As an intermission (there’s more to come in the SPF series), here’s what’s changed on my server since, oh, about a year and a half ago:

• The OS is now Ubuntu Karmic Koala (9.10), and all the server’s running software comes from the standard Ubuntu packages, which means that whatever version is in Karmic¹, that’s what I’m running here.
• I’ve switched, definitely, from Apache to nginx. It’s faster, more efficient, and ridiculously easier to configure (to put it in perspective, in terms of ease of configuration, it’s like OpenBSD’s amazing pf to the unholy abomination that is Linux’s iptables.) nginx works perfectly with the two pieces of software I use the most on my server, WordPress and MyBB, even while using a SEO plugin with the latter, which requires some non-trivial redirect rules.
• As I don’t trust any ISP’s email server to distribute the mail my server sends (mostly confirmation emails from my forums), and since most ISPs and companies these days block mail sent from dynamic IP addresses, I keep a 256 MB Slicehost slice, with a static IP address and, most importantly, reverse DNS, which I use as a smart host for my home server. The slice doesn’t have a lot of power in terms of CPU (and it’s not meant to), but, as bandwidth is much cheaper in the US than in my poor country, the “small” limit the cheapest slice includes is a lot; I use it for serving static files, mostly for my forums (all images and Javascript files are served from there), and I still have bandwidth to spare.
• I’ve stopped using a Squid proxy in my home network, and nowadays access the web directly… except for when I indulge in one of my newest weird habits: reading webcomics like this one or this one while having lunch or dinner. At such a time, moving instantly from comic to comic is a must… so I simply re-enable Squid (with more aggressive caching than I’d use for normal browsing; after all, existing comics typically aren’t going to change, are they?), do a nice little wget in my server to download and cache the entire comic, and then enjoy reading the whole of it (in as many meals as it takes) as if it was stored locally…
• A few changes to my email server’s configuration, mostly related to spam filtering… but I’ve been writing about that, haven’t I? And there’s still more to come.

1. with updates, of course — people who are afraid of installing updates (“but… it might break something!”) are nothing more than mewling weaklings who are utterly incompetent as sysadmins; they should never be allowed within a mile of any server. Even one running Windows.

Just updated this server to Ubuntu 8.04 (why do they always have these odd version numbers?). As always, it was incredibly difficult: I had to type this entire command:

do-release-upgrade

and even remember to press Enter afterwards! This Linux stuff is really too tough for us mere users…

Also, WordPress 2.5.1 on this blog and a couple others. Incidentally, if you’ve just upgraded to 2.5.1 and suddenly your RSS feed is empty, you were probably hit by this bug. That link includes info for fixing it, too (basically, you have to replace two files with newer development versions).

Since I’m in an upgrading mood , I’ve just upgraded my Slicehost slice from Ubuntu Edgy (6.10) to Feisty (7.04).

It was incredibly hard: I had to type in two whole commands! Namely,

apt-get install update-manager-core
do-release-upgrade

Gee, this Linux thing is much too complicated and troublesome for us mere mortals.

Currently (as it’s been from the beginning), my sites are all running on my home server (an OpenBSD box). I like the control it gives me; most web hosting services are of the “we provide this software for you” kind. Sorry, but, to me, it’s root access or nothing.

Even though my uplink is quite lousy (384Kbps), I haven’t actually had any problem with it, even when I was Dugg / Redditted / Shoutwired / del.icio.used / whatever.

However, I’ve long wondered about whether the fact that my server is located in Portugal is harming me in terms of search engine results for my English-language sites. The fact is that I get a comparatively large number of people arriving there from google.pt, even when the site in question is in English. Now, if google.pt is benefiting my English-language sites simply because they’re physically located in Portugal, it stands to reason that google.com (which is several orders of magnitude more important) will benefit US-based sites… and, if it puts those ahead, it follows that others are put behind.

(Did I make any sense just now? )

Therefore, since a few minutes ago, I’m a customer of Slicehost. In just 2 minutes, I had an Ubuntu virtual server running, with full root access by ssh. There’s nothing running there right now, but soon there will be: I will be moving one of my blogs, Way of the Mind, there (and it’ll be getting a new domain as well). I’ll only do it about a month from now… but I may start other sites there, in the meantime.

We’ll see if it makes a difference. I’ll post my results here.