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Idea: NixOS configuration meant for hosting "for the common good" services, like tor relays, simplex relay, archive team warrior, etc. (lm.paradisus.day)
submitted 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) by rutrum@lm.paradisus.day to c/nix@programming.dev
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This idea is inspired by nixos-mailserver. It was so easy to spin up the mailserver after changing some DNS records and putting in some settings. I thought it might be a good idea to do the same for services that need public, decentralized infrastructure to support. Some ideas include

  • Tor relay, or exit node
  • Encrypted messaging nodes. It looks like SimpleX chat relies on SMP servers to relay communication
  • Crypto miners (I know, I know, but you understand how it fits the “public contribution” usecase)
  • Search engines like searxng (I currently use a public instance)
  • Libredirect services, like proxy clients for social media

Maybe federated services, but those require more than just the software running on the public internet. Those require moderation and long term maintenance. Ideally, the services in this config would be ephemeral.

Does this sound like a good idea? Would you spin one of these up on a $10 VPS? I understand that this is the NixOS community, not necessarily the privacy community, but I figured thered be overlap.

What other services do you think would be applicable?

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[-] onlinepersona@programming.dev 1 points 4 months ago

I love the idea! It has to be accessible to noobs. In my mind it needs a wizard that walks you through the basic steps:

  • what you would like to host (advanced wizard gives you more options e.g apache, nginx, ...)
  • where you would like to host it
    • optimally it should help the user pick a service (registry of VPS, dedicated server hosts, private cloud, ....)
    • connect via API token or walk user through purchasing a server/service
  • the domain name you would like to use
    • optimally this would integrate with domain name registrars
    • let you pick a domain name
    • purchase it
    • walk you through creating an API token or take you to a webpage explaining how to point it to an IP
  • connect to server/service to install services and possibly admin UI

Basically, it should be possible for any old fart to go "geee, I would like to have a website/service", download the tool, click through a few steps, and have everything up and running by the end without knowing a goddamn thing about the internet or even that nix/nixos is used in the background.

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this post was submitted on 28 Jun 2024
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