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I can't tell if this is self hosted or not. All I see is a centralized option. If not self hostable, a user still can't guarantee that this doesn't just end up
by choward 5y ago
I can't tell if this is self hosted or not. All I see is a centralized option. If not self hostable, a user still can't guarantee that this doesn't just end up being as bad as google photos. There are plenty of companies like this that provide an alternative to the mainstream then sell out. Really, the only person you can trust is yourself at the end of the day.
- sp332 5y agoDown in the reddit comments it says it is not self-hosted because of limited "engineering bandwidth".
- Aeolun 5y agoThat seems counterintuitive.
- vanous 5y agoAs long as the server is closed source, this remains in the 'nice but do not touch' territory.
- _fs 5y agoAKA we want to lock you in to our PAAS
- egeozcan 5y agoIt looks like they only open sourced the clients, not the backend. Also the phrase "ente has an open architecture and source code that has been peer reviewed" that can be found on their website follows a dark pattern: hey, look we are open but not really.
- vishnumohandas 5y agoHey, I'm sorry that it came across that way. Thanks for pointing it out, I now see the lack of clarity. I've updated the copy to better reflect the situation.
- egeozcan 5y agoGreat, thanks for the fast reaction!
- vishnumohandas 5y agoHey, maintaining and providing support for a server that is de-coupled from underlying external integrations (storage, payment, secrets, email, ...) is what requires bandwidth. Also, self-hosted consumer products are hard to sustain profitably. Avenues for monetization are low. Given that our long term target audience is people like my parents, we did not see enough value in investing in a self-hosted variant, and wanted to reduce the number of distractions. This is not to say that we are against the idea of a self-hosted variant, just that it is not a priority for us right now.
- gtirloni 5y agoThe self-hosted audience is also very small. I think you made the right choice.
- TimPC 5y agoFor photos I’d agree as most customers are end users. Don’t underestimate this for other products though. Self hosting is a huge feature for selling into large corporations with data security policies.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- anaganisk 5y agoWhy would corporations want to use google photos alternative tho? They're probably are using Gsuite or Office 365 already, both of which have photo storage options. If they're okay with their emails there, I dont think photos is an issue. So yes they made the right choice, by ignore the self hosting crowd, which is a very small crowd.
- vishnumohandas 5y agoHey, ente is currently not directed at an audience that has the knowledge and energy to set up and maintain a reliable storage infrastructure. We had started off as a self-hosted project, but ran into difficulties monetizing that model. We wanted to pay our rents, and continue working on this, and an E2EE SaaS was a way forward. We are not averse to supporting a self-hosted version in the future. But that commitment requires engineering and support bandwidth, which we don’t have right now.
- movedx 5y agoYou've made the right choice not to opensource and or support self-hosting options from day one. In my opinion open source software benefits greatly from first being closed sourced and commercially backed with an OSS release coming in the future after stability has been established.