Re: [Trisquel-users] A virtual personal server?

2016-09-22 Thread mcz
That would probably be dissuasive, since "lurking" is one of those popular  
guilty pleasures.


On the other hand, since my page would be automatically active when my  
machine is on (meaning others pages would be on only when someone with the  
same system is connected), how would I feel about it?


Well first it only reveals that the computer is on, not that I'm available.
Also, no more of those awkward dead people pages.
The problem is that there can't be no delayed communication: when my page is  
off, no one can write something to me for a later time. It strictly becomes a  
live medium.


Oh well, not such a great idea, after all.


Re: [Trisquel-users] A virtual personal server?

2016-09-22 Thread mcz

I see, thanks for the explanation MB.


Re: [Trisquel-users] A virtual personal server?

2016-09-21 Thread mcz
Oh, that's cool. Specially for what I have in mind (if it's even possible),  
it shouldn't need much resources.


Re: [Trisquel-users] A virtual personal server?

2016-09-21 Thread mcz
I have a very specific, but possibly completely wrong idea of the way I want  
to use this server.


(I think) I get the basic idea of a server, but this is a special case. Most  
services would be useless if the server isn't on at all times.


I'm thinking of a way to keep my data on my machine, and still be able to  
connect to, say, Diaspora whenever I want to. That means I'd be the only  
person on the server for this specific case, so in theory I would have no  
need for it to be always on.


And if this is possible, it would be great if installing diaspora also  
installed a small "one user server" for that purpose only.


Re: [Trisquel-users] A virtual personal server?

2016-09-21 Thread mcz
I know this, yet I have a hard time imagining I can install one computer  
inside or alongside another, both running at the same time, and without  
virtualization.


Re: [Trisquel-users] A virtual personal server?

2016-09-21 Thread mcz

Ah, maybe I misunderstand how this works.

I don't plan to be hosting anything. I was thinking of having a pod with my  
data on it, and connect with others from my pod when I'm on.
supposedly, if others either have their own pod or are on someone else's, it  
should work.


And I was thinking that it would be cool if anybody could install diaspora  
with their own pod on their machine, so they connect when they decide to, and  
they totally own their data.


Re: [Trisquel-users] A virtual personal server?

2016-09-21 Thread greatgnu
> The accounts on your pod would not be available when the computer is off  
the network


Indeed they won't be available.

> (or do Diaspora's automatically pods copy their accounts to other pods for  
high availability?).


They don't.


Re: [Trisquel-users] A virtual personal server?

2016-09-21 Thread martin
A private server needs very little resources and it doesn't need to be that  
stable.  It's not as special as you think.  Just try it and see.


Re: [Trisquel-users] A virtual personal server?

2016-09-21 Thread strypey
You are right of course, but the word "server" does imply a special set of  
conditions; being on all the time, having a fixed IP (or a work around that  
achieves the same thing), and so on. As others have pointed out here, using  
the same PC for server functions and desktop use risks the server being  
underpowered, or being offline a lot due to reboots etc. Particularly if the  
PC is being used for graphic intensive functions like gaming or multimedia  
creation.


Re: [Trisquel-users] A virtual personal server?

2016-09-21 Thread strypey
I'm presuming the theory is that running the server functions in a separate  
virtual machine from the desktop functions will mitigate the stability  
concerns mentioned by Magic Banana. The approach I was thinking about was  
doing it the other way around, ie running the desktop system inside a virtual  
machine (or perhaps a Docker container), hosted on the server. However, since  
it now seems like my netbook could function as a server, I thinking about  
setting up a Freedombone system on that.


One question that's really worth doing some rigorous thinking about is; what  
do you want a server for? If it's for the purpose of publishing things to the  
world in general, privacy isn't really any issue, so you might as well lease  
a server from an ISP, or just use a hosted service which will cope better if  
you get Slashdotted (or Reddited or whatever). If there are things you'd  
prefer to keep private (eg private communications, file storage and sync,  
scheduling calendar) but you want to be able to access them from multiple  
devices, or share them with a private group (eg a social network for sharing  
news, photos etc with your family), that's where a home server could be worth  
a try.


Re: [Trisquel-users] A virtual personal server?

2016-09-20 Thread jason
Indeed. hack and hack, there's nothing special about a "server." It's just a  
computer running some programs, nothing more.


Re: [Trisquel-users] A virtual personal server?

2016-09-20 Thread mcz

I didn't think of stability issues (which I kinda have).

I'm definitely not too hot for remote hardware unless I intend to have many  
visitors.


Last but not least, let's say I want a server to get social media like  
Diaspora the easy way (just like getting a program from the repo). I don't  
need it to be on at all times, only when I use it. Or am I missing something?


Because that would be a great thing to just download say Diaspora with its  
own server "for dummies".
It would get the load off the existing servers, and people would own their  
data the easy way.


Re: [Trisquel-users] A virtual personal server?

2016-09-20 Thread mcz

I can see that it would be complicated for emails.

But I assume it should be OK for things like social media, or many other  
services.


Re: [Trisquel-users] A virtual personal server?

2016-09-20 Thread mcz
Just out of ignorance : I didn't know I could set up my main OS also as a  
server at the same time.


Not sure how I'd do that though, it seems harder to do (but virtualization is  
hard in its own way as well, specially since Virtualbox isn't an option  
anymore).


Re: [Trisquel-users] A virtual personal server?

2016-09-19 Thread martin


The most ecological solution generally is sharing one dedicated server  
between many users. Each of them can administrate her own virtual machine. By  
sharing, the load is more constant: the hardware does not spend as much  
electricity being idle. The hardware in question usually is server-specific  
too (no video card consuming energy for nothing).



You should also take into consideration that most people have a WiFi router  
at home, which is idle most of time too.  Instead of that, it would be better  
to use a single board computer as a server and a WiFi router in one.


Also, for privacy sake it's much better to the computer at your home instead.


Re: [Trisquel-users] A virtual personal server?

2016-09-19 Thread martin
You can, if you don't turn off your PC often and don't carry it around  
regularly.  But why would you need to use virtual OS instead of your normal  
OS?  That's doesn't seem efficient and it will require more resources.


Re: [Trisquel-users] A virtual personal server?

2016-09-19 Thread dguthrie
Well obviously it may become problematic should you want to turn your  
personal computer off for some time to save power or something.
If your computer is a desktop it probably would be less efficient than  
keeping a small single board computer on for all the time.


[Trisquel-users] A virtual personal server?

2016-09-19 Thread mcz

Hi,

I was wondering if there might be technical issues
preventing me from having my personal server not on an external machine
'netbook, BBB etc.),
But inside a virtual OS on my main PC?
It would demand more CPU power and RAM, but that aside, what else?
Plus I doubt it would take much RAM and CPU.

That could be a nice way to integrate libre and owned social media, email,  
personal cloud etc.

on the same machine.
Plus it would cost less and be more ecological I suppose, since one less  
machine is used.