Collaborative File Editing<\/strong><\/p>\nThere are many online\u00a0note-taking tools\u00a0available today, some doubling as collaborative office suites for editing documents and spreadsheets as a team. You may have used\u00a0Google Workspace\u00a0or Microsoft Office 365 for a school presentation or work project in the past. Both of those applications can unwillingly connect users across other third party platforms which undermine privacy (e.g. Facebook \u201cSuggested friends\u201d). Instead of working in Google Docs while struggling to maintain privacy, why not install your own collaborative real-time editor?<\/p>\n
CryptPad.fr, by XWiki SAS, is a privacy-focused cloud office suite for creating documents, presentations, spreadsheets, polls, project management kanbans (we\u2019ll cover this later), and even whiteboards (because great ideas come from scribbles) anonymously. If that\u2019s not enough, you can\u00a0install CryptPad using Docker\u00a0or manually on your server.<\/p>\n
FFmpeg Show Waves Audio Spectrum Visual<\/p>\n
Video Teleconferences<\/strong><\/p>\nCoronavirus (COVID-19)\u00a0forced a lot of us to learn new web and desktop applications for video teleconferences in lieu of face-to-face meetings. The masses flocked to Zoom while I recommended\u00a0Jitsi\u00a0whenever someone spoke about Zoom security, or the opportunity presented itself. You can use\u00a0https:\/\/Meet.Jit.si\u00a0to demo the features such as screen sharing, recording to Dropbox, and an embedded Etherpad document.<\/p>\n
Jitsi Meeting<\/p>\n
When a topic is too sensitive for email communication, such\u00a0voice over internet protocol (VoIP)\u00a0applications are more secure but still vulnerable to cyber attacks. One of the best ways to mitigate those issues is to host your own teleconference web application. This offers better:<\/p>\n
\n- Privacy from unwanted visitors<\/li>\n
- Security that address your requirements<\/li>\n
- Customization options for your teleconference needs<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Media Streaming<\/strong><\/p>\nDo you like to\u00a0broadcast multimedia\u00a0from home or live events but don\u2019t need the extra teleconference features capable with Jitsi? How about a web application that allows you to forego YouTube, Twitch, Twitter, Facebook for your own website? This gives you complete freedom over the stream without worrying about issues from a platform\u2019s terms of services (ToS). This can also mitigate\u00a0Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA)\u00a0violation issues.<\/p>\n
Ampache, available from\u00a0Softaculous, allows you to stream audio and share your music collection instead of curating a SoundCloud or YouTube playlist. For example, independent musicians could use Ampache to share music stems and draft album metadata. Just don\u2019t forget to\u00a0force HTTPS in Ampache.<\/p>\n
Red5\u00a0is a powerful flash-based streaming application suitable for dedicated server hosting. Some use Red5 along with\u00a0Open Broadcaster Software (OBS), or the Stream Labs fork, a popular free desktop application for customizing audio\/video (AV) streams with effects before broadcasting. OBS can be used to send customized streams to other streaming sites to compensate for lacking features within those websites. OBS can also be installed on dedicated servers with a graphics processing unit (GPU).<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, our dedicated servers do not include a GPU.<\/p>\n
You can edit your recorded video streams with a desktop\u00a0free video editor. I recommend\u00a0OpenShot.<\/p>\n
Project Management<\/strong><\/p>\nOrganizations use project management (PM) methodologies and applications to better track progress, deadlines, assignees, and statuses for tasks.\u00a0Certified Project Management Professionals (PMP)\u00a0will know about Work Breakdown Structures (WBS) and Gannt charts, commonly used with the waterfall methodology but compatible with agile work. But Gannt charts can be time consuming to implement correctly and hard to follow.<\/p>\n
The Kanban Boards for WordPress plugin showing four phases or lists for tasks<\/p>\n
For agile project management, the kanban board framework has become more popular for visualizing task progress within teams and projects. Instead of horizontal bars focusing on the duration of tasks and subtasks, kanbans prioritize the stage of tasks in a manner that\u2019s great for versatile teams and even busy entrepreneurs bouncing between legal,\u00a0branding, and\u00a0cybersecurity\u00a0initiatives.<\/p>\n
For example, a company\u2019s\u00a0search engine optimization (SEO) strategy\u00a0may lead content marketing professionals to use a\u00a0marketing calendar\u00a0with a kanban to ensure there\u2019s a new or updated post daily.<\/p>\n
Trello and Asana\u00a0are two of the most popular kanban web applications today, for good reason. They have a long list of features applicable for various use cases. You can\u2019t self-host either one, though. I personally prefer\u00a0Taiga.io\u00a0for a cloud kanban (which also supports scrum sprints) because it has a cleaner interface that is easier to navigate and manage.<\/p>\n
You can create a Taiga.io account to try it or install it on your Linux VPS hosting for more privacy. There are still plenty other free options for hosting your own kanbans boards.<\/p>\n
Kanboard task<\/p>\n
Kanboard\u00a0is a FOSS, stand-alone kanban software that has quietly been around for years. It doesn\u2019t have a development team nearly as large as the other kanban creators, but it could work for a small team or individual. It only requires PHP (pre-installed with cPanel) to work on Linux servers. cPanel users can simply install it from Softaculous and produce a new kanban board within seconds. Between its features and the\u00a0Kanboard plugins\u00a0available, this is a worthy option to consider even for\u00a0Nextcloud\u00a0or\u00a0WordPress\u00a0users.<\/p>\n
