I can’t help but feel overwhelmed by the sheer complexity of self-hosting modern web applications (if you look under the surface!)

Most modern web applications are designed to basically run standalone on a server. Integration into an existing environment a real challenge if not impossible. They often come with their own set of requirements and dependencies that don’t easily align with an established infrastructure.

“So you have an already running and fully configured web server? Too bad for you, bind me to port 443 or GTFO. Reverse-proxying by subdomain? Never heard of that. I won’t work. Deal with it. Oh, and your TLS certificates? Screw them, I ship my own!”

Attempting to merge everything together requires meticulous planning, extensive configuration, and often annoying development work and finding workarounds.

Modern web applications, with their elusive promises of flexibility and power, have instead become a source of maddening frustration when not being the only application that is served.

My frustration about this is real. Self-hosting modern web applications is an uphill battle, not only in terms of technology but also when it comes to setting up the hosting environment.

I just want to drop some PHP files into a directory and call it a day. A PHP interpreter and a simple HTTP server – that’s all I want to need for hosting my applications.

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    21 year ago

    I recently(ish) installed Unraid on a new NAS, as I’d heard good things but knew nothing about it. Didn’t really intend to install much on it, but got playing around with the Docker stuff built into it and… fuck me. The amount of time I used to spend installing dependancies, configuring stuff, trying to work out why the hell it wasn’t working. With really not much work I’ve got a fully fledged Arr setup with Jellyfin, got a full dev environment, Grafana and influx for monitoring, automated tls certs, and a bunch of other things all working pretty damn flawlessly.

    Containers are awesome.