I'm wondering what the digital ocean terms and conditions are around this, Dply looks like it is subcontracting their infrastructure, is that allowed?
Show HN: Dply – Free temporary Linux servers
141–150 of 205 posts
Re: Show HN: Dply – Free temporary Linux servers
#142Pretty cool! Spun up a new server in like 30 seconds. I can see this being helpful for small POC's and the like. I'd say a good next step would be to add some more user-data example scripts for common setups. Awesome job!
We may create a community repository of user-data scripts allowing you to check a "Share this with the community" option on the Dply button creation page. For now, DigitalOcean has a nice Github repository of user-data scripts you can use: https://github.com/digitalocean/do_user_scripts/
Re: Show HN: Dply – Free temporary Linux servers
#143Nice service! I could see this being really useful for web scraping or for offloading compilation. (Or any relatively short computation, really.) I caught a bit of an awkward sentence on the FAQ though: "Unless specifically specified otherwise.." Just "specified" will do :)
Wouldn't web scraping be considered abusive usage as it is frowned upon by most websites?
Scraping, when done responsibly (respecting robots.txt and not overloading a server with requests) wouldn't be considered abusive in most cases. While we will be strict in enforcing abuse policies, when it's obvious a user acted with good intentions we can work on a case by case basis.
Re: Show HN: Dply – Free temporary Linux servers
#144The pricing seems very fair, you should make it more prevalent.
For the initial release we focused on extreme simplicity in our design. It's easier to add things than remove them. We'll be making updates to the homepage and informational pages in the coming weeks to make information more prevalent and respond to feedback and suggestions like this one.
Re: Show HN: Dply – Free temporary Linux servers
#145Is it possible to destroy a server before it's time is up? What if I made a server, but now want to try out a different one without waiting 2 hours.
I think DigitalOcean probably bills Dply for one hour minimum so if you could immediately destroy and recreate then you'd quickly add up to a lot more OpEx.
DigitalOcean does it's billing based on a per-minute basis based on their hourly rates. We have already implemented a feature in our backend code to allow users to "expire" free servers and are working on adding that to the dashboard UI and this option should be available this weekend.
Re: Show HN: Dply – Free temporary Linux servers
#146I kept on getting the "Server name must be etc.". Took me a while to realise that there's a server name field at the top of the page. Maybe make it look like the other fields?
One of the biggest pieces of feedback we've received and near the top of the list to fix. To start with, we'll be giving this field a white background so it's not so easy to miss.
Re: Show HN: Dply – Free temporary Linux servers
#147I'm wondering what the digital ocean terms and conditions are around this, Dply looks like it is subcontracting their infrastructure, is that allowed?
DO absolutely allows (and encourages) resellers and SaaS platforms on their service. My day job is with DO and Dply was built as a side project to meet some needs I have heard from developers, students, and open source projects.
Dply operates with DO's blessing but is otherwise unrelated in any official sense. We launched under a credit like those offered in the Hatch program for startups: https://www.digitalocean.com/hatch/
Re: Show HN: Dply – Free temporary Linux servers
#148Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why wouldn't Dply just become a DigitalOcean reseller and only cost $5? I could definately see this working out as a customer aquistion channel for DO, eith Dply getting a referral fee.
Because he works for AWS :D. But ditto for AWS
Actually, I work for DO :) But Dply is not a DO project or product. It's my personal side-project and while I have DO's blessing to run it, it's otherwise unrelated and acts like any other DO customer reselling or running an SaaS.
Automatic deletion, the built in user-data button system and our acceptance of Bitcoin and Alipay provide options that DO itself currently does not offer.
This is the MVP/Initial Beta of Dply and we're hoping to learn a lot from it. One thing we are testing is whether we'll see high enough conversion rates by users adding time to their servers to cover the costs of the free servers and hopefully make a profit. Acting as a DO referrer is a backup option that could add credit to the platform to help cover costs if the current model proves unsustainable.
Re: Show HN: Dply – Free temporary Linux servers
#149This 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).…
That's a pretty cool service, I think I can use that for a github project of mine. You should consider adding a "shutdown and delete" button to get rid of VMs when your users are done with them.
We'll be adding an "expire now" option for servers on the free plan this weekend :)
Re: Show HN: Dply – Free temporary Linux servers
#150This 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).…
Suggestion, after the server successfully created, show the command that they can execute to access the server (ssh root@ , with being replaced with the real ip).
We've had several people suggest making this more prevalent and it's on our todo list :)