Customer Relationship Management (CRM)<\/strong><\/p>\nWhile project management tools assist you with primarily internal initiatives,\u00a0customer relationship management (CRM)\u00a0applications target external efforts with potential and current clients and partners:<\/p>\n
\n- Tracking potential customers throughout sales funnels<\/li>\n
- Building relationships with customers to better sell new upgrades and products<\/li>\n
- Providing a hub for customer service and technical support requests<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Salesforce\u00a0and\u00a0Zendesk\u00a0are two of the most popular cloud-based CRM solutions today. And of course, we\u2019ve covered how to do\u00a0CRM in WordPress,\u00a0because WordPress<\/em>. But Softaculous has an entire section of dedicated applications for CRM and enterprise resource planning (ERP), used for logistics operations, including\u00a0Vtiger\u00a0and\u00a0SugarCRM.<\/p>\nEvery small and medium size business (SMB) owner should try a CRM to see how it can enhance insights and productivity to optimize man hours and organization workflow.<\/p>\n
Social Networking<\/strong><\/p>\nConcerns of\u00a0censorship\u00a0across social media have pulled a lot of people from Facebook and Twitter for more privacy-conscious platforms including\u00a0Mastodon\u00a0and\u00a0GNU Social\u00a0which can be self-hosted, and\u00a0Discord. Some are sticking to email. Some are\u00a0returning to internet relay chat (IRC). The major benefit with these lesser-known social networking platforms is their\u00a0\u201clong-tail\u201d methodology. While MySpace, Facebook, and the like are all about\u00a0following<\/em>\u00a0the whole world, long-tail social networks enable users to\u00a0actually connect with smaller communities\u00a0with shared interests and passions including:<\/p>\n\n- FOSS communities like\u00a0WordCamp<\/li>\n
- Independent music production<\/li>\n
- Spirituality and religion<\/li>\n
- Equality activism<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
While some of these connect to other instances as part of their respective\u00a0federated social network, others are developed to serve more organizations as a private communication channel.\u00a0Mattermost\u00a0has been a favorite among security-conscious users looking for a similar workflow to Slack for years. Two other popular self-hosted options,\u00a0Rocket.Chat\u00a0uses the relational\u00a0MongoDB\u00a0while\u00a0Zulip\u00a0uses\u00a0PostgreSQL\u00a0and forces every message into a thread for better organization.<\/p>\n
Our Linux web hosting products may not be used as IRC servers per our\u00a0Terms of Service\u00a0(ToS). But that doesn\u2019t prevent you from trying\u00a0freenode IRC. WordPress users can start with the\u00a0#wordpress\u00a0channel.<\/p>\n
Server Software Testing<\/strong><\/p>\nSometimes, you can\u2019t just install something, test things freely, and uninstall it with a real peace of mind. Installed but abandoned packages can become easier vulnerabilities to exploit in cyber attacks over time.<\/p>\n
Use the Linux server as a staging system. Then you can comfortably tinker with server level software without the risk of downtime from misconfiguration errors on your live setup.<\/p>\n
Server Security Hardening<\/strong><\/p>\nWill you be managing another server hosting solution in the near future? If so, it would be beneficial to learn more about\u00a0server security\u00a0and\u00a0free cybersecurity tools. Firewalls and .htaccess file hardening benefit all Linux server environments. To start, you can follow our system hardening guides:<\/p>\n
\n- cPanel VPS hardening\u00a0can be used as a primer for cPanel dedicated server hardening<\/li>\n
- Cloud server hardening\u00a0can apply to bare metal dedicated hosting<\/li>\n
- Email authentication improvements\u00a0mitigate business email compromise (BEC) and spoofing attacks<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
For more helpful insights and practical tips, feel free to visit our tips-sharing blog!<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Web hosting is usually for\u00a0websites.\u00a0Linux VPS hosting\u00a0can also be for email, and file sharing. But what if you don\u2019t need your website anymore? Maybe you transferred your business and WordPress website to another owner. Maybe your college capstone project is complete. When you purchase a Linux server subscription from\u00a0some\u00a0web hosting providers, you cannot cancel your hosting account at any…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":335,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[560],"class_list":["post-334","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tips-sharing","tag-linux-vps-hosting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.servergigabit.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.servergigabit.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.servergigabit.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.servergigabit.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.servergigabit.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=334"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.servergigabit.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1771,"href":"https:\/\/www.servergigabit.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334\/revisions\/1771"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.servergigabit.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/335"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.servergigabit.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=334"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.servergigabit.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=334"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.servergigabit.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=334"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}