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TextDrive (bought by Joyent) was one of the first hosting services to support Ruby On Rails as a first-class service -- in the days when static hosting, PHP, Pe

TextDrive (bought by Joyent) was one of the first hosting services to support Ruby On Rails as a first-class service -- in the days when static hosting, PHP, Perl, and Java/Tomcat were the only options on Linux infrastructure. They were well-noted for their "lifetime hosting" membership deal, which was incredibly exciting at the time (this was in a day where flat-fee and free hosting outside the likes of MySpace and Geocities was unheard-of). TextDrive was where all the cool kids hosted their projects. RIP Joyent public cloud (and the last remnant of TextDrive's legacy).

tosh 7y ago
Also I just remembered Strongspace (which was one of their products back then), very compelling and well designed online storage (e.g. for backup) back then. In a way this could have grown into Dropbox or Box when you think of it. The Joyent email + calendar + notes web app was also quite impressive at the time. So many memories.
- davidpaulyoung 7y ago
  Good memories! https://davidpaulyoung.com/2016/06/17/a-brief-history-of-joyent/ https://davidpaulyoung.com/2016/06/17/a-brief-history-of-joy...
  - jmarneweck 7y ago
    Hey David! Good memories. David glad to hear you've sorted your demons out! If you are ever in Cape Town, drop by to say hi.
- jonathonf 7y ago
  Strongspace still exists and is still hosting the VC storage accounts which Joyent shed (or at least, I think so... parts of their site seem to be dead). ExpanDrive's "Cloud drive client software" is also well worth looking into.
anonymouz 7y ago
They'll forever remain on my mind for their rip-off "lifetime hosting". I paid a lot of money for it, and it was supposed to last while the company lasted. But then they were folded into Joyent and the lifetime deals discontinued (with just a little bit limited time hosting offered in compensation). I have stayed away from them forever since, and warned everybody I could about their terrible business practices.

tosh 7y ago

Also I just remembered Strongspace (which was one of their products back then), very compelling and well designed online storage (e.g. for backup) back then. In a way this could have grown into Dropbox or Box when you think of it. The Joyent email + calendar + notes web app was also quite impressive at the time. So many memories.

davidpaulyoung 7y ago
Good memories! https://davidpaulyoung.com/2016/06/17/a-brief-history-of-joyent/ https://davidpaulyoung.com/2016/06/17/a-brief-history-of-joy...
- jmarneweck 7y ago
  Hey David! Good memories. David glad to hear you've sorted your demons out! If you are ever in Cape Town, drop by to say hi.
jonathonf 7y ago
Strongspace still exists and is still hosting the VC storage accounts which Joyent shed (or at least, I think so... parts of their site seem to be dead). ExpanDrive's "Cloud drive client software" is also well worth looking into.

anonymouz 7y ago

They'll forever remain on my mind for their rip-off "lifetime hosting". I paid a lot of money for it, and it was supposed to last while the company lasted. But then they were folded into Joyent and the lifetime deals discontinued (with just a little bit limited time hosting offered in compensation). I have stayed away from them forever since, and warned everybody I could about their terrible business practices.