I guess lots of people use caprover. I thought I'd try it out because I like fiddling with things. So, I installed. It worked fine. At first. Then, one morning, it wouldn't load. Just a mysterious error message on the Dashboard, "Something bad happened". So, a lengthy dive into the incomprehensible world of troubleshooting Docker began. There's no real answer. So many others with slight variations of what might be my problem. No real authoritative source of Help. Just, try this, try that. Many searchers end up reinstalling everything. I considered the same. Then I wondered when my caprover install would suddenly crap out again, and I'd lose my work. Again. So forget it. No more caprover.

You know what hasn't crapped out? Cloudron. I don't know how the Team does it, but keeping everything working is so worth the Subscription.

Cloudron for the win. Cloudron to the moon. Cloudron rules.

As I've been looking for WhatsApp replacements I came across Beeper. Now, it doesnt' actually replace WA; it is however a pretty nifty looking unified chat hq, built on Matrix, and it self-hostable. They even provide a great Ansible playbook over at github - https://github.com/spantaleev/matrix-docker-ansible-deploy.

Just to repeat myself - this doesn't replace any chat services, but it provides a way to use many different chat services in one interface. I've tried things like this back in the day and never really liked it, but for some reason this one looks promising, probably because it's based on Matrix, which is something I'd like to use more anyway, and see wider adoption.

Looks like it is pretty much ready to plug in to Cloudron too, but those with the skillset!

Most of the apps I install on my Cloudron rarely change from their location, or, their initial domain name. The auto-backup feature is fantastic too (I'm using Scaleway).

From time to time I do turn off apps, partly for space reasons, or to make room in RAM while I try out a few other apps. Before doing so, I like to backup just that one app I'm going to turn off. I've then had situations where, after some time has passed, I'll forget if I did back up this or that app, but I have to admit, trying to look up the long convoluted name (which is thankfully possible in Cloudron) and then finding the same in my Scaleway backups, to verify, is tedious enough that I take a chance and don't back up, or I just back up again and thus use up space that wasn't needed.

What would really speed things up for me is if the backups for each app (both individually backed up and when part of a full backup) could include the location (the domain, or a truncated domain) and the name of the app installed. The backup name is already helpful by including the date 2021-03-08-220003-295/app_4145s2c0-hbs57-2g8n-kiw3-2h89si6d82y9_v0.4.0. But, maybe this is just me, keeping track of which domain+app has which long convoluted name is a bit of a hassle. A backup name like 2021-03-08-220003-295/example-com_vikunja_v0.4.0 would make things sooo much easier for me to quickly visually check, verify, and find backups.

I also tend to prune existing backups in my Scaleway buckets by hand, and a naming convention like this would be super helpful for me to be able to immediately see which app is where and has been backed up how many times and when most recently.

NOTE: I've just discovered that in the Backups pane of an apps Dashboard I can download the most recent backup configuration (Download Backup Configuration), and this configuration json file INCLUDES the location in brackets at the end of the filename, like so - app-backup-config-2021-03-09-08-14-31 (subdomain.example.com).json! -Including that location in the backup file name too would be super helpful.

@nebulon If I understand the dynamics introduced by an open source licence like AGPL, someone having the access to the source code, and in fact having the source code, does not make them a "user" of Cloudron. They simply have the software and can install it and do whatever. But when they have problems, as they surely will because of Docker, where will they turn to? Most likely the original creators of the software... and when you and @girish can't help because of other time constraints, I can imagine the complaints and badmouthing that would follow. This would potentially have the effect of Cloudron (the subscription service) getting a bad name, losing customers, and eventually going out of business. So it makes sense to me that you've tightened up the licence so that the amazing user experience can remain intact and manageable.

I am not an open source purist, starting from the fact that I have no control over the VPS I rent on which I run Cloudron. It is, as someone in your chats said, a compromise for a purist. For the rest of us who don't want to pay an opaque behemoth company anything, Cloudron is simply the best. And it has the open source spirit, if not the correct licence on every bit of code. And importantly, the software actually works, a theme that I've repeated a few times on different threads. I applaud the Cloudron team for making decisions to enable them to keep the software open AND working.

Glad to be part of a community with people like you!
A balmy 18C down here in southern France!

