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It's great that you wrote this up! One thing I have found with many open source/selfhostable projects is just how much running them yourself can vary. It can g

It's great that you wrote this up! One thing I have found with many open source/selfhostable projects is just how much running them yourself can vary. It can go from a simple compose file with everything included to having to dig for obscure services and piece together how they all form the whole. For example, I recently looked into self hosting Zotero. It is so under documented and complex that there is almost no way one could self host that (even for just one user) without that being ones job. So one needs to make a distinction between something being open source and being feasible to use/maintain. In the end I gave up with Zotero. Even though it could have replaced Obsidian Notes, Calibre and Syncthing all at once for me.

__justplaying 2y ago
Self-hosting/mirroring all these Bluesky components is currently a mixed bag as well though honestly the only outlier is the Relay, which is a beast. i currently have my copy of the PLC, a Jetstream with 2 days of data and a clone of the app on my laptop i play with sometimes and/or change things for an elaborate shitpost of Bluesky Nitro https://bsky.app/profile/alice.mosphere.at/post/3l7bpmmtiop2y https://bsky.app/profile/alice.mosphere.at/post/3l7bpmmtiop2... I don't self-host my PDS yet because there is no migration path back yet (but there will be). Though maybe I'll just yolo one day and do it anyways.
diggan 2y ago
> For example, I recently looked into self hosting Zotero. It is so under documented and complex that there is almost no way one could self host that I've come across this a lot too. But what I've found is that it mostly applies to open source projects that offer a hosted paid version, so it kind of makes sense they'll make the experience slightly worse than it could be (consciously or subconsciously), as it pushes people to their hosted solution. I don't particularly like it though. Doesn't seem to be the case for Zotero specifically, but your comment reminded me that I've noticed this more often lately.
- sbarre 2y ago
  Yeah I tend to use ease of install for community editions of hosted paid open source projects as the leading indicator of how seriously they invest in (and support) their free/community version..
elashri 2y ago
> For example, I recently looked into self hosting Zotero. It is so under documented and complex that there is almost no way one could self host that (even for just one user) without that being ones job. So one needs to make a distinction between something being open source and being feasible to use/maintain Just for the benefit for anyone that want to go through this rabbit hole. You cannot selfhost Zotero. In theory but in practice it is no feasible. If you find their free storage limiting then store them on webdav (all clients support that). zotero team explicity said that they don't see this as a priority [1] and with the release of zotero 7 and transition it is not realistic to think they will ever do. [1] https://github.com/zotero/dataserver/issues/105#issuecomment-701854388 https://github.com/zotero/dataserver/issues/105#issuecomment...
- apitman 2y ago
  This is why it's not enough for software to be open source. It also has to be forkable.

__justplaying 2y ago

Self-hosting/mirroring all these Bluesky components is currently a mixed bag as well though honestly the only outlier is the Relay, which is a beast. i currently have my copy of the PLC, a Jetstream with 2 days of data and a clone of the app on my laptop i play with sometimes and/or change things for an elaborate shitpost of Bluesky Nitro https://bsky.app/profile/alice.mosphere.at/post/3l7bpmmtiop2y https://bsky.app/profile/alice.mosphere.at/post/3l7bpmmtiop2... I don't self-host my PDS yet because there is no migration path back yet (but there will be). Though maybe I'll just yolo one day and do it anyways.

diggan 2y ago

> For example, I recently looked into self hosting Zotero. It is so under documented and complex that there is almost no way one could self host that I've come across this a lot too. But what I've found is that it mostly applies to open source projects that offer a hosted paid version, so it kind of makes sense they'll make the experience slightly worse than it could be (consciously or subconsciously), as it pushes people to their hosted solution. I don't particularly like it though. Doesn't seem to be the case for Zotero specifically, but your comment reminded me that I've noticed this more often lately.

sbarre 2y ago
Yeah I tend to use ease of install for community editions of hosted paid open source projects as the leading indicator of how seriously they invest in (and support) their free/community version..

elashri 2y ago

> For example, I recently looked into self hosting Zotero. It is so under documented and complex that there is almost no way one could self host that (even for just one user) without that being ones job. So one needs to make a distinction between something being open source and being feasible to use/maintain Just for the benefit for anyone that want to go through this rabbit hole. You cannot selfhost Zotero. In theory but in practice it is no feasible. If you find their free storage limiting then store them on webdav (all clients support that). zotero team explicity said that they don't see this as a priority [1] and with the release of zotero 7 and transition it is not realistic to think they will ever do. [1] https://github.com/zotero/dataserver/issues/105#issuecomment-701854388 https://github.com/zotero/dataserver/issues/105#issuecomment...

apitman 2y ago
This is why it's not enough for software to be open source. It also has to be forkable.