YunoHost was created in February 2012 after something like this:
"Shit, I'm too lazy to reconfigure my mail server... Beudbeud, how were you able to get your little server running with LDAP?"
Kload, February 2012
All that was needed was an administration interface for Beudbeud's server to make something usable, so Kload decided to develop one. Finally, after automating several configurations and packaging in some web apps, YunoHost v1 was finished.
Noting the growing enthusiasm around YunoHost and around self-hosting in general, the original developers along with new contributors decided to start work on version 2, more extensible, more powerful, more easy-to-use, and one that makes a nice cup of fair-trade coffee for the elves of Lapland.
YunoHost's goal is to make installing and administering a server accessible to as many people as possible, without taking away from the quality and reliability of the software.
Everything is done with the goal of simplifying deployment on as many different kinds of hardware as possible, and in any condition (at home, on a dedicated server or on a VPS).
YunoHost comes from the jargon "Y U NO Host". The Internet meme should illustrate it:
YunoHost is developed to be as simple and minimally-intrusive as possible, to retain compatibility with Debian. It merely proposes a package of automatic configurations for existing software, and is configurable via simple interfaces.
YunoHost is entirely a free software project. The philosophy of self-hosting is, to us, incompatible with any other model of software development.