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Well, I can't honestly say it's better than JumpBox -- as I've never tried them. I've fondly oogled their website for some time now -- WISHING I had a reason to pay for their service, but could never justify the price.
I'm so happy to have found Turnkey! This is exactly what I've been looking for. I installed the Joomla appliance -- and it all went without a hitch.
I can't wait for your Tomcat and JBoss appliances to be released. I'm a software developer -- but I do 99% of my development on windows and then just deploy to linux/unix servers. I've played with linux off and on for years -- and have watched the appliance market start to take off. I'm a big fan of the idea.
Anyway -- if I can be of service, I'd be glad to help -- even if it's only to test.
Another appliance to consider is one with Oracle XE and Sql Developer installed. I actually found one by a book author and like it very much. It would be even better with the Turnkey special touches. Oracle XE is the free Oracle (as in beer) and it's very useful for developers in corporate environments that are using oracle.
Lee
JumpBox, proprietary vs open source, Java appliances, Oracle
Glad to have you on board and many thanks for your kind words of encouragement!
The best part is I think we've really just scratched the surface of what is possible. There is a huge potential gap between the kind of miracles the best experts can pull off with open source in contrast to the frustrating friction experienced by ordinary mortals. Appliances have the potential to unlock a huge amount of innovation, with relatively little effort (I.e., compared to writing new software from scratch).
Proprietary appliance vendors such as JumpBox were part of our reason for starting TurnKey Linux. We liked the idea of software appliances, but we didn't like the restrictions placed on non-free appliances. There's a potential misalignment there with the user interests and we figured that a more free open source project that managed to engage the community could be very interesting.
Ethically speaking, we think it's a shame that a vendor would take so much from open source and then wall off their added value into a closed proprietary space. Open source shouldn't be a one way street!
With the help of the community we would like to do for software appliances what open source has already done for so many other fields of software innovation.
BTW, TurnKey Tomcat and JBoss appliances are a high priority for us. The Java community is huge, and we recognize the importance of bringing them on board.
Regarding the free Oracle applications, unfortunately they are only free as in beer, not as in freedom. They're not open source and are incompatible with our project. I took a brief look at the license for Oracle XE and there seem to be quite a few strings attached. Also, I'm not sure it would even be legal for us to redistribute them as TurnKey Linux appliances. The last thing we want is for Oracle to sue our little project.
Count me in -- in a big way
I'm not a OpenSource purist. I don't resent JumpBox, I just can't afford them. I see your point about them profiting from OS and seemingly not being open with their contribution. I guess they have blazed a trail and then opened the door for your efforts.
I'm working on getting my own tomcat/eclipse development environment up and running. I'm a fair hand on the windows platform but not that deep of a linux person just yet. I've been dipping my toe in and testing the waters off and on for a decade now. If I'd had these types of appliances years ago -- I'd be much farther ahead.
Of course -- I'm working with a quad core system, 8gig of ram, vista 64 host, 1tb of hard drive, for $650. Hardware prices like that are really going to open the door for virtual appliances.
As for Oracle -- clearly Oracle XE is their product to help fend off open source and MySql. Free Beer is good enough for me. As I already have an oracle appliance, I can feel fine without another one. Although I bet Oracle would actually be FOR your efforts rather than against it.
Anywhoo -- you have my email -- feel free to contact me and let's talk more about how I can get involved.
Lee
open source, much of our user base running Windows
Open source purist or not, on a practical level it's much easier to get people involved and build a community around the framework of a true open source project. I think that's why it works. It's not magic and you still need to solve the problem of getting enough people interested and getting some real traction going, but after reaching a certain critical mass something remarkable starts to happen and the value of this model becomes apparent. At least that's my observation based on other projects. We're not there yet, but that's our goal.
We don't really resent JumpBox either. I've followed them closely for a while and they seem to be good people. They're a small company in Austin trying to make a living working on this stuff and it's easier doing to do that as a proprietary vendor. We just think that by virtue of being open it will eventually be possible to get many more people on board and as a community we'll be able to make progress much faster than as a small proprietary venture. There are other business models fully compatible with open source that should be able to sustain a more open model of collaboration.
Anyhow, most of our user base is using Windows, so contributors from that professional background are an asset. You don't need to be a Linux expert to help! Naturally I think feedback and ideas from your perspective are very useful to the project.
