Lots of good suggestions already commented. I browse subs and communities, browse fdroid regularly and have a scroll through sourceforge/ git*/ alternativeto/ linux distro repositories now and again
One time i was really bored and just sorted projects on gitlab and github by stars and scrolled page after page finding many interesting projects. Then finding one thing makes you think of another which you can go look in to
Slashdot, hacker news feeds and some communities here. I dont really try to keep up with commercial tech since most of it is bundled with DRM or spyware with exceptions such as the steamdeck.
I’m only interested FOSS stuff myself. I subscribe to some security and privacy communities here in addition to some technology ones. If the news is big enough we’ll hear about it one way or another.
Discoverability happens organically out of need. Eg search “split pdfs linux” and I’ll get a cli tool for it.
On android (though I wish I was using a true gnu/Linux phone…) I open Neo store every once in a while and peruse the explore tab, sorting by most recently updated. Neo store is a better f-droid client (a source for open source android apps)
For desktop Linux, i guess you could do the same, (though for some reason i haven’t) and peruse the free sofyware marketplace that comes with your linux distro. I also used to google articles about top 10 new open source apps for ubuntu 2023, or similar google searches. I also used to read a bunch of Linux, open source, and linux hardware related sub-reddits that I’ve been slowly trying to replace with Lemmy communities, right now I subscribe to:
C/f-droid
C/hardware
C/homelab
C/Linux
C/linuxhardware
C/opensource
If anyone has anymore I should subscribe to, suggest away!
I also browse YouTube which in the past has suggested videos of people reviewing new open source apps or software. Though those video suggestions have gotten worse as YouTube’s algorithms have gotten worse in the last few years.
Also in the past I’d peruse alternativeto.net to see if there’s anything better in the open source world for proprietary software, or even alternatives to existing open source software I use.
I use Wireguard VPN with DuckDNS. No need to buy a domain, I just made a name for local use like nextcloud.rudee.com. Even though domains are not expensive (can be 10-20$ a year, but there are also free otions like rudeenextcloud.duckdns.org). You might need reversy proxy like Nginx Proxy Manager unless you want to type IP:PORT
I use SSH with port fowarding to securely access my services running on my server to anywhere I have internet. Its easy to setup, just expose any device running a ssh server like openssh to the internet, probably on a port that isnt 22, and with key only authentication.
Then on whatever device you want to get your services on you can do like
Where 8022 is the port of the ssh server exposed to the internet (default is 22), 8010 is the port its gonna bind to on the device you are using the client (it will bind to 127.0.0.1 by default), 192.168.75.111:80 is the address/hostname and the port of where your services are on your local network, and user@serverspublicip is your username and the ip address of where your ssh server is.
You can also use ssh to make a SOCKS proxy in your network like this
This will make a socks proxy into your network on your device at 127.0.0.1:1080. All of this can also be done on just about any mobile phone running android by using termux.
You don’t need to own a domain, what you most likely need is some kind of dynamic DNS service.
freedns.afraid.org is one of them, they’ll give you a subdomain you can pick and the client will update the IP to which the domain point whenever it changes.
This is what you need, assuming you’ve a public IP from your ISP and you can go into your router and port forward ports to your TrueNAS server.
Now regarding software, since you’re using Syncthing already I would suggest you stay away from the complexities and vulnerabilities of Nextcloud and simply use FileBrowser, this is way easier to setup and use. I believe there’s even something on TrueNAS to get it running.
How if you’re about to expose your NAS/setup to the internet you’ve to consider a few things for your own safety.
Quick check list for outward facing servers:
Only expose required services (web server nginx, game server, program x) to the Internet. Everything else such as SSH, configuration interfaces and whatnot can be moved to another private network and/or a WireGuard VPN you can connect to when you want to manage the server;
Use custom ports with 5 digits for everything - something like 23901 (up to 65535) to make your service(s) harder to find;
Disable IPv6? Might be easier than dealing with a dual stack firewall and/or other complexities;
Use nftables / iptables / another firewall and set it to drop everything but those ports you need for services and management VPN access to work - 10 minute guide;
Use your firewall to restrict what countries are allowed to access your server. If you’re just doing it for a few friends only allow incoming connection from your country (wiki.nftables.org/wiki-nftables/…/GeoIP_matching)
Realistically speaking if you’re doing this just for you / a few friends why not require them to access the server through WireGuard VPN? This will reduce the risk a LOT and won’t probably impact the performance. This is a decent setup guide digitalocean.com/…/how-to-set-up-wireguard-on-deb… and you might use this GUI to add/remove clients easily github.com/ngoduykhanh/wireguard-ui
With WireGuard you’ll only need to port forward the WG port reducing the attack surface. After you connect to the VPN you get access to the server as if you were on the local network. This mean you’ll even get SMB/Samba access to the files and/or access to any other service the server might me providing, you don’t need anything else or change your current workflow, simply connect to the VPN and access your data as if you were home.
Another advantage of going with WireGuard is that you can more safely ignore the step (4) and (5) because only exposing the VPN through a port forward in your router won’t create much of an attack surface / anything that can be bruteforced. Your setup will be easier to deploy and maintain.
Note that WireGuard is designed with security in mind and it won’t even be visible in typical IP scans / will ignore any piece of traffic that isn’t properly encrypted with your keys.
As many others have already stated: he‘s on the wrong track.
Open source is great and works for developers and tinkerers. The fact that we dont have a law that a company has to pay what this product would cost in the open market is not open sources fault. On top: one reason open source is growing like crazy is the convenience these megacorps have with implementing it everywhere. We need to cast out those taking for themselves and dont give back.
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