3 ms·

You're right, yes. I was an original TextDrive customer and had the "lifetime hosting" plan, although I'd moved off of it well before Joyent shut it down -- it

You're right, yes. I was an original TextDrive customer and had the "lifetime hosting" plan, although I'd moved off of it well before Joyent shut it down -- it was clear that Joyent didn't have any real interest in keeping that promise. I think I got into an argument with a Joyent person or two by phrasing it similarly bluntly, but Joyent went through several pivots in their lifetime -- their original pitch was SaaS, providing "simple, powerful, web-based software that provides small teams with email, calendars, contacts, and shared applications" (quoting from their web site circa 2005 courtesy of archive.org) -- and when they pivoted into Serious Big Iron Enterprise Hosting (tm) it was clear fairly quickly that not only was shared hosting on borrowed time, but that they had no real interest in "low end" hosting of any sort. I suspect we'll never know the true story of what happened with Dean Allen; looking back, there were definite signs even from as far removed as I am of him battling with depression, but of course, I'm writing this now with hindsight. At the time I'm pretty sure I just felt mildly annoyed that he seemed to have vanished from both TextDrive and Textpattern.

gexla 7y ago
> I suspect we'll never know the true story of what happened with Dean Allen; looking back, there were definite signs even from as far removed as I am of him battling with depression, but of course, I'm writing this now with hindsight. Or he just liked to drink. Have you seen this piece from Om Malik? https://om.co/2018/01/18/dean-allen-rest-in-peace/ https://om.co/2018/01/18/dean-allen-rest-in-peace/ There's a story in there about Dean Allen getting drunk and locking Om Malik out of the apartment. ;)
- chipotle_coyote 7y ago
  Heh. I did see it, but that's also the piece with the line "I think I heard Jason say that Dean gave up on the struggle," which sure seems suggestive.
  - gexla 7y ago
    Ouch, I forgot about that part. That's sobering. I remember the drinking part of the story, but as with any story, there's more to it than we'll know. I suppose this is a good moment to say, RIP Dean Allen. This is another moment where we remember you at HN. Regardless of the history of Textpattern and all that followed (including the hosting) - I spent many hours happily hacking on tools provided from that shared journey. It was a great ecosystem, or we wouldn't still be talking about it. Thanks to everyone who participated.

gexla 7y ago

> I suspect we'll never know the true story of what happened with Dean Allen; looking back, there were definite signs even from as far removed as I am of him battling with depression, but of course, I'm writing this now with hindsight. Or he just liked to drink. Have you seen this piece from Om Malik? https://om.co/2018/01/18/dean-allen-rest-in-peace/ https://om.co/2018/01/18/dean-allen-rest-in-peace/ There's a story in there about Dean Allen getting drunk and locking Om Malik out of the apartment. ;)

chipotle_coyote 7y ago
Heh. I did see it, but that's also the piece with the line "I think I heard Jason say that Dean gave up on the struggle," which sure seems suggestive.
- gexla 7y ago
  Ouch, I forgot about that part. That's sobering. I remember the drinking part of the story, but as with any story, there's more to it than we'll know. I suppose this is a good moment to say, RIP Dean Allen. This is another moment where we remember you at HN. Regardless of the history of Textpattern and all that followed (including the hosting) - I spent many hours happily hacking on tools provided from that shared journey. It was a great ecosystem, or we wouldn't still be talking about it. Thanks to everyone who participated.