History of TextDrive
From TextUsers
It is mainly in this thread: http://forum.textdrive.com/viewtopic.php?id=2682
From: dean@cardigan.com Subject: Help setting up a server Date: 18 march 2004 14:15:58 GMT+01:00 To: jason@jasonhoffman.org
Hi Jason,
Thanks for your ongoing excellent help and support in the Txp forum.
Question: I wonder if you'd consider helping me out on something. I have the keys to a shiny new Redhat 9 server, which I want to set up to offer hosting for Textpattern sites (after a year of zero income working on this thing, I need to start figuring out how to make a living from it).
But I've never set up a server before, and I know nothing about rpms and very little about compiling. I've only ever used servers sysadminned by someone else.
There's a lot of software running on the server already, but I need to install Mysql 4, a good solid build of PHP 4.3.4, PHP 5, SQLite, Apache 2 with support for automatic virtual hosts, a handful of other things. Basically an ideal Textpattern server.
You clearly know your way around this stuff - would you be willing to help me set it up?
Best,
- dca
From: jason@jasonhoffman.org Subject: Re: Help setting up a server Date: 18 march 2004 20:56:14 GMT+01:00 To: dean@cardigan.com
Hi Dean,
I'd be happy to help out and I think I can get you going on the right track towards making a living off of Textpattern. I'm a scientist (bioinformatics/protein sciences) that been setting up servers for about 10 years but do business development and licensing/intellectual property arrangements as well.
I'm off to a meeting right now and will write back in a couple of hours.
Bests, Jason
From: dean@cardigan.com Subject: Re: Help setting up a server Date: 19 march 2004 20:46:29 GMT+01:00 To: jason@jasonhoffman.org
This is fantastic. I'm grateful to hear it.
How shall we proceed - should I simply create an admin account? Should we hash this out further? Any questions you have, etc...
Cheers,
- dca
From: jason@jasonhoffman.org Subject: Re: Help setting up a server Date: 19 march 2004 21:07:16 GMT+01:00 To: dean@cardigan.com
Hi Dean,
You can create an account 'jason' and make me part of the wheel group. My main concern is that I'm not sure a Redhat9-driven virtual server is the right way to bootstrap yourself into hosting Textpattern sites. Despite what providers say, problems always arise with libraries and dependencies (a libxml that can never be deleted ...) on these jailed servers, and it's worse for Linux than FreeBSD.
And I don't want to knock Linux (I use it when I have something that needs kernel modifications), but I prefer FreeBSD for web/mail/database servers and I think you will too. For one, it's port system and utilities like portupgrade work great and make it really easy to maintain, patch and update everything. You'll also find yourself becoming more comfortable with it too because it has the same structure and behavior as Apple's BSD-subsystem.
What services are imagining for your textpattern sites? Web, DNS, mail (I like apache2, powerdns and postfix/dovecot-IMAP/POP)? Is there a price you are thinking of? .Mac-like IMAP, ical-sharing ....?
One thing I can do too is set you up for a month on my server (your own DNS ns1.textbox.org, ns2.textbox.org, whatever, mail etc.), you can get enough orders to pay a year upfront, we can set that new server up and move everyone over (without a hitch).
I just think you should set yourself up in a way that is easy to maintain, upgrade, very cost-effective and scalable (think how many sites you want).
Let me know what you think.
Bests, Jason
In the Spring of 2004, Dean Allen (developer of the content management system Textpattern) had become tired of recurring problems reported by those using his software, issues reliably traced to the shortcomings of web hosting companies they used to host their Textpattern sites. A solution was needed above and beyond coding in workarounds to make up for the features hosting companies refused (or were too timid) to provide.
The solution was to be TextDrive, a hosting company at which Textpattern, alongside other well crafted open-source software projects, would just work.
Realizing about twelve minutes into the project that setting up the technical aspects of TextDrive was far beyond his skill set as a writer/designer turned software developer, Dean contacted Jason Hoffman, a scientist and server geek who evidently never slept, and who regularly posted erudite information and enthusiastic support on the Textpattern community forum.
While that initial email contact was intended as a friendly call for some help in setting up servers, their correspondence immediately caught fire as ideas flew back and forth between Dean in Southern France and Jason in San Diego about how great TextDrive could be: as a smart hosting company, as a knowledge hub for those using open-source software, as a revenue source for developers of free software, as the parent company for a variety of clever niche products; the list grew longer and more impressive every day.
By early May of 2004, TextDrive, Inc. was incorporated in California with Dean as Chief Executive Officer and Jason as President and Chief Operating Officer.
On the matter of startup capital, a simple and innovative plan took shape. At the time there existed a dedicated and fiercely loyal base of people publishing sites with Textpattern: 200 of these individuals would be offered TextDrive accounts, good for as long as the company existed, for a one-time fee. The offer, dubbed the 'VC200', became available on 23 May. It sold out in three days.
By having its customers as initial "investors", most all of whom are active participants in the community, TextDrive's staff has grown in a very unique way, with the company founders seeing the best and brightest step forward from within their customer base, and eventually taking them on as full-time staff. All of TextDrive's initial systems administrators (Ryan, Nate and Jan), support staff (Filip, Damelon and Daniel) and developers (Justin) came from these initial 200 customers.
Since the TextDrive doors flew open on the first of June 2004, the company's growth has been relentless. Now serving over 10,000 domains for customers, it is now the partner of choice for a stellar list of open-source web software projects including Ruby on Rails and WordPress. The first of several hosted products, the backup and secure storage solution Strongspace, was launched in August of 2005. Strongspace quickly became one of the largest Rails applications known with several Terabytes of information stored.
TextDrive's greatest selling point has from the beginning been that it is owned and run by people who use—and are constantly fascinated by—its services. The staff prefer talking with customers as equals, and enjoy having everyone along for the ride.
At the end of November 2005, TextDrive was acquired by and merged into Joyent Inc to form a rather complete company. A company both capable of developing and delivering compelling web and network based applications.
