> Why? IMHO it's because doing any of these things means you have to become a sysadmin to some degree
I long wished that the App Store model could/would be applied to server stuff.
Imagine the following scenario:
- Buy a Mac Mini (or whatever Airport Server or enhanced Time Capsule)
- get Mail Server.app/Calendar Server.app from the App Store
- have a couple dialogs which configure the sandboxed app with DNS details as provided by DNS provider (which configures a full-blown imap+smtp server, and the remote access) and possibly my email details as provided by my email provider (which configures a fetcher and a smarthost instead)
- physically authorize user devices to accounts via NFC or BT LE/iBeacon. No login/password shingamajig needed! account creation/mapping on the spot!
- download boatloads of personal services from blog to photo management to microblogging to instant messenging to Gitlab to Tor node to whatever innovation came by, some possibly communicating in a decentralized way, possibly without even a need for a DNS record (global zeroconf, DHT, alt DNS, onion routing).
If I can do it with a few debconf-set-selection on dovecot and postfix (plus a few API calls on Gandi to set MX, SPF and whatnot), there's no reason it can't be done automatically for everyone. Of course this is not meant to serve medium to big enterprises (for which the options that actually prevent complete automation exist), but individuals and SOHO really don't need much. People used to think setting up a PC and all its individual apps was a needlessly complicated and/or boring affair (and it was!), now we have built them trivial management. There's no reason our servers could not be treated the same, we just have to stop thinking about the 'old ways' and start with an open mind. I just want you to realise that we tech folks have been doing this for years already just like we did set up and fix computers for everyone for years and we don't have to any more (or way less) thanks to iOS, and Android but also Mac App Store, and soon Chrome Store and Windows Store.
It's a huge endeavor and opportunity to bring such a platform to market, at the right time, with the right pitch, but it has happened before, just on the client-side of things.
From what I understand, a NAS box from Synology actually provides one of the closest experiences to that ideal. It comes with a Package Center[1], which is like an App Store for server applications, and like Android it can install from the standard source or from manually added repositories.
Then you get a panel to configure the new application, usually in a consumer-friendly way, like this iTunes Server[2].
I long wished that the App Store model could/would be applied to server stuff.
Imagine the following scenario:
- Buy a Mac Mini (or whatever Airport Server or enhanced Time Capsule)
- get Mail Server.app/Calendar Server.app from the App Store
- have a couple dialogs which configure the sandboxed app with DNS details as provided by DNS provider (which configures a full-blown imap+smtp server, and the remote access) and possibly my email details as provided by my email provider (which configures a fetcher and a smarthost instead)
- physically authorize user devices to accounts via NFC or BT LE/iBeacon. No login/password shingamajig needed! account creation/mapping on the spot!
- download boatloads of personal services from blog to photo management to microblogging to instant messenging to Gitlab to Tor node to whatever innovation came by, some possibly communicating in a decentralized way, possibly without even a need for a DNS record (global zeroconf, DHT, alt DNS, onion routing).
If I can do it with a few debconf-set-selection on dovecot and postfix (plus a few API calls on Gandi to set MX, SPF and whatnot), there's no reason it can't be done automatically for everyone. Of course this is not meant to serve medium to big enterprises (for which the options that actually prevent complete automation exist), but individuals and SOHO really don't need much. People used to think setting up a PC and all its individual apps was a needlessly complicated and/or boring affair (and it was!), now we have built them trivial management. There's no reason our servers could not be treated the same, we just have to stop thinking about the 'old ways' and start with an open mind. I just want you to realise that we tech folks have been doing this for years already just like we did set up and fix computers for everyone for years and we don't have to any more (or way less) thanks to iOS, and Android but also Mac App Store, and soon Chrome Store and Windows Store.
It's a huge endeavor and opportunity to bring such a platform to market, at the right time, with the right pitch, but it has happened before, just on the client-side of things.