slabber

I have successfully setup trojan / trojan-go on my server. It uses port 443 and will return a standard website if the connection is not recognized as an authorized trojan-go client. As stealth as it can get.

https://azadzadeh.github.io/trojan-go/en/

If your server doesn’t rely on docker I would give FreeBSD a try. I’ve been using Debian for 20 years and moved to FreeBSD a few years ago. Now I can never go back. Not that I don’t like Debian anymore but FreeBSD is a true server system. Simple, fast and stable. And with their jails implementation (something like docker but less obscure) you can easily isolate your services from the rest of the system.

True. Getting a TB of storage is not affordable nowadays. And we know why. F*©k AI.

But here in Poland you can still find some used Q920 with the same specifications.

If you are located in Europe they would most likely send it even to your country.

This one would be like the one I have.

https://allegro.pl/oferta/solidny-i-kompaktowy-komputer-micro-fujitsu-q920-i5-16gb-2000-ssd-w11-praca-17993236542

I haven’t. They only provide docker deployment which I’m not fond of. If they would offer an alternative installation method I may would. Heard a lot of good things about it.

At present I use Nextcloud client on my phone to backup photos and the Memories app to nicely browse them.

I don’t know exactly what you want host but I have an old Fujitsu Q920 i5 with 16 GB of RAM and a 2 TB SSD drive which cost me around 200 Euro.

I’m serving around 20 services on it including Nextcloud, Navidrome, Paperless NG, Emby, Matrix, Friendica, Wireguard, Zabbix, DNS blocker and a few VMs. Processor utilization is around 5% most of the time and it uses about 8 GB of RAM.

I admit that Nextcloud could be more responsive and faster but for the family it is enough.

I haven’t exactly checked how much electricity I’m using but I would have noticed a bigger change on my bill.

For backups I have a remote node at another location that retrieves ZFS snapshots periodically.

Anyway. I have this setup for 2 years now and I’m happy. It does what I expect it to do.

As a side note. i use FreeBSD with jails and bhyve for this. A Proxmox running VMs with nested Docker apps may need something more performant so be aware.

Second that. I don’t have another node that I can use for WoL at my backup location so I opted for the node to turn on every morning, run the backup and turn off using cron at a given time. Works perfectly!

Stop using Chrome!

I settled on a Fujitsu Q920 with 16 GB of RAM and a 1 TB SSD. Runs FreeBSD 14.1 and each service has its own Jail.

Services:

DNSmasq - local DNS and adblocker Wireguard Navidrome MPD - Media server Vaultwarden - password save Radicale - cardav and caldav server TinyRSS - RSS aggregator Zabbix - server and service monitoring Postgresql Gitea - git repository Emby - jellyfin alternative Mariadb Bhyve VM with Debian running 2 apps (invoiceplane and leantime) which use a quite old php version and I never had time to port to Freebsd.

A second machine that starts daily and creates a backup of machine 1 by using ZFS autobackup.

Nothing fancy but it does what I need.

My feeling is that there is. I think it all started with the speed I can login over ssh. Debian always seems to have a short delay but FreeBSD feels instant. When it comes to rating FreeBSD as a better OS for servers I may be biased as Debian has served me so well over the years. I was never a Docker fan but instantly liked Jails for isolating services. Then we have native ZFS support which simplifies my backup needs. A simple zfs send | zfs receive and you have an exact copy of your service instance on a remote node. Everything feels integrated and not stacked. Again, just a personal opinion.

Yes yes yes. It’s great to see other FreeBSD fans here with the same opinion.

I was using Debian as a server OS for more than twenty years with short escapades to other distros but then I discovered FreeBSD and there was no way back. ;)

I’m a long time user of Debian myself too. No cutting edge fuzz, just a working, stable OS all of the time. What else do you need for a server? It always did the job.

But then I stumbled on FreeBSD, and man, that’s a server OS. Simple design and blazing fast. No Docker but I never liked it anyway. My Docker is called Jails and in my opinion is they’re superior. Service isolation on the next level.

On my laptop? Debian due to hardware and software support. And I’ll stick to that for now. I feel home on that distro.

I can’t say anything about OpenBSD as I never tried it but it sure is a perfect fit for a server as well depending on your needs and preferences. BSD just rocks!

Second that. Been with them for a year now. Good price and performance.

Same here. I’m using mainly FreeBSD on my servers so docker is a no go due to lack of support. I have to stick with Photoprism for now as it offers a install without docker and it does the job for me. Anyhow, I’m not happy with the trend that most FOSS projects today limit the deployment on docker and do not offer a way of a plain install on you *nix system of choice.

Thanks for the tip but I’m not sure why I would choose a desktop client over Navidrome itself. I usually have the browser open anyway. But maybe I’m missing something useful by using an actual app?

I settled with Navidrome. It solves 2 use cases for me. Due to being web based it can be used by any PC or mobile device with access to my server. Additionally it supports subsonic which allows me to use a native android app (ultrasonic) and have music on the go. I don’t use services like Spotify.

Nice one. Downloaded and will try it soon. Using Ultrasonic at the moment so eager to see differences between the apps. Happy new year by the way. ;)

I jumped onto the FreeBSD train a year ago and needed some virtualization tool for my job. A started using bhyve and must say that I am quite happy with it and don’t plan to move to any other tool soon. Not sure how it compares to other tools performance wise but it does the job for me.

A service to remove paywalls.As far as I remember,it doesn’t work with the NYT but does a good job with a bunch of other sites.

I have been using Debian for the last 20 years or so. I also had a brief encounter with Gentoo which was a big help to dive into compiling, specially kernels adjusted to low performant and old hardware. I have been using Debian for my servers (web mostly) but discovered FreeBSD and jails for myself this year. It didn’t take long to convet my primary webserver to FreeBSD. Until now, no complains. I have an easy way to isolate websites and services in their own jail allowing users to access theirs without conpromising host security.

I will object on this one. Even if the majority of user does not care about privacy they do care about ransomware , viruses, speed of the system and in my opinion Linux / BSD is secure, fast and speed remains after time not like Windows where I felt that after 6 months I had to reinstall to get a performant system. I guess it is all about convincing your family and friends about those benefits.