What are your favourite, or least favourite but necessary, cost-cutting methods?

I feel I am spending too many resources on unnecessary stuff.

Edit: I feel the need to reduce both – the resources, to host multiple things on one system, and cost, to buy/pay for multiple systems. Currently, I have 2 ARM VPSes and 1 old MacBook Air as a home server.

  • Anafroj@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    202·
    1 year ago

    My favorite cost cutting tip is to avoid big webapps running on docker, and instead do with small UNIX utilities (cron instead of a calendar, text files instead of note taking app, rsync instead of a filehosting dropbox-like app, simple static webserver for file sharing, etc). This allows me to run my server on a simple Raspberry Pi, with less than 500mb of used RAM in average, and mininal energy consumption. So, total cost of the setup:

    • Raspberry Pi : 77€ x 2 = 144€ (I bought two to have a backup if the first one fails)
    • MicroSD 64gb : 13€ x 2 = 26€ (main and backup)
    • average energy consumption : 0.41€ (2kWh) per month

    With that, I run all services I need on a single machine, and I have a backup plan for recovery of both hardware and software.

    Getting used to a UNIX shell and to UNIX philosophy can take some time, but it’s very rewarding in making everything more simple (thus more efficient).

    • lud@lemm.eeEnglish
      6·
      1 year ago

      cron instead of a calendar

      What do you mean by that?

      Do you use crontab to save events?

      • Anafroj@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        8·
        1 year ago

        Basically, yes. You can configure most cron programs to mail task output to you (it’s usually done by setting the MAILTO variable in the crontab, provided sendmail is available on your system).

        I use that to do things like:

        0 9 11 10 * echo 'lunch with John Doe at 12:20'

        It sends me a mail, and I can see the upcoming events with crontab -l. If it’s not a recurring event, I then delete the rule.

    • MigratingtoLemmy@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1·
      1 year ago

      The usage for curl is quite interesting. Personally, perhaps I’d like a simple GUI where I can select the date and time and the message for the reminder.

      I use nfs or samba for filesharing, but a webserver works well too.

      What is your opinion on OCI container orchestration tools? Specifically Podman. I am of the opinion that containerisation is a most excellent idea because it uses hardware to the fullest extent without polluting the base system. Also the “use like cattle” philosophy. For example: I would be much more comfortable having the GUI for cron in a container.