Introducing TurnKey templates

Turn Key Linux is an open source project providing tens of virtual server templates. We're proud to introduce the ability to order VPS servers with these templates pre-installed directly from our web site: TurnKey based VPS servers.

New server

There was a disk failure on a server serving our customers' virtual private servers. Its disks were not hot swappable, so in an effort to prevent downtime, we're moving to a new server instead of repairing the current one. This was a good opportunity to upgrade the hardware, too. The gigabit network connection is pretty impressive, it downloaded a Linode test file in 1.5 seconds.

Virtual desktop

What would you do with a virtual Ubuntu desktop? We have a few ideas. You could view facebook while you're at work, no one will know. You could work on a document with other people. You could download torrents or rapidshare/megaupload files while your computer is off. Your imagination is the limit, but check out our remote VNC desktop page to see a few ideas.

Gitlab, the private Github clone

We programmers know and love Github, the source code hosting website that's free for open source projects. But we often like to keep our projects private before releasing them publicly, and that's one thing Github is not good at. Sure, you can get the personal plan to have 5 private repositories, but is that really enough for all your personal mini-projects?

Meet Gitlab, the open source Github clone that you can host on your server. The number of repositories and collaborators is limited just by your server's capabilities. But you need to set up the server, and it takes a few hours unless you're proficient with Ruby.

We're proud to introduce the Git Server Appliance, featuring gitlab as web GUI and gitosis as accounts manager. All this starting at the price of Github personal plan!

There's no set up, you're provided with administrator login and password to your newly provisioned git server appliance. All you need to do is log in and start working.

Secure Joomla 1.0 hosting

At MassiveScale, we are starting to offer VPS hosting. While we don't have any generally available offer yet, we have started marketing a niche service. Joomla 1.0 websites hosting.

"It's as if you offered Windows 3.11 support", a friend of mine said. Well, yes and no. The newest version of Joomla CMS is 1.7, and 1.0 has been unsupported since 2008. However, there are many websites made on 1.0 that will not upgrade to 1.7 simply because it's too expensive. If someone ordered a page made with Joomla and a slightly modified off-the-shelf template, it's not because he has a large budget. Now, try explaining that person that he needs to spend the money twice or there will be countless break-ins into his page.

That's why we decided to offer a service to help these people out. Most of these websites are now in maintenance mode, only content is being added/edited and no major redesigns are taking place. We just lock all the files and, optionally, parts of the database, and that's the secret sauce. It makes Joomla 1.0 hosting pretty secure.