<html><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; ">Again for the record, Bytemark do a VM product for as little as £15/month - you get your own 'virtual dedicated server' so you can play around as much as you like with it.<div><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><div>We're running a production website for a client on one of these £15 VMs and it's handling a surprising amount of load.</div><div><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><div>They'll set up linux for you - you'd need to do the RoR specific admin.</div><div><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><div><div>Chris</div><div><br><div><div>On 9 Jan 2008, at 16:26, Daniel Tenner wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><blockquote type="cite">For the record, for £30-40 a month you can already get a dedicated <br>server (e.g. from ServerBeach). You'll have to do all the admin and <br>setup yourself, but they do provide ways to reinstall the server and <br>reboot it via their panel... So you'll definitely learn how to do it.<br><br>For learning how to work with linux, though, nothing beats installing <br>it on a local machine (e.g. an old computer you had stuck in a corner <br>somewhere). Ubuntu is, imho, the friendliest to beginners, and it's a <br>good introduction to Debian, which is good for actual production <br>servers.<br><br>Daniel<br><br>On 9 Jan 2008, at 15:29 9 Jan 2008, Andrew Stewart wrote:<br><br><blockquote type="cite"><br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">On 9 Jan 2008, at 15:14, Simon Sebright wrote:<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">So, can anyone offer and advice on getting my app running<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">somewhere, either on a machine of my own or a hosting provider<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">somewhere? I don't mind installing Linux somewhere, but have<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">really no clue how to administer it. Speed is really not a problem<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">- if so many people use the site, it becomes a problem, then I have<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">a good problem!<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">If you have a spare Linux box at home, you could get a simple<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">deployment working fairly easily. Forget about a web server (e.g.<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">Apache, Nginx) initially; Mongrel (app server) will be fine on its<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">own. So install Ruby on your Linux box, then Ruby gems, then use the<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">gem system to install Mongrel and Rails.<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">Alternatively you could use one of the many hosts out there. They<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">cover the spectrum from cheap, mass market (~£3/month) packages to<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">dedicated VPSs (~£30-40/month) and beyond.<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">I strongly recommend avoiding the mass market end. These hosts<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">generally slap "We support Ruby on Rails" on their site because Rails<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">is growing in popularity but they don't have any experience with it.<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">It always goes wrong.<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">As for the rest, the trade-off of price, support and resources is up<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">to you. Some are dearer but pretty much do everything for you (e.g.<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">Rails Machine) while some are cheaper but expect you to do more work<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">(e.g. Slicehost).<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">One point to bear in mind is that a Rails stack is more akin to a<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">Java stack, in terms of server resources, than, say, a PHP one.<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">People coming from PHP are often surprised at Rails's memory<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">requirements.<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">Personally I use Rails Machine because I'd rather pay somebody to do<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">what I'm not good at (server administration) and spend my time on<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">activities I am good at (e.g. application development). But it's a<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">matter of personal preference.<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">Good luck!<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">Andy Stewart<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">-------<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><a href="http://airbladesoftware.com">http://airbladesoftware.com</a><br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">_______________________________________________<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">Chat mailing list<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><a href="mailto:Chat@lists.lrug.org">Chat@lists.lrug.org</a><br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><a href="http://lists.lrug.org/listinfo.cgi/chat-lrug.org">http://lists.lrug.org/listinfo.cgi/chat-lrug.org</a><br></blockquote><br>_______________________________________________<br>Chat mailing list<br><a href="mailto:Chat@lists.lrug.org">Chat@lists.lrug.org</a><br><a href="http://lists.lrug.org/listinfo.cgi/chat-lrug.org">http://lists.lrug.org/listinfo.cgi/chat-lrug.org</a><br></blockquote></div><br></div></div></body></html>