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Comment by panic | Hacker News Reader

What if we had an easy-to-use home server you could just plug in and start running "apps" on? Being able to download and run services on hardware you control would avoid some of these problems.

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The base Synology NAS models fit the bill - everything from blogs to office software is available from the get go. I own one but don't use them and haven't met anyone who does - there is something about hosting this on a box in your living room that feels too fragile.

QNAP NAS models have a similar setup. In addition to their own package format (qpg? I think...), they also are getting the ability to run Docker apps natively.

I agree RE the fragility. Even on my mid-range rack mount units, I'd rather stick to just having them serve up iSCSI or NFS to something more... server like that runs the actual instances.

> The base Synology NAS models fit the bill - everything from blogs to office software is available from the get go.

Their package system (for 3rd parties) seems to still be a mess: https://github.com/SynoCommunity/spksrc/issues/2216

To be fair packaging is a bit of a mess everywhere. We're talking about installing and running things, not publishing them, I can say I was positively surprised by how well everything works in their system.

There's a start-up called Daplie building such a system of hardware and apps. It's open source and the founder has a focus on user-owned data and data security.

(I know several teammembers and preordered via Indigogo, but am otherwise unaffiliated.)

In the long run, I think that's the right location for things like IoT devices: there's no reason for my thermostat to dial back to the cloud when it can just connect to my central computing unit in the closet, exactly like it connects to the central heating and air conditioning units in the closet. Normal people don't mess with HVAC, but they can if they want to (and it's remarkably simple!); likewise I don't imagine normal people would mess with their home system, but they'd be able to if they wished.

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