Pioneer Day Ramblings of Pioneers and Web Hosting

Here in Utah on the 24th of July we celebrate Pioneer day.  Many native Utahns have ancestors that were Mormon Pioneers, coming across the plains.  Some of my own ancestors were among the group.  These pioneers were absolutely dedicated.  Their stories are, simply put, miraculous.

So this morning I find myself grateful for the sunshine in our conservative state, air in my lungs, and a new day to live.  Each day I have a continual Super Server Hero challenge: how do I apply all the world news and events to web hosting and web consulting?

For a while I was composing an article about the omnipresence of big tech.  Although I am already stunned by the shear level of integration of big tech into our daily lives, the research for the article kept revealing more things to be concerned about.

The challenge that keeps returning, is that of rejecting large monopolistic and centralized control, and supporting decentralized computing options.  With the recent CrowdStrike fiasco, giving a single update that took down airlines, police departments, and more, I found myself grateful that I have taken the road less traveled.

It is true that an update to Linux, FreeBSD, macOS, or Windows, could spell catastrophy.  However, the catastrophy is at different levels.

With Windows crashing, that was a global catastrophy.

With Linux failing, my guess is that the problem would be mitigated more than Windows, because Linux has proven to simply be more reliable, and therefore updated less.  However, there would be problems, and I could be wrong, the problems could exceed that of a Windows crash.

As for MacOS, in my estimate, it is mostly a consumer level product, with Macbooks or workstations.  My guess is that it too would not be as catastrophic as Windows.

And as for FreeBSD, even less people use this, and of those, the updates may only be really applied every 6 months, so I think the problem would have been pointed out by those early adopters and cause even less of a problem for the majority.  Same for OpenBSD.

Thinking back to the pioneers.  The Latter-day Saints were persecuted and left Kirtland, then Missourri, and eventually Nauvoo.  They knew that they would need to leave the United States, which was a much smaller territory than it is today.  They pondered whether to go to Texas or the Rocky Mountains.  Some saints were even sent to Texas if I remember right.  Ultimately, the Rocky Mountains won out.  And I am glad it did, because Texas has (in my opinion) rediculously high property taxes, and it's hot. :)

The point is, the saints had to leave the central power, the United States, and decentralize, even if just for a short time (around 50 years).

Today, people who utilize web hosting companies that aren't big tech, they are pioneers.  People who use operating systems outside of the main stream Windows, macOS, and I'll even throw in some Linux distributions, they are pioneers.

I believe in blazing new trails.  Utilizing our freedoms to find new ways to serve others.

Happy Pioneer Day, and God bless the United States of America.

Til next time.