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Comment by nicbou | Hacker News Reader

I don't do any server admin. My code runs in docker on pretty much any server I can get my hands on. Some of my code runs on a ThinkPad stashed behind my desk, on DigitalOcean, on my Macbook. I could deploy to a Raspberry Pi and it would run just the same. It takes 10 minutes to deploy an exact copy to a new environment.

None of that requires OS maintenance. My house plants require far more maintenance than my software. I sometimes forget where some things run because I haven't touched them in years.

Serverless code runs on the cloud you built it for. I don't want that. I don't want to invest years of my life becoming an Amazon developer, writing Amazon code for Amazon servers.

That's without delving into the extra work serverless requires. There isn't a dollar amount tied to my import statements. I don't need software to help me graph and make sense of my infrastructure. I can run my code on my computer and debug it, even offline.

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You probably know this but from what I read above it might be worth mentioning.

Your hosts are still packed with a bunch libraries and services (sshd for example) that should probably be updated with regularity.

I echo a lot of what you say here regarding run anywhere and not marrying some giant vendor.

Agreed.

On hosts I manage professionally, I update/upgrade weekly after reading the notes - it takes a few minutes, I know I'm up to date and if there is anything I should be wary of.

On a personal debian server, I have an update/dist-upgrade -y nightly on a cron job, and I reboot if I read on HN/slashdot/reddit/lwn about an important kernel fix; Never had an issue, and I suspect it's about as secure and trouble free as whatever is underlying lambda -- with the exception that every 3-4 years I have to do an OS upgrade.

> None of that requires OS maintenance. My house plants require far more maintenance than my software. I sometimes forget where some things run because I haven't touched them in years.

Then how do you know they are still secure and even working?

Yes, deploying servers is very easy, maintaining and securing them is the hard part. Sure, you can automate the updates and it will work with a good OS-Distribution for some years. But no system is perfect, exploits are everywhere, even in your own configuration. And then it becomes tricky to protect your data.

The best practices of private networks, updated software and being conservative when exposing ports to a public network everyone knows already.

Also no need to be that scared about servers.

What if your ThinkPad is unplugged? What if its HDD dies? Why aren't you updating the OS? Did you patch the firmware for Spectre/Meltdown? Etc, etc

OP definitely isn’t running code that needs an SLA if he’s talking about running on personal devices or DO

I doubt AWS/GCP/Azure care that much about hobby code. Hobby code, that humongous market for development platforms and development tools :-)

The HDD died already. I opened it, moved the stuck head with my fingers and shoved it back in. I have good backups, and as someone else said, if it was important, it would not run on a recycled laptop behind my desk.

That hard drive event showed me how disposable the machine itself has become thanks to docker.

You missed the point though. Serverless offers are commercial. They have little in common with your home made hobby stuff.

How much would you even pay for hosting? $2 a month?

I didn't miss the point. You singled out my ThinkPad and I'm answering your questions.

My point was about having portable code on generic hardware, which in my opinion is a better bet than writing Amazon software for Amazon servers, and praying their prices don't change much.

actually You can not run Your code smoothly on Rasberry PI because it has different architecture (ARM) and needs different sets of dependency images (If You are lucky at all Your deps are available on ARM)

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