> It'd be nice to see it become as safe and easy to run an infrastructure service (like Mattermost) as it is to manage and update apps on a phone.

Sandstorm is basically this. Requires a bit of setup at the start, but afterwards installing apps is like installing phone apps, the apps and Sandstorm itself update automatically, etc.

For example, here's a Rocket.Chat instance I just spun up with a few clicks: https://sandstorm.terracrypt.net/shared/uaFeexA3f3mlU77m6nvJ...

Last time I interacted with sandstorm I saw that is not getting any updates? Is this still true ?

Sandstorm itself is updated at least once a month:

https://github.com/sandstorm-io/sandstorm/blob/master/CHANGE...

A few of the apps get regular updates, but admittedly a lot of them have gone stale. Sandstorm's security model makes it so that this isn't a security risk in the way it would be on other platforms, but it's certainly disappointing if you're looking for the latest versions of apps.

It's no longer supported by a company so its pace of development has slowed, but it's still an active project, albeit one run by a small number of volunteers. I'm sure they would appreciate any contributions.

Cloudron is really useful for these situations. They greatly simplify self-hosting by automating upgrades and backups for a bunch of open source apps. Don’t think it runs on RPi’s yet, but they do have packages for both Mattermost and Syncthing.

https://www.cloudron.io

There's a definite gap, I think, for software that is:

* As trivial to set up as a smartphone.

* Visually appealing.

* Handles backup and restoration of user data seamlessly.

* Has an app store where you can grab docker images for apps like mattermost and handles upgrades seamlessly.

There's a lot of solutions out there but theyre all a bit ratty or require technical knowhow or both.

I kind of wish mozilla went down this route rather than trying to reinvent the smartphone.