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    Develop and sell a "roku" like cloudron box.

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    • nebulon
      nebulon Staff last edited by

      I have mused myself many times over that idea (not so bound to social media, but personal data) since my personal Cloudron runs on a Intel Nuc at home, which is also just a small box really.
      Besides the mentioned with arm support, technically Cloudron already works in such home environments.

      While I would love it, same as @girish, to me it is a bit out of reach since, while it works for me, due to missing app polish and of course the hardware aspect, I mostly have to acknowledge that it is geeky.

      M 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 2
      • mario
        mario App Dev @girish last edited by

        @girish you'd be surprised how well a Nextcloud box sells actually.

        girish 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • T
          thetomester13 App Dev @Mastadamus last edited by

          @mastadamus very interesting, as I've also been thinking about something like this for families!

          However, what if instead of a physical hardware box, there was a service that provided this? This could even ease out some friction of initial setup. Simply put in your family name and you're hooked up on {familyName}.somecleverdomain.name with family oriented apps (and of course an email address for each member of the family). I'm with @nebulon where I wasn't specifically thinking social media oriented, but you could have some basics: 1 photo sharing app (a must), Nextcloud for sharing files and possibly have a family calendar already setup and shared, Rocket.Chat for discussions, a webmail service, and eventually a video chat app as well.

          Would that fit the bill?

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          • girish
            girish Staff @mario last edited by

            @mario https://nextcloud.com/box/ says the project has ended. I assumed it didn't do well from that.

            mario 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • mario
              mario App Dev @girish last edited by

              @girish that particular one (the official) box isn't available because WDLabs (part of WD) that made it was disbanded. There are "unofficial" boxes that do well though.

              robi 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
              • robi
                robi @mario last edited by

                @mario can you link to one or a few?

                Life of Gratitude.
                Life of Advanced Technology

                mario 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                • mario
                  mario App Dev @robi last edited by

                  @robi I can link to the most known one, yes - https://shop.hanssonit.se/product-category/nextcloud/home-sme-server/

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                  • ?
                    A Former User last edited by A Former User

                    This would be excellent if we had ARM support (with a PI or something for a couple of apps).

                    Otherwise the problem here would be coming up with the best set of components that will perform well and be cost effective. Basically a NUC. Also I imagine if you're after an official one that would be out of the question just due to the logistics of making something like this work combined with the fact that the company is 2 guys who already maintain more packages than any mere mortal should be able to maintain.

                    EDIT: Now my mind drifted to a custom bootloader and distro called (CloudronOS) based on Ubuntu lol. Again, the overhead on @staff would be unreasonable but hey, maybe someone else could start something like this? Obviously with the blessing of @staff for brand usage etc etc etc.

                    EDIT 2: To clarify what I mean by a custom OS and custom hardware, I was thinking something like what System76 does: https://system76.com/

                    The device would be something like this? https://system76.com/desktops/meerkat

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                    • M
                      Mastadamus @thetomester13 last edited by

                      @thetomester13 Yes. I think some people might prefer they own their own hardware but at the end of the day, as long as its very clear that they own all the data, its not being snooped on and very importantly the setup is easy, I think it would fit the bill. I'm running my own cloudron server hosted at home. I Run ad blocker as a docker in my router. If their was a service that could give my other non tech skilled family members the ability to do what I do without all the config hassle it would sell. Lots of families would jump on adblocker for instance if it was a part of a "one click" install family of apps.

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                      • M
                        Mastadamus @girish last edited by

                        @girish I think you are right concerning the apps. The hardware is easy imo. You can source "cheap" price but decently made fanless mini pc's like the kind represented by the procteli. The hard part is the app side and the domain registration configuration side. It would need to be super super easy so "aunt jessy" can figure it out and be up in running within 10-15 mins. But man if someone could do that, I really think they'd make a killing. Adguard, rocketchat(or similiar) nexcloud, and some photo sharing app and family calendar. call it the "family connection package" lol

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                        • humptydumpty
                          humptydumpty last edited by

                          Let's say the Cloudron box takes off. What would consumers need to do to get it "online" at their home? Any ports to open with the ISP or would this all work by default?

                          ? 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                          • ianhyzy
                            ianhyzy last edited by

                            Other providers have tried this and largely failed becuase the software just isn't there yet, imo.

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                            • ?
                              A Former User @humptydumpty last edited by

                              @humptydumpty It would definitely require port forwarding I would think.

                              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                              • scooke
                                scooke last edited by

                                So we are back at square one! Promote Cloudron as the best solution for those interested and capable of setting it up. Or, as some are offering, don't paying for a managed Cloudron. I would imagine though that the selling point would have to be spot on... but what is the selling point? Privacy? Data control? Ease of use? Backups?

                                A life lived in fear is a life half-lived

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                                • M
                                  Mastadamus @scooke last edited by

                                  @scooke the selling point would be data ownership, privacy, connectivity etc. I know a lot of family members who would absolutely love to share and use the environment that cloudron offers. With the productivity apps, the media apps, the communication platforms etc. Yet they lack the tech skills to build a server and self host or host at a VPS. A pre setup ready to go box that requires minimal setup on user part like registering a domain and maybe forwarding a port or two would be golden. I do agree though that the software isn't there yet and neither is the security. My home hosted cloudron actually gets 'attacked' multiple times daily. Those security features would have to be squared away big time to make it wide consumer product.

                                  fbartels 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                                  • fbartels
                                    fbartels App Dev @Mastadamus last edited by

                                    @mastadamus said in Develop and sell a "roku" like cloudron box.:

                                    and maybe forwarding a port or two would be golden

                                    Don't forget that more and more residential internet connections don't get a public ip any more (keyword cgnat). Plus forwarding ports can still be quite a challenge for the technically challenged. If you want to make it easy for everyone you would need some sort of proxying service that would provide a public endpoint for these users.

