Leaving GitHub. Seeking ethical music server alternatives. (lemmy.world)

submitted 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) by FarraigePlaisteach@lemmy.world to c/selfhosted@lemmy.world

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I'm gradually removing myself from big tech and this month I'm focusing on leaving GitHub, as well as software hosted there. I'm looking for a self-hosted music server that meets these criteria:

Simple UI - Easy to navigate
Docker support - For hassle-free deployment
Runs on Pi3B
Compatible clients on mobile and desktop
Robust and well maintained - No buggy releases

Current Option:
The only option I've found but not tried is Funkwhale (GitLab).
Site: https://www.funkwhale.audio/
Review: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0dBcKNoJAso.

GitHub-hosted exclusions:
All the other's I've looked at are hosted on GitHub ( Ampache, LMS Lightweight Music Server, Supysonic, Gonic, Airsonic-Advanced, Koel, Jellyfin, Navidrome). So I won't be using those.

Question:
Does anyone know of other options besides Funkwhale, or have you tried Funkwhale? Thanks!

Aside:
Some reasons I'm leaving GitHub:

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[-] ar1@lemmy.sdf.org 11 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Not suggesting an app but I think what you plan to do as an effort to boycott GitHub is the most non-productive thing to do...

What if it is a project like OpenBSD, which the active repo is still CVS, but has a read-only GitHub repo for public consumption? I believe a fair amount of open source developers rely partly or even totally on donation, and the popularity of a platform has direct impact to their life support. What you are going to do is the easiest as a totally unrelated onlooker - you deem them to be immoral because they host or mirror the project on GitHub, you judged just like how people do on social media when they hear some company doing evil things, spent probably just a few minutes to write a post and created direct impact.

There are many more better things to do. You know why they are forced to host on GitHub so why don't you set up a fund that supports developers to not host on GitHub, or as a maintainer who helps projects to mirror on GitHub alternatives and eventually swtich the active repo to the alternatives?

I have great respect to open source developers who bring us a better world. Please think again what is the difference between what you are going to do vs people who ignore all the heavylifting of open source developers did and say "add this feature in the next hour or I will stop using your software, because I think it is the most important thing to do"...

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[-] ryokimball@infosec.pub 7 points 2 months ago

Clarifying, your looking for a new music streaming service that has a code base not hosted in GitHub? Otherwise it sounds like you are somehow hosting your music in GitHub.

[-] slazer2au@lemmy.world 8 points 2 months ago

Good to see I was not the only one who thought that.

[-] FarraigePlaisteach@lemmy.world -1 points 2 months ago

Correct. I don't host my music on GitHub. I'm looking to dispense of software that's involved with it. I'll try to clarify my post, thank you.!

[-] axum@lemmy.blahaj.zone 5 points 2 months ago

This is honestly dumb. If you hate github then actively downloading from it and eating their bandwidth is helping your mission of killing them.

Where a project is hosted is irrelevant because if the platform shits itself one can simply just do git add remote someserver and push the whole project over to some new code hosting site.

You refusing to download from github is quite simply stupid.

[-] tofu@lemmy.nocturnal.garden -1 points 2 months ago

What a shit take calling people dumb for trying to boycott a big tech platform. Having your project primarily on GH including issue tracking etc is in github's best interest as being "the" code platform. If MS wouldn't think they benefit from it, they wouldn't host it for free.

Hosting platform is also not the battle I'm choosing but come on.

[-] axum@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

What a shit take calling people dumb for trying to boycott a big tech platform. Having your project primarily on GH including issue tracking etc is in github's best interest as being "the" code platform.

You have totally missed the topic. This person is not asking where to host a project. They are asking about how to avoid even downloading a repo from github as if it's some moral crime.

Newsflash, 75% of any operating system and it's utilities are developed and put on github. You cannot avoid it and trying to do so only harms your own access to things. You might as well just cut off your own internet at that point.

Project developers, not the users downloading from them, have to be the ones to move off of github. That's how this works.

[-] majora31@programming.dev 2 points 2 months ago

Presume you don't live in the UK. If it's a major site, they effectively have cut off the internet for most people. I lost my reddit account, Facebook account and my discord because all wanted me to hand over my driving license to use them.

Sites like github will be next.

So someone wanting to find places that can support that will be available long term isn't dumb, it's possibly the only smart move left.

