Ugh…

So, today I tried browsing to one of my sites, linuxlaboratory.org, and found a 403 “Forbidden” error. Calling support, they said it was a “billing issue”. Well, I pay my bills, and I haven’t received any new credit cards, so I’m not sure what that’s about. Further, they haven’t contacted me in any way shape or form at all in a very long time, and I’ve had the same email addresses for years now. Last time they failed to contact me, it was because they were sending all of the mail to “root@localhost” on the web server.

What’s more, the tech support guy, having determined that this wasn’t a technical but an administrative problem, transferred me to a sales person who was not there. I left a message. That was 3 hours ago. So I took matters into my own hands and changed the name server records to my webfaction account, and linuxlaboratory.org now points to an old test version of the site that uses Drupal.

It’s Over Between Us…

Drupal holds the record for the CMS that has run LinuxLaboratory the longest. Since its launch in 2001, LinuxLaboratory has used all of the major, and some of the minor open source PHP CMSes. Drupal gave me something very close to what I wanted, out of the box. Nowadays, Drupal is even nicer since they redid some of the back end APIs and attracted theme and module developers to the project. I’ve even done some coding in Drupal myself, and have to say that it really is a breeze.

But the problem is this: I’m a consultant, trainer, and author/editor. I am an experienced system admin, database admin, and infrastructure architect who makes a living solving other peoples’ problems. I really can’t afford to have something that is super high overhead to maintain running my sites. With Drupal releasing new versions with major security fixes once per month on average, and no automated update mechanism (and no built-in automated backup either), it becomes pretty cumbersome just to keep it updated.

This is in addition to my experiences trying to do e-commerce with Drupal. I tried to use one plugin, but soon found myself in dependency hell — a situation I’m not used to being in unless I’m on a command line somewhere. So, out with Drupal. I know it well and I’m sure I’ll find a use for it somewhere in my travels, but not now, and not for this.

Is Django the Future of LinuxLaboratory?

So I’m thinking of giving Django another shot. In fact, I thought I might try something new and interesting. Maybe I’ll build my Django app right in front of everyone, so that anyone who is interested can follow along, and so people can give me feedback and tips along the way. It also lets me share with people who have questions about a feature I’m implementing or something like that.

For fanboys of <insert technology here>, know this: I’m a technology whore. I consume technology like some people consume oxygen. I love technology, and I get on kicks, and every now and then, a “kick” turns into a more permanent part of my tool chest. Python is one such example. I’ve done lots with Python, but have never really made friends with it for web development. I got a webfaction account specifically because they support Python (and Django). I’ve done nothing with it. Now I think I might.

But not to worry! I own lots of domains that are sitting idle right now, and I’m considering doing a Ruby on Rails app for one of them, and I’m dying to do more with Lua. There’s only so much time!

Webfaction Django Users: Advice Hereby Solicited

So if you’re a webfaction customer using Django, please share your tips with me about the best way to deploy it. I’ve used nothing but PHP apps so far, and found that rather than use the one-click installs webfaction provides, it’s a lot easier to just choose the generic “CGI/PHP” app type and install the code myself. This allows me to, for example, install and update wordpress using SVN. Is Django a similar story, or does webfaction actually have an auto-upgrade mechanism for this? How are you keeping Django up to date?

Thanks!