Hi sam,
you’re basically right.
BUT here we come to another limitation, I‘ve had in mind, that is storage capacity and scalability. Most virtual servers for 5 bucks per month coming with round about 30-50 GB capacity. Let’s say 10 GB of them are instantly away due software dependecies. The rest will be gone in a short period of time.
I‘d like to install Nextcloud or Resilio Sync in a second step. Document sharing is also pretty important for me. My dad at age of 68 needs help at his household / contracts / other document managing. It‘s important for us,to,sync thousands of documents. I don’t wanna use USB sticks any longer … Good-bye 90s
This is why I need round about 500 GB to 1 TB of storage.
(20-50 bucks extra per month? No way.)
Security
Indeed, the most important aspect of this project.
Actually, I‘m not sure if a running virtual server at some shared-hosting provider is the right choice. At the moment the system is running, disk encryption is unlocked. Not sure if 3rd parties could access to that data, in case they want to?
Any home server would be under my full control and can only be accessed through VPN and WiFi / ethernet.
Full disk encryption is by the way a sensitive topic, I‘ll need some extra lessons into that. How to do that appropriately on (Ubuntu) linux? What recipe / how-to can you guys recommend? In case of maintainance, the virtual host should be still bootable xD I‘ve read a lot of positive feedback about ZFS and it‘s capabilities. But whould it work instantly?
I admit, not to be an security expert. That’s also a reason I prefer semi-online solutions in that case.
Last but not least: Mail exchange. Should I use AWS SES, any self-hosted SMTP or should I disable that completely? As we all know, transport encryption is not enough. In case someone posts confidential information, I‘d like to make sure, only the intended person get‘s involved into that conversation. What do you guys suggest? Disabling mail at all and getting push notifications only?
Facebook and other anti-social networks
Let me say one thing: hahaha never ever again.
Discourse is the future, for sure! Amazing work buddies