this post was submitted on 06 Jan 2025
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Futo (Louis Rossman) at it again with great content, this time a Guide to a Self Managed life. This 14hrs long guide comes in two video parts, aswell as a written guide for those who prefer. Both video and written quide comes with complete chapters and timestamps. This should be a great starting point for those who have the time and want to start learning from the very beginning.

Video Link to Part 1: Youtube - Invidious

Video Link to Part 2: Youtube - Invidious

Happy selfhosting in 2025 everyone ✨

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

Appreciate the written version, though the wiki formatting looks a little weird on mobile. The text on the table of contents is rather small.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 4 days ago

Long live futo, I hope they stay this way

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 days ago (2 children)

I agree with a lot of LR’s opinions, especially around right to repair, but he has always been extremely long winded, and guilty of repeating himself a lot in his videos. Not to mention opinionated.

While it’s cool that some people are excited for this and will no doubt learn a ton from this, there is no way I would recommend this to anyone.

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[–] [email protected] 121 points 4 days ago (2 children)

Hey everyone in the comments complaining, this video is for me and other like me not for you. He took time to go through each step as if a complete beginner (aka me) was doing this. That means working through something as simple as downloading pfsense iso. Show me another complete guide that troubleshoots along with me and doesn't assume everything works perfectly.

He clearly states at the beginning this is not the only way to do this. He also clearly states where things could be better (pf vs OPN) but why momentum has kept him from making a change.

I'm glad y'all are at where y'all are at but this video will help win so many more people over. Having a single tutorial that takes me from zero to a selfhost solution that replicates 80% of google's everyday offering is HUGE. Is it perfect, probably not? Does it work, looks like it! And hopefully, finally getting something working will give me the confidence to implement improvements or try my own thing.

@Sips thanks for providing this as I might have missed it since it's not Rossman's channel. I was disappointed to come into the comments and see more complaints than appreciation. I've been thinking about this for a while and occasionally looking at tutorials and guides but everytime it felt like I had to piece meal all the parts to get the features I wanted. This meant troubleshooting each individual tutorial and then hoping it was completely interoperable with the next tutorial for the features/software I want. That kept me from even starting at all. Glad this exists now and knowing Rossman/Futo, it will only be improved as time goes on. Rant over.

[–] [email protected] 25 points 4 days ago

Thanks dude! Best of luck on your selfhosting adventures ✨

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[–] [email protected] -2 points 4 days ago (6 children)

Why in recent years do YouTubers think insanely long videos equal good content? 14 hours is completely unnecessary. Also, not a big fan of him constantly saying in videos he’s not good and doesn’t know why people listen to him yap… much prefer raidowl or hardware haven

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 4 days ago (2 children)

@Sunny sadly in an ironic twist, they no longer seem to be maintaining their #selfhosted #peertube instance @futo_tech :(

[–] [email protected] 6 points 4 days ago (2 children)

So they do have a PeerTube instance, just chose not to upload anything to it?

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 days ago

damn, that is a shame.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 4 days ago (6 children)

This guide is heavily opinionated and simply outdated. 2 examples:

  1. use of openvpn. Wireguard is by design way more secure (use of keys instead of passwords) and is way more performant.
  2. use of pfSense. Yes pfSense is ok but the company behind it has shown it hostility towards open source and foss multiple times. Why should a beginner use PFsense when OPNsense exists. OPNsense is not even mentioned.

And that are only 2 points i discovered while scrolling through. Louis is a great guy but as it looks like he should leave that topic to other people.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Also, you must have not read the wiki properly, because he does mention OPNsense.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 4 days ago (1 children)

This is correct, i missed that part. pfSense is mentioned 259 vs. OPNsense 3 times. But only the "not nice part" is mentioned and not the hostility towards FOSS. Here are some examples https://github.com/rapi3/pfsense-is-closed-source

I have not vetted every single claim but just alone that fact that they have this closed source model is enough for not using it. OPNsense is to my knowledge fully open source.

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[–] [email protected] -2 points 4 days ago

Quel suprise

[–] [email protected] 23 points 4 days ago (2 children)

I completely agree that WireGuard and OPNsense are excellent choices, and I would have chosen them myself. However, I don't think it's fair to suggest that someone should "leave the topic to others" simply because they've made different choices. While WireGuard is indeed superior, OpenVPN is still a solid option and widely used today. Similarly, although OPNsense is better, pfSense remains a great piece of software - even though the company behind it isnt perfect.

People should still be able to use whatever software they like without being juged by it. Its better for people to at least start with something, rather than nothing: then its also more likely they will get more educated on topic and the different matters of opinions later on.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 days ago

OpenVPN is still a solid option and widely used today.

Absolutely, but Wireguard is simpler to setup and comes by default and by design with a more secure default config.

  • Create keys on host and on clients
  • Generate a config
  • You now have a secure VPN Setup.

Now look at all those options you need to tune on OpenVPN.

even though the company behind it isnt perfect.

But then why recommending pfSense? OPNsense is the same with a much more FOSS friendly company behind it. Yes pfSense is at the moment ok but no reason to use it over OPNsense imho.

People should still be able to use whatever software they like without being juged by it.

Yes. And i never judged anyone running thr software, only ppl who recommend it.

Its better for people to at least start with something, rather than nothing

I am not sure about it. Personally, when i get into a new topic i like to have comparisons. They show me what is actually relevant and what i should look out for. But maybe it is just me.

I said multiple times "recommend" here, but that is actually my main problem, i would be much more ok when he simply said there is x and y also available but i use z because of 123...

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 4 days ago (4 children)

So why are the videos not self hosted?

[–] [email protected] 0 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Because YouTube pays Louis Rossmann, compared to selfhosting video which costs tremendous amounts of money through bandwidth.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 days ago (3 children)

Most of the views would be still in YouTube anyway, and those tremendous amounts are not that big because with PeerTube you share the bandwidth with other instances and even other clients (source: I'm running my own instance).

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[–] [email protected] 17 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (1 children)

Probably because in the current state it would not reach many people. I like PeerTube as much a the next guy but FUTO has to keep things a bit pragmatic too I imagine.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 4 days ago (1 children)

They could always upload a copy to YouTube to reach the rest also.

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[–] [email protected] 33 points 4 days ago (6 children)

@[email protected] There is absolutely no way any starter will see that page and not be intimidated. I am a well seasoned selfhoster and even I saw that and went "Wow that's a lotta words and images on a single page."

Even arch wiki has sensible ToC with pages divided into what the current topic is.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 4 days ago (1 children)

That's a possibility indeed, but at least he documented all the steps, it's great to see that because it looks like a lot of work. But I agree at the first that big long page for sure can be intimidated (CTRL+F is your best friend here).

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 days ago (3 children)

It's so easy to self host! Just watch 14 hours of a talking head!

Fan of FUTO, but can't recommend this to most people thinking of starting. Needs to be less "scary".

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[–] [email protected] 0 points 4 days ago

Agreed, that should be many tens of pages not one. Also the mobile layout isn’t very good. I think it’s important to remember that normies use their phones for almost everything.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 4 days ago

actually yeah, fair point. I think perhaps the videoes are probably what they aim to be more beginner friendly rather than the written one.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 days ago

Yeah, beginners are probably better served with Yunohost.

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