Why did you do this?

I wanted to create a site that could be useful for others in my family or friends of mine. In addition, I wanted to learn a few things about Linux site administration. Things like reverse proxies, LetsEncrypt Certificates, Docker, and Docker Compose, and other such. I’m not a programmer by nature, so I needed to find tools and  software that I could integrate into a whole. During myresearch, I found there is a community of people, like me, who are dedicated to this exact practice. They refer to themselves as “self hosters.”  Meaning they run their own websites and servers with either equipmet they have at home or equipment they rent from a hosting comany. Given the secuity concerns of such an endeavor, I chose the rental route, and let the hosting company take the security risk rather than my home. This does conflict a bit with my software philosophy, of going with no large corporations and free use and free software, but sometimes you have to compromise a bit to get something larger.

Why did you choose the name truaxweb?

Truaxweb stems from my last name, Truax, which is an old Dutch translation of an even older French name, Du Trieux. Truax itself dates from around 1650, and Du Trieux going back much further than that. Web, of course, referring to the WorldWideWeb, as well as making reference to my own personal web of disparate apps.

What’s decentralized and federated social media?

Decentralized and federated social media refers to a social media technology that allows users to join one of many different servers, all accessing the same application. This means the administration of the app does not have a central body making all of the decisions. People can run their own servers and make their own decisions on who has access to the server as well as what content is allowed to be viewed on it. In general, it works out to be a fun, inviting, and peaceful experience, unlike many of the other social media apps that are out there concerned with only generating clicks and views.

Why did you pick these apps?

I wanted to keep costs to a minimum as well as learn some new things, so I went with open source projects that were available for free, AKA FOSS. No licenses needed to buy, no subscription models or big corporations involved. Just developers working on projects for the fun of it. The exception to that being NextCloud, which is backed by a corporation, but releases its software openly and for free.

The apps also needed to be able to integrate with an OIDC authentication backend, as well as bring to the table something uncommon, something different. In addition, they had to be useful for me, my friends and family.