Re: self-hosting forge software

[bill-auger]

On Mon, 15 Mar 2021 01:21:36 -0400 Richard wrote:
> What does "VPS" mean?  

"virtual private server" - digital-ocean is among the most
well-known hosts - they are rented computing resources, in the
form of "un-managed" VMs, for around $5/month - they are similar
to "shared web hosting"; but that the rentee manages the entire
VM system over SSH, most often used for running websites or
gaming servers, economically - they have small resources; but
are suitable for hosting a forge - the flaw, of course, is that
the VM is still running on someone else's computer; but for
people who's ISP blocks ports, or has low bandwidth, these may
be the best option


On Mon, 15 Mar 2021 01:21:36 -0400 Richard wrote:
> (I don't know what "notabug" is; is it important that I know?)  

notabug is a web forge service operated by a member of the
peers.community - it was several participants of the
peers.community collectively, who downloaded, installed, and
evaluated all of those forge softwares, and compiled that table

other than savannah, notabug is the only public code host that i
know of, which would meet criteria A4 (all publicly hosted
software must offer all four freedoms) - he does however, allow
private repos without that restriction - the forge software has
no mechanism to guarantee it; but he will delete anything found
or reported to not be freely licensed

https://peers.community/
https://notabug.org/


On Mon, 15 Mar 2021 01:21:36 -0400 Richard wrote:
> Could you tell me about those two?  

some VPS hosts will allow the rentee to upload their own system
image - im not sure which though - i think that most do not -
the two VPS hosts that i know of, which explicitly offer VMs of
FSDG distros, are '1984' and 'vikings'

1984 is the host which has been (very) generously hosting
parabola, gratis for about 10 years - the setup interface has
pre-loaded LiveISOs of parabola, pureos, and trisquel, ready for
self-install, along-side other popular distros

https://1984.is/

vikings is a web shop, exclusively selling computer hardware
which they promise is compatible with libre distros (similar to
thinkpenguin) - they also operate D16 servers, running with
libreboot and _some_ libre distro, probably trisquel; and rent
out server resources (such as VPS), or as dedicated machines

vikings is another "friend" project of peers.community - they
are also one of the 7 hardware vendors, which have been RYF
certified by the FSF - i believe that the vikings services are
not yet fully operational though - they have been taking
pre-orders for services, for over two years now; so its not
clear if they will ever get going - they would be by far, the
most libre-friendly option though

https://vikings.net/