In our age of services, people are typically willing to pay for the things that they want but are a) unable to make/do themselves, or b) don’t have the time to learn how to make/do the thing themslves (saying nothing of their interest in doing so, or lack thereof). This is what makes a so-called “service economy” turn round, after all.
I am in a bit of a geek dilemma. Because I run Linux at home, I know my way around a server a bit more than your average Internet user, in terms of being able to edit a configuration file to install a well-made script here or there. In that way, I like to call myself an Internet power user.
However, running the world’s best server software doesn’t mean that I actually want or am able to run a server. I know about as much as my mother does about Internet security, packets, routers, networks…I’ll defer to the experts, the sysadmins and the computing majors on those matters.
Which is exactly what NearlyFreeSpeech allows me to do. I have ftp/ssh access, to noodle about as I need. I can put in a request to have a MySQL process created, then I get phpMyAdmin to fiddle with that if necessary. They charge according to whatever they’ve given me, which consists, in my view, of:
- the fact that they’ve set up their server and made it secure and greased all the automated bits just so
- the bandwidth
- the storage space
And so they charge accordingly: $1 per 1GB of transfer, and $.01 for 1MB of storage.
This is a leaps-and-bounds difference from the host I worked with for the CMNSU website. Top annoyances with them included the browser-based file management system and the browser-based installation of scripts through the Fantastico script manager. Both are somewhat terrors to use. Just because something’s browser-based, it isn’t automatically easier than installing things in the shell. This only holds true if enough care is put into the application to make it actually easier, which is often not the case–especially for someone who’s run out of patience for the click-and-load like myself.
From a services-oriented point of view, I’m finally getting exactly what I paid for, and, as advertising likes to point out, nothing that I’m not.
/me huggles nearlyfreespeech
One Comment
I found your post while googling for information on Nearly Free Speech. I thought they were a good service but it’s good to see my opinion echoed by someone who knows what they are doing. I may even switch so my blogs are hosted there, too.
Your site looks nice, btw.