Hello all! We're starting a platform co-op that offers alternatives to big tech services. What are your thoughts on the following operating philosophy? (any other advice/recommendations is appreciated too)
Operating Philosophy
Choose the most boring option that meets business needs. This has several reasons:
- We're providing services, not learning or playing.
- Boring works. They're either battle tested or stupidly simple.
- Much easier to maintain and onboard.
- We're not a FANG company; we should just do what everybody does and call it a day.
- Easier to debug.
- More portable if we ever need/want to switch VPSs.
Case study
Debian with Docker containers reverse proxied through NGINX
- Debian -- very boring; not even Ubuntu
- Docker -- boring. not even Podman, and certainly not Kuberneties
- NGINX -- boring. most widely used reverse proxy by a long shot
Using Debian means that we will have very long term support, which means less downtime and easier maintanence . Also everything is available for Debian, whereas [obscure distro] won't have a broad application support.
Docker has been the de-facto standard for a long time. It's portable and has widespread application support, and it's scalable. We don't actually need swarms of instances running everywhere communicating with each other, so Kuberneties would be overkill. Docker allows us to have an instance running and create a second instance when upgrading to avoid downtime.
NGINX is extremely common. It's battle tested, and it's so widely deployed that if there's a security vulnerability there will be many bigger fish to catch than us. Also most sysadmins will have experience with NGINX, so onboarding and maintaining will be easy.
I'm a politically active anarchist (Boston US). The extent of my political activities is giving food to people, but the cameras have completely changed my threat model.
Under current directives, the FBI considers me a domestic terrorist and violent extremist because I am trans and against fascism (not because of my actions -- I am not violent). Legally they can't just randomly arrest me because of our right to free speech, but they can arrest me for something entirely unrelated and punish me disproportionally, so the cameras have changed the way I act in the city and online. I am now much more cautious about everything; I worry about simply putting a "scam" sticker over somebody else's sticker promoting a scam. I am constantly aware of law enforcement around me. I scan my surroundings regularly to make an updated escape plan. I notice every person walking down the street I'm on. I carry a knife and pepper spray. I regularly ask myself what would happen if a cop pulled me over / stopped me at this moment, and am well aware of the varying rights and legal obligations in those situations.
It's not possible to avoid the cameras when driving, so I can't just change my route. I have to simply accept the fact that they know my routine and location and they know what I do day-to-day. I am very careful about what I say both online and in person so as to not appear like I might ever do anything beyond giving food to people and broadly complaining.
And the worst part is that I'm just a 19 year old who has big ideas but won't do any harm. I just so happen to be several minorities, so the stakes are much higher