For Molly, I kept seeing this popup by Google when downloading Molly FOSS from fdroid.
Should I be concerned? What should I do to ensure I am downloading Molly from a trusted source if Fdroid isn't an ideal place (due to misleading names as depicted in the referenced post)?
This BS is one of the last straws pushing me away from Google.
Running DivestOS, you can install MicroG as a user app in a secondary profile. So it runs only when you want it to. You can install play store there too, and again it only runs when you want it to.
That should limit this nonsense until I can replace my paid for apps with something else.
Shut up Google. Most malware comes from the play store.
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."
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.
How’s the power consumption compare between two performance equivalent setups? (Genuine question, it’s something I’m trying to determine for my self-host use-cases).
My first RPi is for Joplin to replace OneNote. My current server runs 24/7 and costs about $1/day for power (it provides other services too). I haven’t calculated my Pi power consumption yet, but it’s running on a 2.5 watt power supply, vs my server 700 watt (of course, these are both peak measurements).
Given my self-host stuff will spend 99% of its time at idle, it seems like Pi has a massive advantage. But of course that all depends on how things are used and setup.
I hadn’t considered the RISC angle. Does RISC consistently use less power than CISC at given operations levels (MFLOPS, for example), or is there another/better way to make a power-consumption vs operations/performance comparison?
I realize this is kind of esoteric for my use-cases, but it would be useful for making projections to see if spending X dollars on Y number of Pi’s recoups the investment over a given period, just in power consumption.
E.G. If I can reduce my power consumption by 70% by switching to 3 Rpis, then I can recoup their cost in 2-3 years. Since my server needs replacing anyway, this seems like a no-brainer.