Update: This is an old archived post on this site and is only kept online for my own archival purposes. The content and images on this post this might be outdated and incomplete. Please do not sue me if the Internet breaks because you read this.
One of the main things that I do find interesting with blogging has never really been about making money online but more on the design part of things. Two weeks ago I got myself a 256 slice from Slicehost. I figured this was a worthwhile investment for most of the sites I run (for myself and for other people).
The learning experience slowly evolved from learning how to design websites, to learning the code behind the design, and then ultimately, learning how the whole box works and looks from the inside.
Lighting the LAMP
I started installing LAMP emulators (XAMPP and later WAMP) on my Windows box three years ago to learn Apache and how PHP and apps like WordPress work with MySQL and all the “code poetry” that comes with it. That experience taught me a lot and helped me learn how to design WordPress themes from scratch.
Running WAMP was pretty straightforward but then I felt something was still lacking, it was the control and feel of running a real webserver which I really wanted to experience and learn from. My logic was that if I were to learn how to really administer my own sites then I should learn Linux fast.
Enter Ubuntu Linux.
Installing Ubuntu on a box at home was my next step. This has gotten me to write about my adventures with Linux and how I got everyone else at home to use it.
Figuring things out on a linux command line was a fairly easy thing for me to adjust to as there are a plethora of documentation and guides found all over the net. Actually, I find it much easier and obviously more powerful than good old DOS.
What Next?
I set up the slice with Gutsy (Hardy Heron was still in beta back then) and installed nginx, php5, MySQL and WordPress by following some very informative articles from Pickled Onion, the Slicehost forums and a whole lot of other sites.
Right now most of my sites are already migrating to the slice from my other hosting account. Archon Digital will be last on the list as I would want to work out all the kinks before transfer everything.