Yes, and no. I followed Digital Ocean tutorials, and others from different sites, and conceptually there was a lot I didn't understand. This was challenging when something broke and I didn't even know what happened. But over time the tuts made more sense, the terminology was sticking, the concepts became clearer, but the amount of work and time needed to maintain and monitor the server didn't decrease much. The new Ghost works really really nice compared to how it started, and if that is all you will have running on the $5 server then you should be fine. Just always make backups of the Ghost app and assume at some point something will go wonky, or you will even get hacked, and learn from the experience. Restore from a backup and get back at it.

On top of the server though you have domain/DNS issues to understand and maintain. This can be tricky too, but over time it all gets clearer.

That said, using Cloudron is such a treat. Because I tinkered around on my own for awhile, I now better understand what Cloudron is doing, and how and why, and so it makes it that much nicer to use. But if you are starting from zero, then it is still a great way to get your Ghost site up and running. You could always familiarize yourself with webserver things locally while using MAMP or LAMP on Linux or...XAMPP (or whatever the windows version is called); and get used to servers locally with VirtualBox or VMWare and spin up an Ubuntu image and use it as a test server.

I will add that using Cloudron to run a Ghost app is advantageous in that you will also have the option for the built-in email server, and the option to install other apps that use Apache rather than nginx, or for that matter, php instead of nodejs; I still find it challenging to run php apps that would usually run well under Apache on an nginx server if the main app is a Ghost app, and vice versa, getting a Ghost app to run under Apache so that the other php apps can remain undisturbed. Cloudron makes this mixing of apps seamless.

This just came through my Mastodon instance. https://social.gitea.io/@gitea/107576791626052697, and the link within that https://nlnet.nl/project/Gitea/

This is something I hadn't even thought about before, but apparently it's getting traction. Cool.

You already have the option to install apps from others in a general sense because of Docker.

I pay for Cloudron not just because it is Docker-based, but because of how easy the devs and admins and owners have made it to use. I think adding unsupported apps to the mix even more will distract from the appeal of Cloudron. The extra apps that are available are there because the app is in the pipeline to being added to the official Cloudron store; they have been/are being worked on by people who like the Cloudron approach and want to add to that, and not to a Docker-experience in general.

The price jump from no-support to support with nethserver is a huge jump from 48€ to 250€! I think Cloudron has a good pricing structure because they have limited what they have to support. To address one of your first points, I left Yunohost exactly because of how many low level quality apps that they have, and all the hassles and problems that approach introduced. I wouldn't want to see Cloudron go that route. I like the line being thick! I am already receiving all that I hope for from Cloudron.

All that being said, I think we already have a pretty good 'community repository' of helpful users and super helpful admins. For anything that I want to do that is beyond what Cloudron offers, I just tinker away on my other VPS.

Last week I was about to ask anyone their recommendations for an audio app. A quick search of the forums didn't turn up anything specific. So, I thought I'd install the 4 above and give them a try, and report back.

I did not try Jellyfin this time as I had previously tried it out on my cloudron and it slowed everything down (about 6 months ago?). Who knows if its better now; I just want something that works.

That is the gist of my requirements: Does it work? Can I install it, and then move my music into it, and play it, with minimal hassle. Features weren't necessarily the most important. Here is what I found.

• Ampache: I was actually looking forward to this being the winner. I've known about it for a long time, and was excited to see what it could do. Alas, despite several tries, and even checking out a few posts on the forums here, I could never just upload my 31 files (30 songs and a playlist file) and get them to play. I couldn't even get them to appear in the library! Sure, more troubleshooting may have solved the problem. But, my criteria was not, "Which app will take up the most time troubleshooting and consequently result in the greatest satisfaction that I persevered and made it work." So I turned off Ampache.

• Emby: This one seemed promising. The First Time Usage clearly showed me where to place my files. Like Ampache, I made sure the files were owned properly. I uploaded my 31 files... but they also never appeared in the Emby dashboard. Give me a break. Why should this be so hard? Sure, there is probably some "trick" to get this to work, but I'm not looking to become a magician just for my music.

• Koel: Cool logo. Cool history. Seems less cluttered than the previous two... maybe this would be the one. Like Emby, I could see where the files are supposed to go. I put them there. Unlike Ampache and Emby, I could actually see my individual songs. BUT, they weren't playable per album! Surely not?! But yes, even though there was a view for Album, I never figured out how to play one entire album. I could have made a playlist, but hello, I'm pretty sure Play by Album is a thing in the music app world. I did not have time for this. So, I turned off Koel. Bye bye slick interface. I just want to install an app, upload my music, and play it (by album). Is this so hard??

