuss. If you need something that is not there you can create your own repo and it’s pretty easy to create your own add-on collection
- si1entstill 2y ago
  I'm a very satisfied home assistant user, but I don't run much in the way of addons. Any you'd recommend?
dchuk 2y ago
Here’s a business idea for someone: find the best open source/self hosted business and start up tools (such as a chat app, a project management tool, a wiki, etc) and offer startups a managed hosting service of those selected apps. Toss up a cheap but decent vps per client, run some open source monitoring tools for yourself, price as a flat rate per app under management (vs scaling rate of a per user seat in most SaaS products). Seems like a pretty damn easy lifestyle business that many early startups would find valuable because it saves them money and the headache of doing it themselves.
- kurayashi 2y ago
  I think odoo is doing something like this. They offer a lot of different apps, from e commerce to project planning, to marketing to HR. But it’s priced per user.
- Martinussen 2y ago
  I think flat rates either make you too expensive for a small/scrappy operation getting off the ground, or too cheap to be able to offer what a large client might want (without additional agreements). In practice, this feels like the space that individuals doing sysadmin/IT stuff for local businesses are covering to me, but with even more caveats.
- bkudria 2y ago
  Check out Cloudron: https://www.cloudron.io/ https://www.cloudron.io/
aitchnyu 2y ago
The idle sleep feature of Go Proxy could be a gamechanger since cheap servers can host lots of infrequently used apps. Guess it should become the standard and extend to background processes too, like a PM2 or Systemd. https://github.com/yusing/go-proxy?tab=readme-ov-file#idlesleeper https://github.com/yusing/go-proxy?tab=readme-ov-file#idlesl...
- choobacker 2y ago
  How is go-proxy implementing idle sleep? Swap and/or CGI can do similar things, but maybe go-proxy uses knowledge of QPS to know which services to make idle?

119 points by beardicus 2y ago

c54 2y ago

I’m interested in the alternative YouTube front ends like Pinchflat and Glance mentioned here. Ideally I’d avoid scrolling the YouTube homepage while still giving views and likes/subscribed to the creators I watch, because it helps support them (to what degree exactly I’m not sure but it seems like the right thing to do). I do find the archiving/downloading case meaningful as well, since a few yt vids that I enjoyed have been taken down over the years. But.. reducing mindless scrolling while still giving me a way to follow content I care about seems good. Does anyone have experience with using these? Are there alternate tools which are better than the ones listed here?

carlosjobim 2y ago
> (to what degree exactly I’m not sure but it seems like the right thing to do) It doesn't help them very much, or at all. If you want to support them, you can pay them.
wongarsu 2y ago
I use pinchflat mostly for archiving channels that occasionally take videos down. It technically has an inbuilt video player, but that's more for "debugging". The intended non-archival usecase is have the download folder picked up by your Plex or Jellyfin and watch it there. Of course that deprives you from interaction with the actual youtube content. But for support, $1/month on the creator's patreon goes further, and for engagement you can join the creator's discord. The only thing you are really missing out on is feeding the youtube algorithm.
kevinfiol 2y ago
> But.. reducing mindless scrolling while still giving me a way to follow content I care about seems good. My solution [1] to this was to create a static site that is built by a Github Actions workflow that runs every hour. The script just pulls RSS feeds I have listed in a .js file, and uses that to build the site [2]. The result is I'm more deliberate in what videos I watch, and I discover new creators organically (a friend recommends one, or I find them while doing a search). For "favoriting" videos, I just add them to a folder in Firefox bookmarks manager. My newest "feature" is a "Picks from your subscriptions" thing that uses an external Deno service [3] to grab a random video from one of my random subscriptions. This helps me discover old videos from my subscriptions I may have never seen. [1] https://github.com/kevinfiol/youtube https://github.com/kevinfiol/youtube [2] https://kevinfiol.com/youtube/ https://kevinfiol.com/youtube/ [3] https://github.com/kevinfiol/youtube-random https://github.com/kevinfiol/youtube-random

cowmix 2y ago

I love, love all the energy in the ‘self-hosting’ space. These apps are all that stand between us and the cloud hegemony goin' on.

deleted 2y ago

[deleted]

xnx 2y ago

Self-hosting is such a crapshoot. The installation/setup process is completely bespoke for each different app. Self-hosting apps could have a real impact on overpriced SaaS if installation could be made as simple as installing a mobile app.