Even if that's not the OP's situation, I don't know their exact situation and reasons. Attacking their reasoning or morals is not the right play here.

[-] FarraigePlaisteach@lemmy.world -1 points 2 months ago

"That’s how this works."
That's actually not how this works. No worthwhile intention or movement begins with wishing that someone else would do something.

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[-] napkin2020@sh.itjust.works 6 points 2 months ago

There is absolutely no way you can avoid GH hosted project completely. It's like trying to buy a phone without Chinese parts.

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[-] dreadbeef@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

As an open source software developer, this is a weird hill to die on, and I use and donate to Codeberg every month. I don't give GitHub one penny and I don't support anything about GitHub's AI shit, but I do not mind them eating my costs or other peoples costs for me or them one bit. I'm not at all against having my open source code subsidized by wealthier people.

Sure, go ahead and say "if you're poor and need github's free services I won't use your software" but it's just weird. Codeberg is not a for-profit corporation, it is wrong to demand them to provide free services. It is not wrong to use to the maximum extent GitHub's free services, imo, so long as you aren't giving them money. Bleed em while they let you and all that jazz. It absolutely does cost them, but they don't care so why should the less fortunate?

[-] FarraigePlaisteach@lemmy.world 1 points 2 months ago

I appreciate your perspective and understand the pragmatic approach of avoiding costs. But I'd like to challenge the framing of this as a "weird hill to die on".

This isn't about individual cost benefit analysis. It's about collective responsibility. In a world where tech companies actively enable mass surveillance and violence (see linked articles), passive reliance on them is a form of complicity (even if we don't pay). GitHub isn't a neutral platform. It's a Microsoft subsidiary deeply entangled with militarised oppression.

You're right that Codeberg isn't a for-profit corp, and that's exactly why it's worth supporting. The goal isn't to "demand" free services but to divest from systems that profit from harm. If open source only thrives when subsidised by unethical capital, then it can't liberate us.

As for privilege: it's a privilege to have this choice in the first place while others are being starved to death and murdered while they beg for water..

[-] dreadbeef@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

What are your thoughts on boycotting using the US dollar? Moral perfectionism in a capitalist society is a difficult road. I urge a more pragmatic approach over dogmatic, and just volunteering or performing mutual aid in your community. Or create open source software yourself.

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[-] hperrin@lemmy.ca 4 points 2 months ago

I don’t think you’ll be able to find a project that doesn’t contain some code (like dependencies) hosted on GitHub.

I understand not wanting to use GitHub yourself, but not wanting to use a self-hosted software that is distributed through GitHub is kind of extreme.

[-] FarraigePlaisteach@lemmy.world 1 points 2 months ago

I'll do what I can. Perfect is the enemy of the good, and passivity is to side with the aggressor.

[-] hperrin@lemmy.ca 1 points 2 months ago

Fair enough. I do think your goals are noble, so I hope you can find what you’re looking for.

[-] FarraigePlaisteach@lemmy.world 1 points 2 months ago

Thanks, I appreciate that!

[-] curbstickle@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 2 months ago

... Have you reached out to the devs/maintainers of the projects to find out what their plans are going forward?

Because you may be completely dismissing projects that are in the process (whether its early planning or otherwise) of moving to codeberg or something.

Or even expressed any of your concerns to the devs?

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[-] oeuf@slrpnk.net 4 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

I don't have any app suggestions for you but have been reading through the comments and just wanted to say that I'm 100% with you.

I have a similar conversation with other musicians I know and it's the reason that I (and many others) won't release anything on Spotify: Just being there adds value to them and what they do is destructive and dirty.

I hope you find something and keep standing up for what's right!

[-] FarraigePlaisteach@lemmy.world 1 points 2 months ago

Ah, I appreciate the comment so much! I also don't use Spotify for the same reason as you. These exploitation economies are a race to the bottom. Thank you, and I wish you success platforming your music ethically.

[-] communism@lemmy.ml 4 points 2 months ago

I don't see a reason to avoid using software hosted on GH. I moved off GH when MS bought it, and all that entailed was no longer hosting my own software on GH, and using alternative FOSS git forges. That still has a similar effect, and when a critical mass of devs move off GH, the rest will follow suit. The main draw of GH is that everything's on there; when that's no longer true, it will no longer be the main git forge. Especially once Forgejo adds ActivityPub integration; I imagine that'll speed the process along a lot.

