Back in 2008, I was browsing around looking for a VPS solution, one
which I could use to keep a few files sync'd, host a website,
nothing too complex. By happenstance, I came across an offer that
ovh were running, which provided a vps that could do all the things
I wanted at a low-low price, so I signed up on the spot.
Fourteen years later, and I was still on the same server. I'd
upgraded the debian version over the years, from lenny to squeeze,
wheezy and jessie, but to all intents it was the same kvm slice on
some server. Unsurprisingly, ovh finally decided that the users who
were there on this pre-2010 plan would have to upgrade or move on.
I was still on spinning metal, all their current offers use SSD,
for example.
I looked elsewhere, but the offer ovh were prepared to make to keep
me on their service was just too good to pass up. I got a new vps,
at the same price, with double the RAM, a better `processor` and as
much ipv6 address space as I could shake a stick at.
The one fly in the ointment was that it wasn't possible to upgrade
my old plan in place. I asked about the place, and was delighted to
find a few simple scripts to make the move happen; reading those
made me realise that I had the abilities to make it all happen, and
I came up with a few twists and tweaks of my own. I *think* I have
everything done properly, most of the work involved moving my old
blog, something I increasingly don't even use!
Doing that, and looking at the accumulated cruft from 12 years of
computing, was like applying marie-kondo principles to my computer.
This stuff doesn't bring me joy any more. The times when I am
thrilled by experiment are long since past me, I have a legacy of
computer using ability and skill I've accrued from hobbyist use,
there's noone going to pay me to use those skills. So why do I
bother?
I'm not sure I have an answer to that question, I may not ever have
an answer.
