cross-posted from: https://packmates.org/users/Wander/statuses/111280488886937575
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.
Saw this post on [email protected], want to get some thoughts on it, because the idea seems a bit crazy to me.
a security nightmare, phones are updated from 2 to 4 years and then left for dead. after that no more security updates and apps will eventually stop supporting your version.
also, android lacks proper networking tools. no root access is also a big problem when selfhosting.
oh and let’s not forget the unlockable bootloaders that will lock your “server” into an Android version full of spyware and whatever crap the manufacturer decided to include.
but even on a a clean Android like Lineage OS, Android is unsuitable for an OS because it’s ultimately designed as a phone OS which are too restricted for self-hosting or doing serious computing at all.
they also have zero reparability and upgradability. if my storage runs short, I just buy a larger HDD and replace the old one. Cloning the disk is as easy as using one command, good luck cloning your whole system in Android. If my CPU dies or I need more processing power, I buy a new one and plug it in.
Understandable. Seems like Android software and hardware are too limited to do this kind of work by design then.