I created this server back Tue May 21 13:47:57 2013.
I was not sure what I wanted from it, so I installed a server variant of Ubuntu and made it be. I have been upgrading it through the versions ever since and grew attached to this old and somewhat mismanaged instance.
Currently this server is only hosting my blog. A simple static-HTML blog as a place for me to record random thoughts. But throughout its life this has been a lot more.
For a while I was running eclim on it and doing Java development work. It was running a framebuffer X server, a headless Eclipse IDE connected to vim. I was able to ssh to the server from my Chromebook or a phone
and have a full featured Java IDE ready for me in a tmux session. That was liberating to be able to write code from any stupid device, as long as it had SSH client on it. That was more than 10 years ago, now we have
"Cloud IDEs" that try to do the same in the browser. I try those from time to time, but non comes close to the setup I used to have right here.
For a long time this server was running a Pleroma instance. I joined the Fediverse and even wrote a few things. But turns out I still do not understand the world of micro-blogging. If I have something to say, it is long.
You can probably tell by reading this post. I hang around for a couple of years, but eventually the upgrade script for Pleroma failed and I was not in a mood of keeping an outdated code running and talking to the network
on the server. So I deleted it.
I also had a video hosting service here for a while. I do not remember which one I used, but it was written in Python and it worked. I shared a few videos of our family doing family things. I should probably get back to doing that.
There was a time when it was running a Shiny server. That is a client-server R environment. I still do R, believe it or not.
And of course it has been port forwarding applications for me. And place to upload a file to share it with someone. When I found a security vulnerability in the Online Banking interface of the bank I use - this was where I uploaded a video of exploitation to share it with the bank's security team.
When I was creating this server in 2013 I thought it me being a bit silly - renting a VPS in 2013, when everything is migrating to the "Cloud" and "Serverless"? Looking back, it was not silly at all. The countless subscription services that I would've had to sign up for to get the same level of functionality is scary. And then dealing with them going out of business! I had to move my family photo archive several times in between different services.
Tending to this server has been a great experience for me. I glad I got it back then.