Regarding Oracle XE, we'll have to look more closely at the licensing. If it's legal to redistribute as part of an appliance I wouldn't take it off the table entirely. The licensing does seem to contain a few clauses limiting legal usage scenarios (e.g., number of CPUs and such).
Cheers!
Oracle XE
As to Oracle, IANAL, so you'll have to review the license. But I do believe the limitations are more technical.
1 CPU -- doesn't mean you can't put it on a multiple cpu machine, just that it will only use 1.
1 gig ram, 1gig dada -- again, technical restrictions. You can have more memory, but it won't use it.
There's a lot of use for oracle even within those confines. From their website:
Oracle Database 10g Express Edition (Oracle Database XE) is an entry-level, small-footprint database based on the Oracle Database 10g Release 2 code base that's free to develop, deploy, and distribute; fast to download; and simple to administer. Oracle Database XE is a great starter database for:
* Developers working on PHP, Java, .NET, XML, and Open Source applications
* DBAs who need a free, starter database for training and deployment
* Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) and hardware vendors who want a starter database to distribute free of charge
* Educational institutions and students who need a free database for their curriculum
Seems to me that they are encouraging the very use we are speaking of.
Lee
No idea about JumpBox
So can't give you any feedback or perspective there...
As for your plans yes it's possible, although a 'hitch-free' result will be dependant on way to many factors (some of which I have no idea about) for me to be 100% confident... Obviously, initial planning and understanding will have a positive effect on your outcome.
I suggest that you investigate the TKL Hub (it is the TKL front end for AWS appliances). I would also read up (via google) on manually migrating WP content from one server to another. Also document the WP version on your current server vs the WP version on the TKL appliance (and perhaps look into trying to get them to the same version - probably updating whichever is the older would be your best bet IMO - this will make data and theme migration easier and less stressful). You could also set up the TKL WP appliance as a VM on a local platform such as VirtualBox and start testing data migration... I highly recommend documenting everything you do (especially everything you do to the TKL server) so you have a record of it all and can reliably reproduce all your steps.
I also suggest that you start yourself a new forum thread (here on the TKL forums, in the general section). That way you could even use that to publicly document your progress, give feedback and ask questions. Not only will that provide a single place for you to refer back to if/when need be, but I imagine would also provide value for other TKL users (present and future ones!)
The only other thing I'd encourage you to keep in mind is that the current (v12.x) appliances are based on Debian Squeeze (aka 6.0). That may help when you are trying to google for basic OS level commands...
Good luck and look forward to hearing more! :)
Thanks for the head up, I'm glad to hear back from you...
I'm very grateful for your suggestions although they look pro to me but I believe as time goes on, I will be able to do all of these. I will surely do the same way you've suggested.
Maybe I shouldn't rush into making the move now.
However, I have some questions bothering my mind about Amazon AWS pricing, I don't think I get the whole calculation right because of terms used in explaining them are kind of different from normal hosting terms I'm familiar with.
Can you help me out in this area?
I want to host up to 10 websites there and they're all on Wordpress platform. I want to know how much it would cost me as a starter with below 500 daily pageviews on one of the site and the rest below 100 VIEWS but as soon I moved to better place like AWS, they'd pick up.
I'd be glad to hear back from you. I so much appreciate your help and other people in the house.
God bless you all.
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There is an AWS calculator that might help
Have a look here. Also you'll need to keep in mind that there is a TKL fee if your appliances run on AWS.
Depending on traffic, you may be able to get away with Micro servers, but if they have much traffic then Small is probably what I would recommend as a minimum. You could consider running a multi-WordPress server (so you can host multiple WP sites on a single server) but that will take some effort on your behalf (there is no OOTB TKL multi-WP server). And unless you are willing to get your hands seriously dirty you'll need to settle for subdomains or folders though for your different WP sites...
If this conversation seems too techy for you then I would definitely suggest that you hold off until you are more comfortable self-managing your server(s). TKL is free to download and play with (on your own hardware or VM) so give it a go and let the learning curve begin...! :)
But anyway, this thread is really old and our conversation is going way off track... So rather than continuing to hijack it with somewhat irrelevant conversation (to this thread), how about you start your own thread? I'll see it and post, also add a link back to this if you want (although copy paste is pretty easy! :D )
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