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What is the Co-op Cloud?
The Co-op Cloud is a project which aims to make self-hosting free software applications simple! It's a project which fits in alongside others like Cloudron, Yunohost and Freedombone and others but has its own specific focus. The project is intended for existing small service providers and cooperatives already involved in hosting work who are looking for alternatives.
Which technologies?
The core technologies are free software and enjoy wide adoption across free software developer communities.
Who packages your applications?
One of your main aims is to re-use existing work that free software communities are already doing.
Why containers?
We use containers because so many free software communities choose to use them! They are already writing and using Docker files and Docker-compose definitions for their development and production environments. We can directly re-use this good work for packaging and contribute back by helping maintain their in-repository files. We meet them where they are at and we do not create a new packaging format or duplicate effort. We tie our distribution directly into existing developer Coop cloud is about re-using upstream free software project container based workflows through well known CI/CD automation tools and issue trackers. Coop cloud proposes the idea of more direct coordination between distribution methods (app packagers) and production methods (developers).
Why Docker Compose?
Why Docker Swarm?
Why start another project?
One of our core principles is to not re-invent the wheel. However, fitting needs into existing projects doesn't always work out. Some of the developers on this project were also once developers on the other existing projects.
What about $alternative?
We have our critiques of other similar projects which are already up-and-running in the ecosystem. However, the Co-op Cloud isn't meant to be a replacement for these projects. Here is a short overview of the pros/cons we see and how that relates to our goals here.
Cloudron
👍
- 👍 Lovely web interface for application, domain & user management
- 👍 Bigger library of applications
- 👍 Built-in SSO using LDAP, which is compatible with more applications and often has a better user interface than OAuth
- 👍 Most applications are actively maintained by the Cloudron team
👎
- 👎 Moving away from open source. Free version has a 1-application limit
- 👎 Based on Docker images, not stacks, so multi-process applications (e.g. parsoid for Mediawiki) are a non-starter
- 👎 Difficult to extend applications
- 👎 Only supported on Ubuntu
- 👎 Upstreams free software communities aren't involved
YunoHost
👍
- 👍 Lovely web interface for application, domain & user management
- 👍 Bigger library of applications
- 👍 Awesome backup / deploy / restore continuous integration testing
- 👍 Supports hosting applications in subdirectories as well as subdomains
- 👍 Doesn't require a public-facing IP
👎
- 👎 Upstreams free software communities aren't involved
- 👎 Often not idempotent: uninstalling applications leaves growing cruft
Ansible
👍
- 👍 Includes server creation and bootstrapping
👎
- 👎 Upstream free software communities aren't publishing Ansible roles
- 👎 Lots of manual work involved in things like application isolation, backups, updates
Kubernetes
👍
- 👍 Helm charts are available for some key applications already
👎
- 👎 Too big -- requires 3rd party tools to run a single-node instance
Docker-compose
👎
- 👎 Manual work required for process monitoring
- 👎 Secret storage not available yet
- 👎 Swarm is the new best practice
Doing it Manually
👍
- 👍 Simple - just follow upstream instructions to install and update
👎
- 👎 Loads of manual work required for application isolation and backups
- 👎 Array of sysadmin skills required to install applications
- 👎 Hard to share configurations into the commons
What licensing model do you use?
The Co-op Cloud will always be available under copyleft licenses.