A lone user boycotting all software hosted on GH is realistically not going to make any devs move their projects off GH. You may say that it doesn't have to be a lone user, but I think you'll be hard pressed to get a whole movement of people refusing to use any software hosted on GH.

I also think the boundaries of your boycott are just too ambiguous. What if you download the software from somewhere other than GH, and it just has a GH repo? Is that ok with you? Is it that you just don't want to touch MS's servers? What about software where the GH repo is just a read-only mirror, and the main collaboration/development happens elsewhere, like a GitLab or Forgejo instance? I would rather struggle to see an argument for refusing to use software in either of those cases.

[-] FarraigePlaisteach@lemmy.world 0 points 2 months ago

Even using their free stuff is supporting Microsoft. As long as they provide sophisticated facilities for genocide, I’m out.

As a wiser person than me once said “be the change you want to see in the world”.

[-] communism@lemmy.ml 1 points 2 months ago

I'm also opposed to "using [Microsoft's] free stuff"; I'm arguing that using software that happens to use GH isn't using MS's stuff at all.

[-] FarraigePlaisteach@lemmy.world -1 points 2 months ago

h, I see what you mean now. The thing is, the massive numbers of users we collectively provide to Microsoft (even non-paying) is a huge benefit to them. They wouldn't offer free stuff otherwise. It gives them all kinds of leverage in negotiations. I've elaborated a bit more on it in another reply in case you're interested.

[-] communism@lemmy.ml 3 points 2 months ago

No, I'm not arguing that we should be users of Microsoft. You're still not understanding what I'm saying. I don't use Microsoft's services, including their free ones. Software that happens to be hosted on GitHub is not Microsoft's software.

You can do whatever you want as an individual. But as a political actor, you should be participating in organised boycotts, such as BDS's boycott of Microsoft. BDS's boycott is already fairly wide-sweeping, going as far as to ask people to e.g. stop playing Minecraft and Skyrim, even if they already own the game. Avoiding using Microsoft's products like this is effective because, even if you've already bought the game, you lend Microsoft more cultural capital by proliferating their products.

BDS has not, on the other hand, called for a boycott of all software that happens to have a GitHub repo. If you think they should do that, take it up with BDS. If BDS called for such a boycott, it would get much more momentum behind it.

As it currently stands, you are boycotting all software that has a GitHub repo on your own. This is not going to have any effect. You are going to be hard-pressed to get people to join your boycott. What kernel do you use? The Linux kernel has a GitHub mirror. The majority of FOSS projects where collaboration occurs off of GitHub still have a read-only GitHub mirror. Is your boycott suggesting that everybody should be using OpenBSD? That's going to be a very hard sell.

BDS has achieved huge victories because it offers targeted boycotts that the average consumer is perfectly capable of doing, and it has a mass movement behind it. There are also grassroots boycotts that have been organised outside of BDS, such as the Starbucks and McDonald's boycotts, but again, these caught on because they had the backing of people active in the movement and were willing to organise said boycotts. You're a random Lemmy user who, if you are serious about organising a boycott, you're in the entirely wrong place to do so. You won't achieve anything doing what you're currently doing.

You're welcome to make whatever consumer decisions you want, but don't confuse that for political organising.

[-] irotsoma@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 points 2 months ago

Are you wanting something that you don't have to download from GitHub yourself (so a project that hosts a docker container somewhere and just code is in GitHub is OK), or are you looking to boycott any project that is not boycotting GitHub and so any part of that project should not use GitHub for any code at all in which case possibly even dependencies should not be on GitHub even if they publish their distributions elsewhere? Or somewhere in between?

[-] FarraigePlaisteach@lemmy.world 3 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

That's a good question. I've been thinking about where a middle ground might be. I think if a project does both it's coding and CI on another platform (fully committed) then I can live with that. They can a copy of the code to GitHub for the engagement and audience or whatever.

But if the project is determined to keep with GitHub specific features (like actions) then that's a clear signal of support to GitHub, IMO. I couldn't support that. So in short, if GitHub is their home base then I intend to boycott, but I don't mind them mirroring to GitHub from something like Codeberg.

