One thing that works: hosting someone else’s stuff on your server, then gradually teaching them to administer their bits of the server, intervening only when they need help. This acts as an on-ramp to selfhosting. Non-technical users gradually learn and take over more of the responsibility.
It also removes the major difference between an SaS web offering and selfhosting: the need to set up hardware.
Unfortunately, using Freedombox currently makes sharing servers much harder. Hosting multiple domains on one Freedombox can be done, but not in the GUI; it gets kludgy. Having multiple email domains can be done, but through quite extreme kludges. I’m not sure if anyone has tried running multiple Ikiwikis, say. If you are going to on-ramp others, it seems like it is currently easier not to use Freedombox.
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Long version follows
I find, and some of my friends have found, that if you run a server, you get asked by friends, family, the local chess club, etc., to host something for them. So you wind up with several virtual hosts, on several different domains, supporting misc activities, ranging from a flat static website telling you when and where the chess club has met for the past century, to a private forum for a support group.
Unfortunately, setting up name-based virtual hosts on FreedomBox is a pain. It gets you messing with config files in a way which can break your entire install. Security certs for multiple domains also require manual messing about.
I know someone will suggest simply setting up multiple Freedomboxes, but that would mean a severalfold increase in power consumption and other upkeep. Ceasing to support less-tech-savvy others is also not really a good option.
Would it be possible to add virtual host support to the Plinth GUI? Just the ability to add multiple domains, and manage certs for them, would be really useful.
Setting users to belong to one domain or another would also be nice, and reduce the trust level needed. Giving users e-mail and XPMPP addresses according to their domain(s) would be great. A superb feature would be if the backup/restore was per-domain, and you could restore each domain onto the same or seperate servers. This would make it easy to fission Freedomboxes, or merge them, depending on the social needs of the users and admin(s), with no visible effect on the frontend.
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There are quite a few posts on the discussion forums asking for support related to virtual hosts.
Getting an SSL cert for multiple virtual domains involves hacking around, as the GUI isn’t set up for it. Can I assume that it auto-updates okay?
Kludging multiple e-mail domains is possible but complex: