🗓 Previously on Mac2net – take a look at the News section…

What is Mac2net?

Mac2Net is a site focused on self hosting, starting with basic stuff like hosting virtual machines with websites, internal PIM applications and then looking at what else is out there. For a new site, Mac2net is probably a bit over-engineered, with a variety of content and content types. In addition to informative posts and focused tutorials, there is also a News section with embedded posts curated from RSS feeds and a Forum that links posts to comments.

Initially, I will be showing how to manage from a Mac self-hosting services on an AMD CPU inside a Minisforum MiniPC. Some useful tasks can also be performed from IOS or other mobile devices. The software tools I am using, while similar to those used by a developer, can be mostly optimised for managing the self hosting infrastructure.

Never before has the option of self-hosting offered a technically excellent as well as fast, easy and affordable solution to such a large number of people. And for those wondering about self-hosting internal AI, this should become more than realistic and also affordable in 2026.

Five elements of my vision of self-hosting

1. Hardware servers are installed on inexpensive low energy, efficient and powerful MiniPCs hosted in the home or on premises instead of in cloud or data centers. A bare bones powerful system along with 2TB SSD storage and 96GB DDR5 RAM can be purchases for under $1000.

2. Build the server on the bare metal with the high quality Fedora Linux server which is sponsored and developed by Red Hat, which is owned by IBM.
   
   

   

3. Populate the server with virtual machines chosen from a large number of operating systems and focusing on applications run on the RHEL (Red Hat Enterprise Linux) compatible platform (Alma Linux for example).

4. Manage the server(s) from a Mac using mostly free tools available on Apple’s App Store, SetApp – a commercial third party app store or distributed via Brew, a popular open-source package manager for macOS that allows users to easily install and manage software and utilities from the command line. With Brew, an open source package which can launch dozens of Linux distros (old, current and beta versions), containers and container orchestration. There are also tools, such as WhatRoute, a useful network diagnostic utility, that are only available on the developer’s web site.
   
   
   
   

5. Take advantage of dual 2.5G ports on the MiniPC connected to a local network with an affordable managed high speed network switch and to the internet with a high speed fiber connection to premises and, when and wherever practical, using IPv6. IPv6 is a cost-free easy way to service on the internet due to the virtually unlimited number of IPv6 addresses available. Test your connection!

Keeping it simple

The goal of Mac2net.com is to provide information, guidance and technical resources to enable an individual or small company to enter self hosting waters. While there are many other visions of self-hosting out there that go about it in a very different way, the focus of Mac2net is based on keeping things as simple as possible while helping to explain the complexities that are inherent in self-hosting.

In the spirit of simplicity, it is easy to test the wheels right from a Mac – either an Apple Silicon or Intel CPU will do.

Please note: At the moment I am not planning to communicate via YouTube or videos in general. I may include short videos of screen activity. IMO, videos are not the most effective way to convey detailed technical information or instructions.