[-] Ephera@lemmy.ml 1 points 2 months ago

I believe, Icecast ticks at least some of your criteria. It's been around since forever, so it's probably the most stable option and even a Pi1 is likely overkill for it. No idea how it holds up in terms of UI, app and Docker, though.

They do have a mirror on GitHub, but the main repo is on a self-hosted GitLab.

[-] FarraigePlaisteach@lemmy.world 1 points 2 months ago

GitLab mirrored on GitHub is totally fine with me, thanks so much for the thoughtful comment! I'll add Icecast to the list of things to look into. I've encountered it with internet radio.

[-] maniacalmanicmania@aussie.zone 1 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Funkwhale has/had support for federation. I wonder how that would work and exactly what is federated.

Too late for me to look up the answers so I'm hoping someone else can do my homework while I'm sleeping.

https://az.id.au/ops/funkwhale-configuration-and-first-impressions/

[-] mitch@piefed.mitch.science 1 points 2 months ago

Funkwhale works nice, but honestly, I am a big fan of just using mpd and piping the audio over a networked speaker, but I'm a simple boy with simple needs.

[-] curbstickle@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 2 months ago

Each instance becomes a pod, users on pod A can find content thats on pod B. This includes both actors (users) and library objects (audio content), ordered collections (playlists), etc.

[-] gedaliyah@lemmy.world 0 points 2 months ago

I found this: https://codeberg.org/mysearchhistory123/lms

LMS - Lightweight Music Server

LMS is a self-hosted music streaming software: access your music collection from anywhere using a web interface!

I also found this: https://codeberg.org/thororen/Feishin

Feishin

Rewrite of Sonixd.

Features:

MPV player backend

Web player backend

Modern UI

Scrobble playback to your server

Smart playlist editor (Navidrome)

Synchronized and unsynchronized lyrics support

Some elements of these are on github and I can't attest to either. Neither has recent updates, but should function. Web interfaces and API support should mean that you have some mobile options. Like others, I object to your reasoning, but this is a community to help one another, so your reasoning for your goals doesn't really matter to me.

I don't think that you are likely to find any software that meets all of your requirements, but I hope this helps.

[-] FarraigePlaisteach@lemmy.world 0 points 2 months ago

Those are great finds. I use Feishin as a subsonic client and absolutely love it. Unfortunately the Codeberg repo appears to be out of date, while their GitHub one is current. So I think they've migrated to GitHub. https://github.com/jeffvli/feishin

LMS appears to be inactive for over a year on Codeberg too, while their GitHub is active https://github.com/epoupon/lms

It's a pity seeing projects move that way, especially when they clearly put in the effort and had good intentions from the beginning. I might contact those developers, though, and see if they might reconsider. Thanks for the helpful response!

[-] ms_lane@lemmy.world 1 points 2 months ago

Codeberg or anything hosted in the EU is an unfortunate no-go.

GDPR DoS Bomb made it so - 'right to forget' means that a bad actor can kill a major project by invoking their right to forget, which would mean all code they've ever submitted would have be audited out.

[-] Appoxo@lemmy.dbzer0.com 0 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Jellyfin
Why does it matter that they are hosted on GitHub though?

[-] FarraigePlaisteach@lemmy.world 0 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Isn’t that GitHub too?

To answer your question: even using their free stuff supports Microsoft. As long as they facilitate militarised genocide, I’m out.

“Be the change you want to see in the world”.

[-] Appoxo@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 2 months ago

Whatever floats your boat.

[-] rothaine@lemmy.zip 0 points 2 months ago

In what way? If anything, it costs Microsoft money

[-] FarraigePlaisteach@lemmy.world 0 points 2 months ago

It's called "social proof". The way bullies get their way is because they can gesture broadly at their following and say, "see? We're popular. Better that you conform than try to resist us". That gives them lock-in and ecosystem growth. It also makes it harder for competitors when they abuse their position to offer free services that an ethical but smaller provider can't. It's also a gateway to Azure, another of their products (which make the Israeli killing fields in Palestine even more efficient). It allows them to shift a percentage of free users to paid plans.

So it's lots really. And supporting Microsoft today is very similar to supporting Volkswagen during Nazi Germany's rule.

[-] melsaskca@lemmy.ca 0 points 2 months ago

If you want to go pre-connect, the library usually loans out music. Mostly CD's though, so you'd need a player.

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this post was submitted on 07 Aug 2025

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