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0 pointsnmcfarl12y ago0 comments

This is a simple enough misunderstanding

I don't think that you own a digital ocean or ec2 instance - you rent them the same way you are renting the service this thread talking about. Given that chrismonsanto, is taking an even more hard line approach to controlling his stack than I do, I'm assuming he agrees (I know - dangerous).

When I talk about my servers I'm talking about things sitting in my racks (possibly in my server room), that I can rip components out of and upgrade. I'm talking about very expensive things, if not in terms of purchase price, certainly in terms of care and maintenance.

And to tie it back up to my other comment, I think there is value in owning your own servers, and in coding your stack from top to bottom, and having no external dependencies. But I think these are both very expensive choices - and the kinds of choices, most startups don't have the time/money for.

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chrismonsanto12y ago

> Given that chrismonsanto, is taking an even more hard line approach to controlling his stack than I do, I'm assuming he agrees (I know - dangerous).

I'm actually OK with using something like EC2, because I control what runs on it. If I feel I can't trust EC2, or that it is too expensive, I can purchase my own hardware and move my stack to that. However, if I outsource my user management, I imagine the interfaces will be proprietary, and I will have to tear up my stack quite a bit to switch. I don't like that risk.

> I think there is value ... in coding your stack from top to bottom, and having no external dependencies

I'm also OK with having dependencies on other people's work, I just want the source code available so I can fix up things if necessary. I don't even require that the software is 'open source' or 'free software', since I don't plan to redistribute my changes. I do currently have one component in my stack that is proprietary (with source) and I have very much appreciated the ability to fix up things that didn't fully integrate with the rest of my service.

jonahx12y ago

Ah, okay I get it. Thanks for explaining.

Of course, there are levels of dependence, and I think hosting on amazon or DO represents a much, much smaller risk than outsourcing your user management to a startup (or even a well-established company, for that matter).

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