I really can't believe there doesn't exist a good "home box."
There should be a product that you can buy (a computer) that you bring home, plug in, set up via your phone or computer that:
- can host websites
- can store your files and sync them to other devices
- control your home automation
- host your email
- anything else you might otherwise put on a server
And does it all EASILY with a simple phone or web UI.
Yes I know you can actually buy a computer or server or raspberry pi and put something like NextCloud or Home Assistant et al. on it, but the real barrier imo is the setup and configuration. Even I don't do all this because it seems daunting to configure all of it, and I consider myself a pretty technical person. I really just want to buy a box, plug it in, and like select which apps I want to use, and then it starts working for me.
Looks nice, but the marketing design ('make it just like Apple') doesn't match the product they're selling. Apple is technology for people afraid of technology, but self hosting is decidedly not for a technologically afraid audience.
How will they pay for maintaining all the apps and making sure that they are properly integrated into the platform as they get updated?
Exactly. That would be great. But I think a large portion of the target audience of the home box would rather set this up themselves.
Or not. I would much rather have something commercial (built on open source) like this so I can be more at ease that my data is safe, compared to doing everything myself.
There should be a product that you can buy (a computer) that you bring home, plug in, set up via your phone or computer that:
- can host websites
- can store your files and sync them to other devices
- control your home automation
- host your email
- anything else you might otherwise put on a server
And does it all EASILY with a simple phone or web UI.
Yes I know you can actually buy a computer or server or raspberry pi and put something like NextCloud or Home Assistant et al. on it, but the real barrier imo is the setup and configuration. Even I don't do all this because it seems daunting to configure all of it, and I consider myself a pretty technical person. I really just want to buy a box, plug it in, and like select which apps I want to use, and then it starts working for me.