pibox-os VS image-gallery

About my business? Sure! It's at https://kubesail.com and we sell our hardware at https://pibox.io :)

Our best feature is that the website will detect if you're on the same network as your machine and if so, offer "local" links instead of remotely proxied ones. That way non-technical users dont need anything fancy. On top of that, the "local" urls still get valid HTTPS certs for free, so non-technical users dont get any scary browser warnings.

We started out as a way to make self-hosting easier for corporations, but the users who joined our community were mostly home-hosters, so we leaned into that! Jellyfin is now our most popular app.

I built a small business around this idea (particularly your last sentence about it evolving quickly), so I can’t not promote https://KubeSail.com and our hardware at https://pibox.io

That said, I use an old workstation as my home router and server. It’s worth the power bills in saved subscription cost alone. Much more relevant is how much of my time I spend on it!

We make tiny Linux servers packed with real devops tools (but also sporting a somewhat-easy-ish-to-use UI) for home-hosting and self-teaching: https://pibox.io - works great with Jellyfin!

I am really loving my https://pibox.io, it might fit the bill if you can get your hands on one. A raspberry pi 4 should be okay too with the usb 3, it just might be not as neat

I do but my side business doesn’t make 6 figures! Curious why you don’t think focusing on growing that isn’t a better path forward. Obligatory link to said side business: https://pibox.io

I saw solutions like https://pibox.io/ which is interesting, maybe ticking all the boxes, but all the versions are sold out. While I am waiting for them to be back to stock, have anyone used it and what is your thought? Does it work for my need? What is the alternatives?

I watched a video about OpenMediaVault and I don't like three things about it. Firstly the user interface doesn't look as user friendly as in TrueNAS for example, secondly the guy in the video I watched said there is no RAID with OpenMediaVault and thirdly the cheapest Raspberry Pi 4 Modell B, 8 GB costs around 160 USD where I live which is much more than I thought. There are Kits like the PiBox but they are very expensive too.

I am quite happy with pibox. It's only two 2.5" drives, but they are also working on a 5x3.5" version.

And Pibox from Rasperry pi too - https://pibox.io

I am using the pibox as a NAS, but that might be an overkill for you.

https://www.invisible-computers.com/invisible-calendar/image...

Two:

https://github.com/Invisible-Computers/image-gallery/blob/ma...

Both of these require rendering the content via an HTTP endpoint and both of these currently still require the content to be proxied through the device backend.

> I can buy an ESP32 e-ink screen and run esphome or any of several other open source projects and put a piece of wood on the front of it, too.

Yes, you can! And if you do this, you have absolutely no need to use my e-paper smart screen.

I am hoping to add third party apps, that's why I have created the API for 3rd party apps:

https://github.com/Invisible-Computers/image-gallery/blob/ma...

But right now, I understand that building an app for my platform is

a) more hassle than just pointing to a URL

b) limited upside, because the audience that you can charge for a subscription isn't very big yet.

However, I think that a good app could generate its own audience (aka drive ppl to buy the displays) and then make money by charging them a small monthly subscription fee.

I'll ship within Europe as soon as I have bootstrapped the 7000 Euro necessary for CE certification.

In terms of openness, there is this:

https://www.invisible-computers.com/invisible-calendar/image...

and this:

https://github.com/Invisible-Computers/image-gallery/blob/ma...

I also want to make the esp32 controller itself more hackable in future, but I don't want to promise anything because that's quite a lot of work for me.

Here is the API description:

https://github.com/Invisible-Computers/image-gallery/blob/ma...

And here is the sample app:

https://github.com/Invisible-Computers/image-gallery

Admittedly, I am not the greatest technical writer, but I compensate by being pretty responsive. :)

This display offers a simple API to build applications for it:

https://shop.invisible-computers.com/products/invisible-cale...

https://github.com/Invisible-Computers/image-gallery/blob/ma...

The API doesn't require any special knowledge about e-paper displays, it just expects an image URL in the correct resolution and will then render it to the display.

You can buy the display off the shelf, and if you are interested in building an app, contact me at [email protected] for a developer account :)

Feel free to go to town on it :)