Brief #introduction post. In the coming months I'd like to experiment with the BSDs, so I made this account mainly to share a bit about the journey, both to keep myself motivated and in case it might be useful or inspiring to somebody else. My intention is to keep this account focused on my technology interests, so expect posts and boosts about the BSDs, linux, programming, electronics and the occasional OT or photo.

I take social media very slowly, so it may take a while for me to reply. The only other places where I currently (October 2024) use the pseudonym CoderInTheAlps are lobste.rs and HN.

Greetings to everyone here at the BSD Cafe and thanks to @stefano for running the place.

So I've been running my own #Snac instance for the past week and I have to say that I'm actually loving it. It hardly takes up any resources and the inbuilt web interface is easily configurable with nothing more than #CSS .
There are some things that folk used to running #Mastodon might not like. For example it does not show any follower or following numbers to any instances. So people using Mastodon will see 0 followers and 0 following even though those Snac uses may have 100's of followers .
You do get a people tab on the snac interface that is just a list divided into people following you and people you follow but no numbers. This is an intentional design feature by the author @grunfink@comam.es who stated.

I haven't implemented a simple count of following / followers on purpose; I consider all metrics in network media inherently toxic, because it's a way of comparing the relative success of people. This is also why, as seen from other Fediverse implementations, snac accounts always report 0 / 0 connections.

Also not all features work with android / iOS apps but most of the essentials do. I occasionally use #Tusky when I'm not just using the web interface for Snac which I just find easier. I think I will be staying with this fantastic lightweight piece of software and look forward to see what new features get added in the future. A wish would be to have a way of importing followers from Mastodon to Snac, which I think the dev is working on at the moment. Oh and I nearly forgot to say that you can import the CSV file of people that you are following through the command line and it's fairly simple to do too. I'd 100% recommended giving Snac a try if you're looking for a no nonsene lightweight #Fediverse instance.

https://codeberg.org/grunfink/snac2

Dear friends of #BSDCafe,

It’s time to upgrade Mastodon to v4.3.0.

I’m still unsure when I’ll be able to do it, as I want to ensure I have enough free time to manage any potential issues. I’ll perform a full PostgreSQL dump, take a complete snapshot of all the jails, and document the progress - should any issues arise - on the BSD Cafe Status page (https://status.bsd.cafe).

I expect to proceed by the end of the week. I apologize for not being able to provide much advance notice, but I’ll do my best to give at least half a day's notice.

@stefano

#BSDCafe #BSDCafeServices #BSDCafeAnnouncements #BSDCafeUpdates

Some years ago, a client of mine asked me to create a VPS for a website they were going to host.
As per their request, I set up an Ubuntu VPS with Nginx, PHP, MySQL, Redis, etc. Its job was to support a low-traffic, local website built with Laravel.

I've since lost touch with the client, but the website is still up and running (the VPS is up to date, though Laravel might be slightly behind - I'm not managing it).

This morning, my client (a good person with solid tech skills) told me that their client will be migrating the website to another provider, so they asked for the server specifications. I replied with the details, explaining that it's a simple and stable setup, and that the requirements are low since they only get around 50 visits per day. Easy peasy.

A few hours later, the client came back saying they had been asked for more details, as everything is required for the new setup - even though it's just a basic migration.
Here's what they sent me (copy-pasting the request):

Project Documentation & Codebase
• Source Code Repository Access (e.g., GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket)
• Code Documentation (README files, API documentation, deployment guides)
• Dependency Management (package lists like package.json, requirements.txt, or equivalent)

Project Accounts & Credentials
• Server/Hosting Login (AWS, Azure, DigitalOcean, etc.)
• Database Access (connection strings, admin credentials)
• CI/CD Tools (Jenkins, GitHub Actions, CircleCI)
• Third-party APIs (API keys, access tokens)
• Domain & DNS Management (Cloudflare, GoDaddy)

Development Environment Setup
• Development Environment Configuration Files (.env files or config scripts)
• Instructions for Local Setup (required tools, frameworks, or virtual environments)
• System Architecture Diagrams

When we explained that we didn’t use most of those things (CI/CD tools - they're not needed here, and "system architecture diagrams" don’t really make sense), they couldn't believe it.

I'm at a loss for words.
Why are we overcomplicating things like this?
It’s just a simple Laravel website. Install Nginx, MySQL, PHP, Redis, and you're good to go.
Do we really need all of this for a low-traffic, small website?

We're unnecessarily overcomplicating things. Sure, this stuff makes sense for more complex setups - but not this one.

By overcomplicating the setup with unnecessary tools and processes, we're not only adding complexity but also consuming more resources - more servers, more power, more energy. Keeping things simple isn’t just practical, it's also more sustainable.

#WebDevelopment #DevOps #KeepItSimple #WebHosting