5 Linux Servers That Let You Ditch the Public Cloud and Reclaim Your Privacy
Arthur T Knackerbracket writes:
https://www.zdnet.com/article/personal-digital-sovereignty-choices-free-linux-servers/
You may have noticed that many European Union (EU) governments and agencies, worried about ceding control to untrustworthy US companies, have been embracing digital sovereignty. Those bodies are turning to running their own cloud and services instead of relying on, say, Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace. If you prize your privacy and want to control your own services, you can take that approach as well.
Of course, if you're a techie's techie, you could always run your own cloud. I've been running my own servers for decades. These days, I use AlmaLinux, Rocky Linux, and Ubuntu on my machines.
However, most people don't have many years of Unix/Linux system administration behind them. Fortunately, there are pre-built Linux servers suitable for home and small-business users. With these servers, you still need to be a power user to get the most out of them, but they don't require you to be a Linux expert.
There are three types of ready-to-run Linux server distributions. The first are those that provide software-as-a-service (SaaS) addons and programs. Then there are the distros that focus on providing file server/storage services. Finally, believe it or not, there's one approach meant to replace Windows Server.
1. The privacy-first approach: FreedomBox
FreedomBox, the project initiated by Free Software Foundation (FSF) legal expert Eben Moglen, has matured into Debian's official self-hosting solution.
As Moglen said when he introduced FreedomBox in 2011, "We're building software for smart devices whose engineered purpose is to work together to facilitate free communication among people, safely and securely, beyond the ambition of the strongest power to penetrate. They can make freedom of thought and information a permanent, ineradicable feature of the net that holds our souls."
The platform is now integrated as Debian Linux Blend. This approach enables you to transform a fresh Debian installation into a privacy-focused server via the Plinth web interface.
2. YunoHost: Self-hosting democratized
YunoHost is best described as a "make selfhosting boring" layer on top of Debian. As its volunteer creators say, "YunoHost is primarily designed for people who want things to 'just work.'"
Similar to Freedom Box, YunoHost functions as both a standalone operating system and a package you can install on an existing Debian installation. Unlike FreedomBox, which can be scaled up for a small business, the YunoHost crew warns, "YunoHost is not designed to 'scale' in the traditional sense. It is intended for a relatively modest number of user accounts and simultaneous users." So, a few dozen users? No problem. A few hundred? No, just no.
YunoHost comes with a small, integrated server stack. Everything else is added from its catalog. On a fresh YunoHost install, you get these main components by default: a web admin interface and a user portal for installing and logging in to all the applications. This setup is supported by Nginx as the web server and reverse proxy, with SSOwat for single sign-on to all installed web apps.
You can also install an email server stack from the start. Your default programs are Postfix for the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) server, Dovecot as the Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP) server, and Rspamd, with DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM) handling for spam filtering and mail authentication. As e-mail server programs go, these are the easiest to manage, and YunoHost does a great job of installing them.
However, speaking as someone who's been running email servers for decades, setting them up and managing them on the internet is hard work. You'll need to set up a proper domain, DNS records (MX, SPF, DKIM, DMARC) with a static IP address. If your eyes just glazed over, don't try running your own email server.
Like FreedomBox, YunoHost is completely free.
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