CasaOS – A simple, easy-to-use, elegant open-source home cloud system

People create "installers" like these with the goal of making Just One Command that Does Everything For You, saying stuff like "easiest method for beginners". This is suboptimal for many reasons.

I don't want Just One Command that Does Everything For Me. I control the machine; I want to command it myself. This is one of Linux's main selling points. But even for people who don't think this way and just want to install your software quickly, I have concerns.

Providing this installer script as the only way to install your software distribution is actually setting people up for failure:

- Nobody knows how the script works, if it fails they have no way to debug what happened except grepping for log messages in the source code and guessing. At that point just read the whole script and do it manually.

- If the script isn't compatible with their setup, they can't just do the equivalent for their computer, because they might not even know what they need to do. And even if they do figure it out, how will they move on to the next step? They can't just re-run the script if it's not compatible with their setup, remember. Back to reading the whole script and doing it manually.

- The script performs arbitrary changes to their system configuration without asking, like updating repositories(!) and installing dependencies. That's not an OK thing for you to do without asking. And on some rolling-release distributions, like Arch, you never want to update repositories carelessly. Because, if the rest of the system's packages are left outdated after a repository update, they may no longer be compatible with the latest packages available upstream. But you update repositories, on Arch, without telling the user you did so. On Arch, one of the most active rolling-release distributions. So not only will the dependencies you install yourself not necessarily be compatible with the rest of the system—because Arch—random future package installs may also be screwed until the next full system upgrade. Which may never happen if the user never figures out what the problem is.

I sort of lost interest in installing the thing myself, so I never completed my personal audit, but I would recommend, at the very least, not installing packages or updating repositories without prompting first, and also publishing documentation on how to install this without running a fricken' shell script as root, which is not even an acceptable thing to teach "beginners" in the first place. They should be taught not to run things they don't trust, and definitely not to blindly run any shell script from any random website as root.

Sure, it may be 'easy' (for some definition of easy) for 'beginners' (for some definition of beginners) but please don't.

remram4• 3 years ago

And it only works for Linux+systemd+Docker, so it's not like a script is needed to adapt to many environments.

guilhas• 3 years ago

I also don't like it, but it is less common now a days

https://github.com/pi-hole/pi-hole#method-2-manually-downloa...

remram4• 3 years ago

I don't understand what it is. Does it run VMs? Does it run apps specifically packaged for it?

I also love the "featured in Hackernews". This post has 9 points as I'm writing this.

jasonvorhe3• 3 years ago

It doesn't run VMs because it clearly says that it's running Docker containers.

It's also been posted to HN a year a go.

remram4• 3 years ago

Didn't quick Ctrl+F, neither the landing page not the GitHub README mentions the word "container" once.

Is that what a "cloud" is? Runs containers? Is that obvious?

29athrowaway2• 3 years ago

Headquartered in the PRC

Interesting, but no, thanks!

replwoacause• 3 years ago

Yeah I noticed that too. Sorry but no way I'm installing this given that.

jasonvorhe3• 3 years ago

Looks like the company running this is simply located in a co-working space in China. Didn't know that just living in China made you a possible PRC asset.

mthoms2• 3 years ago

All Chinese companies are possible PRC assets:

https://www.cnbc.com/2019/03/05/huawei-would-have-to-give-da...

Note - I'm not commenting about whether these guys are PRC assets or not. Or whether there is anything nefarious going on at all. I'm just pointing out that they could be compelled to become assets, even if that's against their wishes.

thekevan• 3 years ago

"living in China made you a possible PRC asset"

Unfortunately, really anything coming out of China might be a PRC asset. We just wouldn't know unless it was too late.

jacooper3• 3 years ago

I mean gitea is too, as long as its fully open source its OK for me personally.

29athrowaway2• 3 years ago

How do you know the packaged binaries were built from the published source?

regularjack• 3 years ago

I think I just shut down the machine for demo.casaos.io. Sorry, I didn't realize the "Shutdown" button would actually shut it down for everyone...

deceptionatd• 3 years ago

I _was_ going to take a look, but the trendy page design is effectively unreadable on mobile... just FYI.

dolmen• 3 years ago

Also references JQuery.

CasaOS – A simple, easy-to-use, elegant open-source home cloud system

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