selfhosting

PeerTube and Platform Control

I didn’t even plan to blog something today, but a couple of things came together around PeerTube that convinced me to drop a post today. But, maybe before we start … PeerWHAT? you might ask.

Interlude: What is PeerTube?

TL;DR: An open source / self hosted YouTube

PeerTube is a video platform that works a bit differently from sites like YouTube. Instead of one company running it, PeerTube is made up of many small, connected servers – so there’s no central control. You can watch, upload, and share videos just like you’re used to, but without ads or tracking. PeerTube also connects with other platforms like Mastodon, so videos can reach more people across the Fediverse. It’s a privacy-friendly option for discovering and sharing content on your terms.

A more technical description can be found on Wikipedia: PeerTube – Wikipedia

So what happened …

Myown #UnplugTrump to more digital sovereignty

If you’ve been following my blog, you know that I’m gradually moving away from “classical” Big Tech social media, focusing more on Mastodon and my own homepage.

On Mastodon, I came across Elena Rossini and followed her journey toward greater digital sovereignty. Inspired by her example, I decided to give up my YouTube channel in favor of a self-hosted PeerTube instance.

How to set up Navidrome for MP3 Streaming on a RaspberryPi

Recently I noticed that I hardly ever listen my MP3 music collection – mainly because I don’t like my music players (both on mobile and on the desktop). So, let’s look for a nicer player!

I had only two constraints: 1) it should be able to use the files from OneDrive and 2) it should be able to cache them (in case of no connectivity). And as I went through the candidates, I stumbled across Navidrome:

Navidrome allows you to enjoy your music collection from anywhere, by making it available through a modern Web UI and through a wide range of third-party compatible mobile apps, for both iOS and Android devices.

Navidrome also supports Playlists and Internet-Radio! Nice. So why not let it run on a RaspberryPi at home and make it available through my VPN? But would I have enough RAM left? I just tried!

How to selfhost Peertube

I’ve been thinking about selfhosting my videos for quite a while now. Sure, Youtube is the de-facto-standard. But honestly, I don’t perform on ANY platform that is steered by an algorithm, and I simply dislike the way those monopolies can “dictate” what is seen and can be seen. Elena Rossini recently wrote a nice post about it, that nails it quite well. I know: I don’t pay for it, so what should I expect …

Anyways! I hesitated for quite a while to rent a VPS, install Peertube, maybe according databases, redirect a subdomain, keep it maintained … ah well … or maybe just not.

But – also thank you to Elena Rossini (@_elena@mastodon.social) – I got aware of YunoHost:

YunoHost is an operating system aiming to simplify server administration and therefore democratize self-hosting while making sure it stays reliable, secure, ethical and lightweight. It is a copylefted libre software project maintained exclusively by volunteers. Technically, it can be seen as a distribution based on Debian GNU/Linux and can be installed on many kinds of hardware.

And I must admit that I really liked the setup procedure! It’s well described in the Yunohost Documentation and worked like a charm.

If you are afraid of self-hosting any application listed in the YunoHost App-Store … DON’T be afraid. VPCs/VPSs are really cheap to get as well … I chose a tiny VPC from Strato for example.

See the result on https://video.franzgraf.de/

Give it a try! Self-hosting might be easier than you think.