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Show HN: Dply – Free temporary Linux servers

dply.co

11–20 of 205 posts

Re: Show HN: Dply – Free temporary Linux servers

#12
This comes at a time when, as a Linux newbie, I am curious about exploring the range of various Linux distros and GUIs out there. Would this be a nice tool to see the differences in the windowing interface of various Linux distros and learning more about navigating Linux through X windows, KDE, Gnome, etc, vs just using a command line?

Re: Show HN: Dply – Free temporary Linux servers

#16
I've seen a number of services just like this that come and go because of the persistent abuse problems this kind of thing attracts. Perhaps using github for authentication will help but I'm skeptical of how far it will get you. Do you have any other novel strategies to reduce the abuse problem?

Re: Show HN: Dply – Free temporary Linux servers

#17
post #2

This is a project I've been working on for a while. Dply allows you to quickly create a temporary cloud server (1CPU/512MB RAM/20GB SSD) for free. You can have one free server running at any time. Log in with your Github account and it will allow you to create your server using your Github ssh-key. Servers are free for 2 hours and expire after that time (unless you choose to add more time via credit card or bitcoin).…

The server name field might be better suited to be a white box like the rest of the options after you click New Server. Nice idea. Might want to have some kind of vetting of accounts if it gets bigger.

Re: Show HN: Dply – Free temporary Linux servers

#18
post #9
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

how will you deal with abuse? scripts to just spin and mine bit coin etc. cool project!

This initial release is designed to test two things. 1.) Our abuse processes. The goal in this area is to both be very strict in preventing abuse while trying to do so with as little inconvenience for legitimate users as possible and 2.) Testing the ROI. Cloud servers are really inexpensive for short periods and we will be testing conversion rates to see if the project can be self-sustaining through the added time mo…

At the point someone's wanting something for a month, why wouldn't they go pay $5 to DigitalOcean, vs. $10 to you?

Re: Show HN: Dply – Free temporary Linux servers

#19

This comes at a time when, as a Linux newbie, I am curious about exploring the range of various Linux distros and GUIs out there. Would this be a nice tool to see the differences in the windowing interface of various Linux distros and learning more about navigating Linux through X windows, KDE, Gnome, etc, vs just using a command line?

These are servers, so you most likely won't get a GUI.

Re: Show HN: Dply – Free temporary Linux servers

#20
post #6
post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can I make another free server immediately afterwards? What's your anti-abuse policy/process?

As a free service we will pretty strictly enforce abuse reports and take action on them. We're using a few methods to profile users based on their github account/ssh key and other factors to block abusers once their identified. Dply servers are blocked from using SMTP ports to prevent spam. Yes. You can create another server once the first expires but automating this process is not allowed and therefore we do not pro…

What constitutes abuse? I imagine certain applications that would be fine with the server going up and down every 2 hours. That would effectively mean that they would have free service indefinitely. For example, a Tor bridge.
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