Helm Shutting Down? | Hacker News Reader

Helm Shutting Down?

support.thehelm.com

17 pointscyanbane16 comments

I remember hearing about the helm, but didn't recall the details. Looks like a personal, privacy-oriented cloud server/service:

https://web.archive.org/web/20220403002204/https://www.thehe...

a shame, it looks like a very cool idea: great concept and attractive and minimialist hardware... :(

I believe a lot of the inter workings were AWS based… maybe someone knows more about it, but I remember that being a non-starter for me

Lots of details from the 2018 Ars Technica review https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2018/12/review-helm-personal...

Is it a home cloud server like NextCloud but comes with the hardware?

Yes, somewhat. It started as email -only, but then later added NextCloud file services. The hardware is passively cooled, so nice and quiet.

Although I'm sad that the system is going to shut down, I'm glad that they are doing the right thing and are going to let me move the domain name I have to some other service.

Oh, not helm.sh (for Kubernetes)

That's what I thought too

Yeah, I was real confused at first wondering what manufacturing helm.sh were doing. Didn't help that trying to navigate via the top nav bar of the site to figure out what helm is (was?) just 404's.

I'm guessing most folks who've been working on k8s probably had the same thought.

Sad to see this. I had one of the V1 helms and it was a good, if niche, product.

We need more ideas like this in the world.

I just received mine four weeks ago and now this. Any suggestions on like for like alternatives?

First I'm hearing of it, but it seems like a decent piece of hardware. If you can boot Linux on it just load it up with NextCloud and TailScale. That should get you to the same level of functionality.

I just got mine. It shipped out on the Aug 29 2022. I set it up two days ago. for those asking if we can load linux on it, as of right now it is a hard no. Custom firmware. Helm says in the email that they will try to push out an Armbian release for the current hardware in the next 4 to 6 weeks. In the mean time, I will be moving my stuff back to (mail in a box).

They can't keep up the supply. But I don't understand why they need to shutdown -- looks like the upkeep cost is quite low as long as they are not releasing new product...

[Speculation] The issue is probably not the upkeep of the services, but rather the servicing of debt that they took on to get here.

What is the alternative hosting yourself now?

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