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Open source and self hostable/private file converter

vert.sh

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Re: Open source and self hostable/private file converter

#11

Post by api »

liotier wrote: post #7
api wrote: post #5

Why do such things need to be hosted at all? I've got a few file converter apps on my laptop. They're faster and better and you don't need to stream the data off somewhere just to process and stream back, which is silly.

A relevant audience are the corporate computing inmates, who cannot install anything locally... They are happy to find utilities wrapped behind some web front.

Ahh good point.

An often missed driver for the cloud-ification of everything is that it offers a way to escape corporate IT. Sending a 20mb file 2000 miles away to do something trivial to it and send it back is easier than getting permission to install an app.

Re: Open source and self hostable/private file converter

#13

Post by palmy »

api wrote: post #5

Why do such things need to be hosted at all? I've got a few file converter apps on my laptop. They're faster and better and you don't need to stream the data off somewhere just to process and stream back, which is silly.

The reality is also that not everyone isn't technical enough to deal with `ffmpeg` directly. At some point I basically hosted hacked-together website which simply used `ffmpeg` under the hood so that my dad, who's not as technically literate, could easily convert his files. Now I don't have to do this anymore because I can just host a vert.sh instance:)

Re: Open source and self hostable/private file converter

#15

Post by haswell »

With the recent findings [0] that some of the “free file converter” websites in the wild were actually injecting malware into the results as the first stage of various attacks, I’ve wanted to stand something like this up on a server for my family.

This looks like exactly what I’ve been looking for.

- [0] https://www.fbi.gov/contact-us/field-offices/denver/news/fbi...

Re: Open source and self hostable/private file converter

#16

Post by metadat »

It's cool the source code really is open and available:

https://github.com/VERT-sh/VERT

AGPL licensed, which seems perfect for this kind of product:

The AGPL (Affero General Public License) is a type of free software license developed by the Free Software Foundation. It is similar to the GPL (General Public License) but with one key difference:

Network Use Clause: If you modify AGPL-licensed software and use it over a network (like a web app or API), you must also release your source code to the users who interact with it.

In other words, with GPL, you have to share your code only when you distribute the software. With AGPL, you have to share your code even if users are just accessing it over the internet (like using a SaaS product). AGPL was created to close the "SaaS loophole" in the GPL.

Further reading: https://opensource.stackexchange.com/questions/7578/what-are...

Re: Open source and self hostable/private file converter

#17

Post by karamanolev »

virtualritz wrote: post #6

How is this different from image/graphics magick, ffmpeg, oiiotool etc? Or: what am I missing here, why is this on the front page?

As far as I can tell, what you're missing is the massive ease-of-use and approachability, especially for non-technical users, of a web-based graphical "convert X to Y" interface vs. facing command line ffmpeg, which they probably haven't heard of.

Re: Open source and self hostable/private file converter

#19

Post by Trufa »

liotier wrote: post #7
api wrote: post #5

Why do such things need to be hosted at all? I've got a few file converter apps on my laptop. They're faster and better and you don't need to stream the data off somewhere just to process and stream back, which is silly.

A relevant audience are the corporate computing inmates, who cannot install anything locally... They are happy to find utilities wrapped behind some web front.

What a silly take.

> Why do such things need to be hosted at all?

because: corporate computing inmates, who cannot install anything locally

Basically, denying or not seeing the practicality factor of web hosted solutions is either trying to be edgy or worryingly myopic.

Re: Open source and self hostable/private file converter

#20

Post by cbondurant »

This is definitely going in my bookmarks.

Though I think as long as video conversion requires uploading to a jobserver, you're probably better off just invoking ffmpeg directly. Would suffer a lot from upload and download times on files that large. Though I wouldn't be surprised if problems like that become minimal if/when the video conversions can also run pure out of WASM as well.

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