Okay @tim, @judytuna, and @trashHeap, why don’t we have a server colocated somewhere one of us can access?
Not rhetorical! I ask what you peeps’ reasons are.
I guess I am afraid of a hard drive failure. Because the last time I did something like this, hard drives spun.
I am not looking to replace SDF or anything, I’d like to actually have less formal, more friendly arrangements for hardware provisioning. Meaning, less an open coop anyone can join, and more into, “I need space, you need space, let’s share space?”
I know of a local-ish colo company called Monkeybrains, and they have a couple neat offerings: Colocation - Monkeybrains.net
I’d absolutely love to colo here in Oakland, but I don’t know of any spaces that would give us an appointment. But also, we are at least two coasts! Meaning we should be able to do interesting things with hardware and networking, ya know?
I know I have projects I could use dedicated hardware for, so let me know what you folks are thinking about, and let’s get on this, if it is a thing to be gotten on.
I’ve pondered colocation a couple of times. VPS is usually more cost effective for my needs. There has been a time or two over the years where it would have been helpful to run something on real hardware, but ive mostly organized my life now around VPSes now. (Not counting the pseudo-server ive got running at my apartment, that my fiance luckily doesn’t mind.)
Most of the time when I think about getting a colocated box it’s to ensure ive got source code all the way down to metal. With a motherboard that runs Libreboot and whatnot.
I am there with ya. I basically want to be able to spin up a VPS on hardware I control. I suppose there are a couple of hosting coops…
What I really want is to know if someone has been snooping around the hardware, without revealing my home location via IP (otherwise I’d host at home).
My thinking is if we had a handful of people, our collective expertise would lower the expense for all of us. And I think nearly all of my personal projects could live on a single web server.
Of course that means I could just host a server and parse out access. But that isn’t as fun anymore.
I am seriously planning on getting a server set up at our next house. I’ll have solar so power will never (almost never) be an issue! I’m going to host like it’s 1999.
Seriously though, I’m hoping this will be in place within 4 months.
My bandwidth is so-so, but certainly good enough for jabber and some assorted services. But here’s the thing: anyone with a search engine will be able to figure out your home address. And I don’t know… that bugs me.
At the very least, we can’t suggest this to everyone, there are non-white guys out there having their lives threatened and doxxed, and I don’t want to endorse that. Scuttlebutt or other decentralized protocol, sure. Maybe even a hidden Tor service. But not a public, IP-addressed server. Ya know?
Of course, if you do set up a server at yer place, I’d love some space on it!
I found them, once setup surprisingly stable. That being said the docs are out of date and the support is very minimal. I had some problems with the SDF DNS for example, and my posts for help on bboard went largely unanswered. Ended up switched my VPSes over to an external DNS for resolution.
The OS images though seem fairly up to date. Though their breadth of OS choices is simultaneously broad and thin. NetBSD is the only BSD option for example, but simultaneously their the only Plan9 VPS I know of. CentOS and Debian are available and will suit most needs if you can jump through all the perquisite hoops yourself.
I don’t mind the unix-y ness of the VPS in general though I think prgmr.com is more well supported with more image options with just as much unix-y ness.
EDIT: I should also mentioned I found my VPS had better uptime than SDF proper does.
Id consider donating money for a libre motherboard and a couple of months of collocation costs as an experiment; if others are game. Im not sure what id use it for just yet, but I too have wanted a VPS on trusted hardware, and there are far too few non profit VPSes I can trust. So the experiment seems potentially valuable.
Noted. After brainstorming here for a bit, we’ll have a few options.
Kinda fascinating…
Please give me a short list! I’ve found a few coops that look, I don’t know, as cared for as SDF’s site, which isn’t great for me. I don’t mind minimal design (see https://prgmr.com for the “SDF aesthetic” while remaining useful), but they have these membership processes, and maybe my personality doesn’t mesh with that well. I don’t like being judged by strangers if I can use their hardware…
Wow, lots to unpack there!
I am still deciding if I want one big ol’ server, or really double down on VPS configs and cloud tools, as I also do enjoy that.
Now that’s bugging me. Hmm, I have a friend who has ran a small colo for the last 10 years right by me. I’ll see what it would cost to get space there.
SDF, but their docs and general user experience is, um, very UNIXy. 
Hmm, I have a friend who has ran a small colo for the last 10 years right by me. I’ll see what it would cost to get space there.