The 8232 Project

I trust code more than politics.

  • 8 Posts
  • 22 Comments
Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: February 25th, 2024

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  • I mentioned in the edit: I’m not asking why things should be selfhosted instead of run on a cloud provider, I’m asking why things are selfhosted on a server that could be run entirely on-device. The latter I argue provides more privacy and less cost. Again, there are some cases as I mentioned in the post where selfhosting on a server is useful (storage or processing power), but I keep seeing a lot of server-based selfhosting that could instead be run on the device itself.


  • and allows us to share them publicly with others using explicit links.

    That’s something I hadn’t considered. I’m somewhat used to everything being completely local, no exceptions. It’s why I started selfhosting so late, I never saw much of a point to it. I also don’t feel completely comfortable opening any part of my home internet to the public, but I’m sure there’s safe ways of going about it.

    Another bias of mine is having a lot of compartmentalization. For example, none of my desktop account credentials are stored on my phone’s password manager, and vice versa. If one device is compromised, I want to isolate the risk as much as I can. That also means that if I were to ever set up a movie library, for example, I would want to keep those isolated per-device as well.

    Backups are a bit of a special case. You can either selfhost an automatic cloud backup, or use something simple like a USB stick you manually backup to. Besides that, though, I would argue you maintain more control over software that doesn’t rely on an external device to begin with. I gave examples, such as Aves, Joplin, or Feeder. If those are on my phone only (and properly backed up), I maintain full control knowing that I don’t need to rely on my own server at home to manage the data that I have in my pocket.

    This has helped me see some new benefits of selfhosting, though. I’ve spent my whole life without a SIM card, so it isn’t always easy finding a network (especially a trustworthy one) to connect to on the go to connect to my server with. Even in the moments I could connect to a network, they had heavy censorship (blocked VPNs and certain IP addresses). That’s why I like having everything on-device.







  • Hi there!

    Thanks for the suggestions! I’ll definitely look into QR Scanner. Most camera apps come with some QR code scanning functionality built in, so there’s not much use in having a dedicated app. However, as you mentioned, network permissions can be a deciding factor. Someone may want the camera app to have network permissions, but not the QR scanning app.

    Thank you for letting me know that Thunderbird is available for Android now! If you find any other incorrect platforms, please let me know. I’ve based almost all of the platform information based on what is listed on https://alternativeto.net/, so there are likely dozens of mistakes. I’ve found a few myself.

    I use Breezy Weather and love it. A quick look at Bura, and it actually looks like an Android clone of the default iOS weather app, which is really cool. From the screenshots, I don’t see many differences, so I’m excited to try it out and see how similar it is. Breezy Weather runs in the background to provide notifications such as upcoming precipitation, etc. so that isn’t much of a deciding factor.

    I will note, it’s unlikely that Breezy Weather will be replaced with Bura, simply because Breezy Weather is recommended more often by the community. Even though my list is curated, it doesn’t always reflect my preferred options (hence the “my top choices” stamp).

    For example, I prefer Book’s Story instead of Librera Reader as an ebook reader, and Read You instead of Feeder as an RSS reader. However, since Librera Reader and Feeder are recommended more often (and have no major issues), those are what are listed.

    I hate the UI of Librera Reader. Feeder is missing features such as a search functionality, but I don’t have any oppositions to it, so I still gave it the “my top choices” stamp, especially since Read You is a little weird about some functionality. Anyways, thanks for putting Bura on my radar. I’ll still check it out and, if there’s a massive benefit over Breezy Weather, it might replace it.

    Thank you so much!

    Edit: Bura fascinates me. It’s not an exact clone of the iOS weather app, but more like if the iOS weather app was done in Material Design. It’s very familiar to me, having used iOS my entire life until a few months ago. However, its simplicity, while an upside for some, is a bit of a downside for this list. Breezy Weather has a vast amount of customization, including customizing weather sources, which Bura doesn’t have. It’s a cool app though!

    Edit 2: I tried out all Android QR code readers I could find, and settled on this one which is nearly the gold standard in my opinion. However, it does ask for network permissions. If you use GrapheneOS you can disable it, and it will work fine.