4 ms·

I'm left wondering if maybe all the years I spend tinkering with Linux servers and self-hosted infrastructure are just about to pay off big time now that there

I'm left wondering if maybe all the years I spend tinkering with Linux servers and self-hosted infrastructure are just about to pay off big time now that there is a massive move for governments and institutions to take control of their infrastructure... You still pretty much need a human to spin and maintain infrastructure, wire things securely, and monitor... Now I just need to wait until someone rebrands sysop into something cool sounding like Sovereign Re-orchestration Professional, or Reacquisition Specialist... Data Nationalisation Champion

dotcoma 4mo ago
SDS, Sovereign Data Specialist ;)
- lostlogin 4mo ago
  > Sovereign Data Specialist It immediately makes me think of sovereign citizens and I get twitchy.
- giancarlostoro 4mo ago
  MY DATA IS NOT OPERATING IN COMMERCE!
toomuchtodo 4mo ago
Cloud repatriation engineer, infra sovereignty strategist. Are sysadmins back? Too early to tell imho. https://xkcd.com/705/ https://xkcd.com/705/
- dotcoma 4mo ago
  You win. Cloud repatriation engineer.
  - toomuchtodo 4mo ago
    Delightful! Maybe I'll make some tshirts to hand out at defcon.
    - dotcoma 4mo ago
      Please tell us here if you decide to sell them.
- caycep 4mo ago
  Better job titles than any AI CEO could come up with!
busterarm 4mo ago
I do this at significant scale and you need a high tolerance for a lot of different negatives to last doing it for governments (and adjacent). The only exception to this rule I would say is AWS GovCloud, which also might be one of the only chill teams to work at across Amazon. It turns out having "only one way to do it", a system proved through a rigorous vetting process and a thoroughly worked-through contracting process leads to a pretty fantastic work environment for practitioners. Trying to reimplement that piecemeal is for tougher men than me though. I think I'd rather sit on hot nails.
sph 4mo ago
Joking aside, there is a lot of contract work to help EU quasi-governative entities to move off US clouds. I have been on contract for the last 18 months to recreate some functionality of AWS on top of OVH for a client adjacent to the European Space Agency. The catch is that being government contract you, the guy doing the actual work, are beneath three or four layers of companies and bureaucracy and you get over engineered yet somehow too vague specs and projects that take 6 months just to get approved. But hey, the pay is good, and it’s for one of the better causes. My other EU client, a much smaller non-tech company for whom I host their servers, has recently wanted to know if we depend on any US services, to reduce their exposure. I believe you can get decent work just by advertising yourself as an expert in migrating code and data out of the US. That said, the job and economy situation is a big question mark and appetite to invest has lessened dramatically so YMMV
- Imustaskforhelp 4mo ago
  > That said, the job and economy situation is a big question mark and appetite to invest has lessened dramatically so YMMV Could you elaborate perhaps a bit more on this on actually why the appetite for investment has lessened? I'd be curious to know more, thanks!
  - sph 4mo ago
    I am no economist nor work in sales so my opinion is worthless, but it’s both waiting to see where this AI nonsense leads us, the stock market being an absolute shitshow solely propped up by this AI nonsense while the rest of Europe is in a phase of stagflation, the geopolitical situation at home and with our crazy partner, plus companies readjusting after the end of ZIRP. Fair to say investments and new projects are a bit harder to come by.
alex1138 4mo ago
Tim Berners Lee has Solid
- IndySun 4mo ago
  I like his vision. Can you recommend a pod? The UK based Solid Community ones (and others, apparently) are 'experimental'. "To use this system, you must understand that we cannot make any guarantees regarding the security and privacy of data that you may store in a solidcommunity.net Solid pod, or concerning the system's functionality and availability."
- thisismissem 4mo ago
  I used to work for timbl's company Inrupt on Solid on the SDK team. Inrupt no longer appears to be doing solid (or at least it's very well hidden if it still exists). AT Protocol achieved what Solid envisioned without the inane complexities of rdf and json-ld, which were the biggest learning blockers to people actually adopting Solid.
- toomuchtodo 4mo ago
  Comparison Between ATProto and Tim Berners-Lee's Solid Protocol - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48724526 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48724526 - June 2026 (0 comments currently) Related: ATProto Permissioned Data Proposal Draft - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48651727 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48651727 - June 2026 (4 comments)
thrill 4mo ago
Why not - eventually it will be The Year Of The Linux Desktop.
rsolva 4mo ago
I got hired by a local company exactly for my experience with running linux servers at home and in a semi-professional capacity. They had hired someone with perfect credentials from university with several masters degrees, but they had to let him go after half a year because he did not fit in to their linux environment that has been operating since the 90s. I had no formal education, but many years with tinkering, self-hosting and operating linux machines for a small number of customers, and they could not hire me fast enough. They told me that it is really hard to come by people with this mix of experiences, everything is in the clouds these days.
- deleted 4mo ago
  [deleted]

dotcoma 4mo ago

SDS, Sovereign Data Specialist ;)

lostlogin 4mo ago
> Sovereign Data Specialist It immediately makes me think of sovereign citizens and I get twitchy.
giancarlostoro 4mo ago
MY DATA IS NOT OPERATING IN COMMERCE!

