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What is YunoHost?
YunoHost is an operating system aiming to simplify as much as possibly the administration of a server and therefore democratize self-hosting, while making sure it stays reliable, secure, ethical and lightweight. It is a free software project maintained exclusively by volunteers. Technically, it can be seen as a distribution based on Debian GNU/Linux and can be installed on many kinds of hardware.
Features
based on Debian ;
administrate your server through a friendly web interface ;
deploy applications in just a few clicks ;
manage users (based on LDAP);
manage domain names ;
create and restore backups ;
connect to all apps simultaneously through the user portal (nginx, SSOwat) ;
includes a full email stack (Postfix, Dovecot, Rspamd, DKIM) ;
... as well as an instant messaging server (XMPP) ;
manages SSL certificates (based on Let's Encrypt) ;
... and security systems (fail2ban, yunohost-firewall) ;
Origin
YunoHost was created in February 2012 after something like this:
"Shit, I'm too lazy to reconfigure my mail server... Beudbeud, how were you able to get your little server running with LDAP?"
Kload, February 2012
All that was needed was an administration interface for Beudbeud's server to make something usable, so Kload decided to develop one. Finally, after automating several configurations and packaging in some web apps, YunoHost v1 was finished.
Noting the growing enthusiasm around YunoHost and around self-hosting in general, the original developers along with new contributors decided to start work on version 2, more extensible, more powerful, more easy-to-use, and one that makes a nice cup of fair-trade coffee for the elves of Lapland.
The name YunoHost comes from the jargon "Y U NO Host". The Internet meme should illustrate it:
Development
YunoHost is developed to be as simple and minimally-intrusive as possible, to retain compatibility with Debian. It merely proposes a package of automatic configurations for existing software, and is configurable via simple interfaces.
YunoHost is entirely a free software project. The philosophy of self-hosting is, to us, incompatible with any other model of software development.
Do not hesitate to visit the "contribute" page.
Security
The utmost effort is made to keep YunoHost secure, and communications encrypted. You can read more about this subject on the related page: https://yunohost.org/security
What YunoHost is not?
Even if YunoHost can handle multiple domains and multiple users, it is not meant to be a mutualized system.
First, the software is too young, not tested at large scale and thus probably not optimized to be put in production for hundreds of users at the same time. With that said, we do not want to lead the software in that direction. Virtualization democratizes, and its usage is recommended since it is a more leaktight way to achieve mutualization than a "full-stack" system like YunoHost.
You can host your friends, your family and your company safely and with ease, but you must trust your users, and they must trust you above all. If you do want to provide YunoHost services for unknown persons anyway, a full VPS per user will be just fine, and we believe is a better way to go.
Art Works
Black and white YunoHost png logo done by ToZz (400 × 400 px):
Click to download.
Licence: CC-BY-SA 4.0