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 ✨

  • ShortN0te@lemmy.ml
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    17
    arrow-down
    7
    ·
    2 days ago

    This guide is heavily opinionated and simply outdated. 2 examples: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

    • HotChickenFeet@sopuli.xyz
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      edit-2
      7 hours ago

      Edir: i see this was already mentioned.

      Not sure if you meant the video, or written guide, but for the written guide -

      OPNsense is not even mentioned.

      When we build a router using a standard computer, we can install router software like pfSense or OPNsense,

      There’s a bit of a debate between pfSense and OPNsense. TL;DR, the developers of pfSense are not the nicest people sometimes. If this bothers you, consider checking out OPNsense. Since I’ve been using pfSense for a decade, I’ve built much of my infrastructure around it. I am well aware of its quirks and don’t feel like setting up my network from scratch, so I am using pfSense for this tutorial. Regardless of the developers, you are infinitely better off using pfSense on your own hardware than standard routers.

    • Sips'@slrpnk.netOP
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      25
      arrow-down
      2
      ·
      2 days ago

      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.

      • ShortN0te@lemmy.ml
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        7
        arrow-down
        2
        ·
        2 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…

    • Midnight Wolf@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      1 day ago

      heavily opinionated

      Is that of itself not an opinion…?

      outdated

      Tbf I haven’t looked at the source material but I don’t think two points make it “outdated”. It’s like calling Debian outdated.

      • ShortN0te@lemmy.ml
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        edit-2
        22 hours ago

        Is that of itself not an opinion…?

        Nope. It is objectively opinionated, since he only shows his solution and offers or shows no other solution.

        Tbf I haven’t looked at the source material but I don’t think two points make it “outdated”. It’s like calling Debian outdated.

        Debian is not outdated, also is the technology not outdated he used in the guide (as far as i can tell since i have not read through everything). But using those to get to the shown solution is outdated. When someone in this community asks for a VPN solution most ppl will recommend Wireguard and or tailscale and not OpenVPN.

        OpenVPN has other benefits like better user management and more customizability but for this use case it is not the fit, since other solutions are easier to setup and harder to fuck up the security part for a beginner.

        Edit: Those are only the 2 examples i picked. I have not looked through everything, but those 2 stood out to me by just looking at the ToC.

    • Sips'@slrpnk.netOP
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      9
      arrow-down
      3
      ·
      2 days ago

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

      • ShortN0te@lemmy.ml
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        7
        arrow-down
        7
        ·
        2 days ago

        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.

        • ShortN0te@lemmy.ml
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          3
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          2 days ago

          Looks like there are lots of ppl angry that i call out the software they use. And they seemingly also have not even any argument.