On this capsule, I intend to discuss left-libertarian/liberal issues, along with tech insights and other stuff.
After much faffing around I've finally got this server working. It's actually a different server to the one originally planned. The original plan was to host this on my Mac Mini, a process which proved so frustrating I ended up selling it (for more than it cost new - yay! - thank you RAMageddon!).
In the end I decided to host on Ubuntu Server, something I should have done in the first place. But why didn't I? You see, the Mac Mini was meant to give me a nice graphical interface, in addition to the server stuff running in the background. It should in theory be capable of this. I then looked to FreeBSD as it should have been easy to set up sane security defaults but ran into issues running agate as a service. The one conclusion I've come to, is that for all the hate, versus MacOS's horrible networking stack and sometimes bizarre behaviour (It's a UNIX system but I'm not sure I know this?) is that Ubuntu makes my life easier once I want to do anything Apple hasn't imagined.
*here
*is a list
*right in the middle!
About MacOS: It's certified UNIX but with a big but: Namely, directories in different locations, frankly bizarre networking rules and rites of passage. When selling it, it wouldn't initially wipe. No error code, nothing, just wouldn't detach from my Apple ICloud account? Why? Because Apple. Because I'd modified the hosts file. You'd think this would at least be documented but nope. And an error message would give me a clue, but I'm guessing being helpful wouldn't be clean design now, would it?
FreeBSD was good so far until I wanted to run agate as a service, which brings us to our second point: Compared to RC and other older init systems, systemd is just pain relief. I don't get the hate. The binary isn't huge, granted it's big for an init system but is small beer compared to other system utilities. What they get done with that code is amazing: Yes, it duplicates some features, introduces non-UNIXy ways of doing things and has some measure of feature creep. But if you just want to get things done, it's your friend. The amount of time I spent fiddling around with init scripts or Upstart is reduced typically to a few seconds. Most things are automated. I don't get the hate. It's one of the best crafted monolithic programs to appear in a good number of years and long may this continue! So Ubuntu Server, with some time given to security settings, got this thing running in a matter of a few hours. Not bad eh? Compared to hours and hours finding ways around things, often to no avail, with MacOS or trying to trick RC into doing things in FreeBSD. I think I know which I'll choose going forward.