elashri 2y ago
There are many tools that provide this experience but you then lose some of customization. Some examples are Cosmos (https://github.com/azukaar/Cosmos-Server https://github.com/azukaar/Cosmos-Server) Younohost (https://yunohost.org/ https://yunohost.org/) Runtipi (https://github.com/runtipi/runtipi https://github.com/runtipi/runtipi)
- xnx 2y ago
  Thanks for the list. I hadn't heard of some of those.
  - ryandrake 2y ago
    I feel so old, I haven't heard of any of them. When I think of installing software, my mind goes to things like "apt-get install" and maybe opening /etc/xyz.conf in "vi". Who knew installing software needed so much support? Even docker seems so overboard for 90% of "single home lab machine" use cases.
    - gf000 2y ago
      That apt-get install never actuay worked properly - what if packageA uses version A of a dependency, but packageB uses version B of that same dependency? Sure, debian/Ubuntu maintainers did the painstaking job of making an environment where most packages can happily live together, but that only worked until you had to use this new version of program C that requires a newer dependency for this and that and that. Also, it always left behind orphaned packages, a good test was/is to install the whole of gnome, then the whole of plasma, and remove them both. Ideally, nothing should be left alone. The only package manager capable of that is Nix (and those that use the same fundamental model). A second best option is to simply ship your whole work machine, a la docker.

aendruk 2y ago

What’s the purpose of appending ?ref=selfh.st to every outgoing link? Generally you can’t just make up parameters for other people’s websites.

derN3rd 2y ago
To allow the maintainers of the projects to see in the traffic analytics where an influx of stars comes from, I guess https://docs.github.com/en/repositories/viewing-activity-and-data-for-your-repository/viewing-traffic-to-a-repository https://docs.github.com/en/repositories/viewing-activity-and...
- aendruk 2y ago
  Surely that must use conventional HTTP referrer data—for which we have well established standards, decades of experience managing interactions and edge cases, and norms for respecting user consent—and not some apparently wishful query parameter?
  - mrngm 2y ago
    https://httpwg.org/specs/rfc9110.html#field.referer https://httpwg.org/specs/rfc9110.html#field.referer A user agent SHOULD NOT send a Referer header field if the referring resource was accessed with a secure protocol and the request target has an origin differing from that of the referring resource, unless the referring resource explicitly allows Referer to be sent. A user agent MUST NOT send a Referer header field in an unsecured HTTP request if the referring resource was accessed with a secure protocol. In other words, it's not guaranteed that this Referer header is set. One can of course choose to remove the query parameter.
    - aendruk 2y ago
      Yes, that’s the part about interactions and consent. The intent then is to circumvent that? A case of those pesky matters of security and respect for human dignity getting in the way of SEO?

broknbottle 2y ago

I’ve found Home Assistant and i’s add-ons systems a good way to self host without the fuss. If you need something that is not there you can create your own repo and it’s pretty easy to create your own add-on collection

si1entstill 2y ago
I'm a very satisfied home assistant user, but I don't run much in the way of addons. Any you'd recommend?

dchuk 2y ago

Here’s a business idea for someone: find the best open source/self hosted business and start up tools (such as a chat app, a project management tool, a wiki, etc) and offer startups a managed hosting service of those selected apps. Toss up a cheap but decent vps per client, run some open source monitoring tools for yourself, price as a flat rate per app under management (vs scaling rate of a per user seat in most SaaS products). Seems like a pretty damn easy lifestyle business that many early startups would find valuable because it saves them money and the headache of doing it themselves.

kurayashi 2y ago
I think odoo is doing something like this. They offer a lot of different apps, from e commerce to project planning, to marketing to HR. But it’s priced per user.
Martinussen 2y ago
I think flat rates either make you too expensive for a small/scrappy operation getting off the ground, or too cheap to be able to offer what a large client might want (without additional agreements). In practice, this feels like the space that individuals doing sysadmin/IT stuff for local businesses are covering to me, but with even more caveats.
bkudria 2y ago
Check out Cloudron: https://www.cloudron.io/ https://www.cloudron.io/

aitchnyu 2y ago

The idle sleep feature of Go Proxy could be a gamechanger since cheap servers can host lots of infrequently used apps. Guess it should become the standard and extend to background processes too, like a PM2 or Systemd. https://github.com/yusing/go-proxy?tab=readme-ov-file#idlesleeper https://github.com/yusing/go-proxy?tab=readme-ov-file#idlesl...

choobacker 2y ago
How is go-proxy implementing idle sleep? Swap and/or CGI can do similar things, but maybe go-proxy uses knowledge of QPS to know which services to make idle?