• Navidrome: The last contender. For some reason I kept thinking of Mel Gibson and Tina Turner in their seminal Mad Max movie, Beyond the Navidrome. I was expecting yet another battle, in a navidrome, to get my music uploaded, visible, and then playable (by album). I installed it, read the First Time Use, uploaded the music, fixed ownership, started a rescan in the app, and what do you know... there was my music. I could view the 30 songs in various ways. When I wanted to play the entire album I just clicked on the recognized playlist file, then pressed PLAY and all the songs played! Hallelujah! Navidrome was the winner. Everything just worked. I listened to my music for hours. I will be uninstalling the other three and sticking with Navidrome.

NOTE. I did this a few days ago. I have quit my browser, obviously, and just went back to my navidrome install to resume my music heaven... but it was asking me to (re)make an admin account? What? I already did that, it was already working. Fortunately there is a solution in the Cloudron forums, and I had to login with an incognito window, but, it was all there and it was all working.

I should also add, to be as clear as possible, that "Play by Album" actually doesn't seem to be a feature in Navidrome. At least, not the way I arranged my album. My album is a collection of songs downloaded from an auto-generated YouTube playlist using 4K Video Downloader. 4K includes an option to generate a m3u file when downloading a playlist. So it was this m3u file that Navidrome recognized and displayed, and let me play my "album". Since I get most of my music these days in a similar way, the m3u file recognition was the best part of Navidrome.

As I mentioned, this wasn't a feature comparison, so I don't intend to insult or disparage any die-hard users of the other apps here, nor denigrate the creaters. I just simply wanted to install the app, upload the music, and play it. In this respect, on my setup, using minimal troubleshooting, only Navidrome met my expectations. You may have better luck with your installations; your own Navidrome install might not work! But if you too are looking for a music app that just gets installed, and gets playing your music, I suggest Navidrome.

Finally, no more "Unread"s. Have a good sleep everyone!

Hello,
I've come across another company offering open source apps, and they use names like the following: KABIcloud (Nextcloud), Email, KABIsocial (Mastodon) and KABIchat (Matrix) . This reminds me of another company that uses their own names for open source apps that they haven't made, and the same convention for what I think are apps they have made.

I'm thinking of offering similar services, but plan on sticking with the app names, and not "rebranding" to SCChat, SCCloud, SCSocial, etc. I don't intend to denigrate these laudable efforts to offer open source apps, but what convention is there about labelling them with another name? Is there something in the licence that allows for that, or maybe doesn't actually allow for it? One root question about this practice I have is: Doesn't this give the impression that "I" made SCChat, or any other app? With the other one (whose name I'm forgetting, that's why I'm not using it, and it's too late for me to feel like googling it - i googled it - frama*), even though I knew they were using these existing open sources apps, I had to really dig in their websites to find any kind of acknowledgement. At least this KABI includes the app name in brackets; but for someone new to this, it's still confusing.

Anyway, I figure someone here could direct me to a website about open source licences in general, and maybe more specifically what it expected/allowed when it comes to renaming or acknowledging. Thank you!

PS: This is yet one more reason why I appreciate Cloudron. They don't obfuscate the source of the apps they offer in the App Store.

@nebulon I went in to the Settings in NC and assigned everything.
Right now it "works", but is slow as molasses . Too bad, I was looking forward to the goodies in the V7 upgrade.

Welp, the update went well, but now when I click on a file in the Files view it initiates a download. I think I will go back to CODE.

@girish I'll try again and keep a close eye on the logs. Maybe I'll even restart the whole server beforehand, just to be sure everything is running well.

It updated, then failed to start and was listed as Not Responding. I restored to a v 1.95.0 backup thankfully so it's running again. I'll give it another go again, but if someone else has had an issue and fixed it, that would potentially be of great help!

@robi Nope, I use my cloudron-supplied Vaultwarden to generate the secret, then I copy and paste it. I save it in a Secure Note in Bitwarden. The copy-and-paste is why I feel sure it wasn't a typo. Whatever the problem, it resolved itself. I restarted the app after each change, but maybe I didn't wait long enough for the startup to finish.

@jdaviescoates Well, try inserting a ( or a ^. For that matter, I will try it actually. EDIT: Well, I've tried all three combos (just the ^, just the (, and both), and each time it still worked. I supposed it was a typo.

@jdaviescoates I couldn't resist.

@jdaviescoates Highly unliekly.

@jdaviescoates The two were a ( and a ^. It's the only thing that changed. Oh well.