                                    @mastadamus said in Develop and sell a "roku" like cloudron box.:

                                    My home hosted cloudron actually gets 'attacked' multiple times daily

                                    That is most likely the usual background chatter that will happen once you expose a service to the public internet. Could as well be mitigated if you don't expose directly, but only through a third party.

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                                    • M
                                      Mastadamus @fbartels last edited by

                                      @fbartels most of it is, some of it isn't unfortunately. Especially on my WordPress site. I have a WAF running and I get quite a few legit complex style and brute force attacks blocked every month. Also I get attempted tls heartbleed attacks fairly routinely thats stopped by my ips.

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                                      • M
                                        Mastadamus @nebulon last edited by

                                        @nebulon I had an idea. What if cloudron partnered with local "resellers" like cable companies. You sign up for the service , a tech/installer comes to house, sets up the "box" starts the service forwards the ports. Done.

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                                        • ?
                                          A Former User @Mastadamus last edited by

                                          @mastadamus I imagine that would result in a support nightmare for them considering not everyone who has internet is technically literate, unfortunately.

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                                          • M
                                            Mastadamus @Guest last edited by

                                            @atrilahiji prob so.

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                                            • marcusquinn
                                              marcusquinn last edited by

                                              I have some potential significant sponsorship interest in this if we could assemble enough people to build.

                                              Also worth a look for inspiration: https://www.odoo.com/app/iot

                                              What do you all recommend as fanless boxes to base this sort of thing?

                                              We're not here for a long time - but we are here for a good time :)
                                              Jersey/UK
                                              Work & Ecommerce Advice: https://brandlight.org
                                              Personal & Software Tips: https://marcusquinn.com

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                                              • M
                                                Mastadamus @marcusquinn last edited by

                                                @marcusquinn there's a ton out there. I bet it could be cheaper if you had a contract for bulk and care less about looks.

                                                https://www.amazon.com/Beelink-i5-5257u-Processor-Computer-Ethernet/dp/B08B3ZNPYZ/ref=zg_bs_13896591011_5?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=BDN24M5G51WTJ57RX0N5

                                                marcusquinn 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                                • fbartels
                                                  fbartels App Dev last edited by

                                                  Recent project doing something similar. I am wondering however how they really want to make this effortless for everybody. Especially since this centers on nextcloud.

                                                  https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/nextbox/nextbox-your-own-private-cloud-for-home-and-office

                                                  marcusquinn 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                                  • marcusquinn
                                                    marcusquinn @Mastadamus last edited by

                                                    @mastadamus Nice, of course I should have searched first but wondered what people here used. I suppose anything could be co-branded with some laser etching.

                                                    We're not here for a long time - but we are here for a good time :)
                                                    Jersey/UK
                                                    Work & Ecommerce Advice: https://brandlight.org
                                                    Personal & Software Tips: https://marcusquinn.com

                                                    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                                    • marcusquinn
                                                      marcusquinn @fbartels last edited by

                                                      @fbartels Interesting, although to go mass market they could do with some work on their branding and presentation.

                                                      Roku completely nails branding and presentation, and Sky TV / Now TV are the kings of branding and packaging in the UK.

                                                      I feel as a Consumer / Pro appliance it would need a little more curation on the apps where the best for each area were pre-configured, and there would need to be preferred partners setup for certain links (Domain/DNS/Backups) but I could see this being packaged as a box that people put alongside their main TV in homes and in their IT cupboard in offices.

                                                      @Mastadamus Maybe we can coin a new phrase: "cloud-cutters" 🙂

                                                      @girish @nebulon I do think the term "Private Cloud" should be used as the primary explanatory catch-phrase across your branding and presentation, and make "Self-Hosting" secondary because that is a little more intimidating.

                                                      We're not here for a long time - but we are here for a good time :)
                                                      Jersey/UK
                                                      Work & Ecommerce Advice: https://brandlight.org
                                                      Personal & Software Tips: https://marcusquinn.com

                                                      ruihildt 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                                                      • ?
                                                        A Former User @fbartels last edited by

                                                        @fbartels said in Develop and sell a "roku" like cloudron box.:

                                                        keyword cgnat

                                                        Carrier-grade NAT - Wikipedia
                                                        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carrier-grade_NAT

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                                                        • ruihildt
                                                          ruihildt @marcusquinn last edited by

                                                          @marcusquinn I agree emphasizing "Private Cloud" is a very good idea, everybody can get a feel for what it is, even if they have no idea of how.

                                                          I mean, the general public doesn't even know what hosting is.^^"

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                                                          • P
                                                            privsec last edited by

                                                            So this is something that I have been contemplating for about a month now.

                                                            My thoughts are this, you get a Nuc that supports Vtx/vtd and then you install proxmox on the device. Then set up opnsense as one vm, and cloudron as another.

                                                            Then do all the heavy lifting for the user ( could be a templates image installed to make this process much faster) and make it so they just have to plug and play and use the service.

                                                            An additional income stream could be a subscription based support level

                                                            robi 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                                                            • robi
                                                              robi @privsec last edited by

                                                              @privsec not bad, I do something similar with ESXi and ZeroShell

                                                              Life of Gratitude.
                                                              Life of Advanced Technology

                                                              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                                                              • S
                                                                staypath last edited by

                                                                Here's a similar idea that has the hardware part mostly figured out:

                                                                https://wiki.debian.org/FreedomBox

                                                                https://wiki.debian.org/FreedomBox/Hardware

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