toomuchtodo 4mo ago

Cloud repatriation engineer, infra sovereignty strategist. Are sysadmins back? Too early to tell imho. https://xkcd.com/705/ https://xkcd.com/705/

dotcoma 4mo ago
You win. Cloud repatriation engineer.
- toomuchtodo 4mo ago
  Delightful! Maybe I'll make some tshirts to hand out at defcon.
  - dotcoma 4mo ago
    Please tell us here if you decide to sell them.
caycep 4mo ago
Better job titles than any AI CEO could come up with!

busterarm 4mo ago

I do this at significant scale and you need a high tolerance for a lot of different negatives to last doing it for governments (and adjacent). The only exception to this rule I would say is AWS GovCloud, which also might be one of the only chill teams to work at across Amazon. It turns out having "only one way to do it", a system proved through a rigorous vetting process and a thoroughly worked-through contracting process leads to a pretty fantastic work environment for practitioners. Trying to reimplement that piecemeal is for tougher men than me though. I think I'd rather sit on hot nails.

sph 4mo ago

Joking aside, there is a lot of contract work to help EU quasi-governative entities to move off US clouds. I have been on contract for the last 18 months to recreate some functionality of AWS on top of OVH for a client adjacent to the European Space Agency. The catch is that being government contract you, the guy doing the actual work, are beneath three or four layers of companies and bureaucracy and you get over engineered yet somehow too vague specs and projects that take 6 months just to get approved. But hey, the pay is good, and it’s for one of the better causes. My other EU client, a much smaller non-tech company for whom I host their servers, has recently wanted to know if we depend on any US services, to reduce their exposure. I believe you can get decent work just by advertising yourself as an expert in migrating code and data out of the US. That said, the job and economy situation is a big question mark and appetite to invest has lessened dramatically so YMMV

Imustaskforhelp 4mo ago
> That said, the job and economy situation is a big question mark and appetite to invest has lessened dramatically so YMMV Could you elaborate perhaps a bit more on this on actually why the appetite for investment has lessened? I'd be curious to know more, thanks!
- sph 4mo ago
  I am no economist nor work in sales so my opinion is worthless, but it’s both waiting to see where this AI nonsense leads us, the stock market being an absolute shitshow solely propped up by this AI nonsense while the rest of Europe is in a phase of stagflation, the geopolitical situation at home and with our crazy partner, plus companies readjusting after the end of ZIRP. Fair to say investments and new projects are a bit harder to come by.

alex1138 4mo ago

Tim Berners Lee has Solid

IndySun 4mo ago
I like his vision. Can you recommend a pod? The UK based Solid Community ones (and others, apparently) are 'experimental'. "To use this system, you must understand that we cannot make any guarantees regarding the security and privacy of data that you may store in a solidcommunity.net Solid pod, or concerning the system's functionality and availability."
thisismissem 4mo ago
I used to work for timbl's company Inrupt on Solid on the SDK team. Inrupt no longer appears to be doing solid (or at least it's very well hidden if it still exists). AT Protocol achieved what Solid envisioned without the inane complexities of rdf and json-ld, which were the biggest learning blockers to people actually adopting Solid.
toomuchtodo 4mo ago
Comparison Between ATProto and Tim Berners-Lee's Solid Protocol - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48724526 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48724526 - June 2026 (0 comments currently) Related: ATProto Permissioned Data Proposal Draft - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48651727 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48651727 - June 2026 (4 comments)

thrill 4mo ago

Why not - eventually it will be The Year Of The Linux Desktop.

rsolva 4mo ago

I got hired by a local company exactly for my experience with running linux servers at home and in a semi-professional capacity. They had hired someone with perfect credentials from university with several masters degrees, but they had to let him go after half a year because he did not fit in to their linux environment that has been operating since the 90s. I had no formal education, but many years with tinkering, self-hosting and operating linux machines for a small number of customers, and they could not hire me fast enough. They told me that it is really hard to come by people with this mix of experiences, everything is in the clouds these days.

deleted 4mo ago
[deleted]