Skip to main content


Hello Fedi friends,

I'm currently planning my written tutorial for #YunoHost - from the POV of a newbie.

The guide will have a simple but ambitious goal: to encourage non-technical people to try self-host their own #NextCloud instance... and show them that it's something accessible to all, thanks to the wonderful YunoHost.org

I have tried other similar tools and YunoHost IMHO is simply the best and most secure solution. I've been using it for 11 months now and I have ZERO complaints. It just works... and it's effortless.

I'm thinking of splitting my written tutorial in a 3-part series... because doing everything in one go for a non-technical person could be overwhelming.

Part 1: registering a domain name and signing up for a VPS*

* yes I know technically you could forgo a domain name but I think having one is more empowering long term... and I'd go the VPS route because it's the most headache-free for a newbie. I can do the whole thing in 12 minutes with a VPS... and experienced headaches with a Raspi. I think for a total newbie the VPS is the way to go... especially if we factor in security issues. The stakes are lower

Part 2: installing YunoHost and tweaking DNS settings (assigning domain for NextCloud and creating a subdomain for YunoHost admin stuff, etc.)

Part 3: installing NextCloud (which people voted for when I asked which app I should install in my tutorial) and seeing what it can do.

Thoughts?

Is a 3-part series overkill or ok? I'd like to encourage people to set aside 30 minutes a day for this, so that the whole thing is not too overwhelming.

Eager to hear what you think about this!

P.S.: tangentially related but ICYMI: my Ghost blog is now federating thanks to MagicPages.co. You can follow it here: @ele

#MySoCalledSudoLife #TheFutureIsFederated

in reply to Elena Rossini on GoToSocial ⁂

IMO Something that is missing from the "VPS vs local self-hosted" docs are how local self-hosted are so dependent on hardware's quirks.

There's docs about hosting on an RPI for instance, but we *know* many YunoHost apps won't be compatible for many reasons, or will run very slow, or will make the machine itself slow on other processes, etc.

That's the same for VPSes: hardware requirements are key, they highly depend on what apps you're installing in your instance.

in reply to Elena Rossini on GoToSocial ⁂

I think those 3 parts make sense! As long as they're linked well together, they could help readers skip only to the part they need - for example, I've set up a VPS before but have 0 knowledge of YunoHost!
in reply to Elena Rossini on GoToSocial ⁂

multiple articles sound like the way to go 👍 That way you can incorporate any new insights in the articles to come, besides not info dumping all at once 😅

Nextcloud is on my todo list, want to pair it with a Matrix instance so i can remove WhatsApp from my phone, but still be in contact.
Looking forward to the articles 😃

in reply to Elena Rossini on GoToSocial ⁂

Hello, this program seems to be good, even if i spend more time to do it (but i have "excuses", i choose to install at home on a hypervisor with a NAS). Your articles will be of great value for someone who decide to selhost without knowing.

I would love you add a 4th part : how to do and program backups. I'm stucked here and i think this is very important for personal data.

Thank you for what your are doing.

This entry was edited (1 month ago)
in reply to Clément Moignard

Very good & important suggestion! Backup strategy is probably a thing that would be of great interest - and even if not at first - still ultimately important for the common target group, I agree, @clement_moignard! 👍

@elena, I'm on Yunohost with (primarily) my WordPress instance, Nextcloud and Email (on a VPS) since 3,5 years now. All in all, a happy user. If you need a reference, I'd be happy to help out! @ele

in reply to Klas Waltersen* :mastodon:

awesome to hear, thank you!

and I may at some point move my Wordpress sites to my VPS (thank you for the reminder) because I signed up for a cheap 4-year plan with a web hosting company in 2023… and I see that he renewal fee coming up in 2027 is 450 Euros 😱