Reviving Sandstorm (sandstorm.io)

Article summary

The Sandstorm project, a self-hostable web productivity suite, has seen sparse development since the company behind it shut down in 2017. However, the community has recently started contributing code and documentation again, with new features and updates being worked on. The project's goal is to make it easy for non-technical users to host their own web apps, with a focus on security and ease of use. Development is ongoing, with a new release of vagrant-spk and updates to the documentation and tooling.

Main themes

• Sandstorm revival
• self-hosting web apps
• Docker comparison
• security and ease of use
• project development and contribution
• alternative platforms like Cloudron
• SSL certificates and Let's Encrypt

What commenters say

• Sandstorm's unique security features and ease of use make it a valuable project despite the existence of Docker.
• Docker is a more straightforward solution for self-hosting web apps, making Sandstorm less necessary.
• The complexity of setting up and managing Docker containers can be a significant barrier to entry for non-technical users.
• Sandstorm's focus on ease of use and security makes it a better choice for users who want to self-host web apps without requiring extensive technical expertise.
• The project's revival is uncertain without full-time contributors or significant changes to its development process.
• The availability of free wildcard SSL certificates from Let's Encrypt has made self-hosting Sandstorm easier.
• Cloudron is a competing platform that offers similar functionality to Sandstorm, but its closed-source nature is a drawback.