Codepad – The ClassHelper.org™ Blog

I’m proud to note that Linode (my full-time employer) has been the subject of an extensive VPS performance review, and has come out as the clear winner.  For those who don’t already know, a virtual private server (VPS) gives you the power of a dedicated server at a fraction of the cost (a Linode 360 costs $19.95/month).

Linodes are a great platform for educators, parents, and students looking to learn more about Linux and open source software in general. Whether you’re interested in hosting a personal blog or a school website, you don’t have to sacrifice flexibility and performance for price. In fact, ClassHelper.org runs on a Linode, happily serving hundreds of thousands of page views each month without breaking a sweat.

Obviously, some may point out the fact that I’m a bit biased. I’d respond by noting that I was an extremely satisfied customer for over five years prior to joining the Linode team as an employee, and used Linodes to meet the hosting needs of many clients. I can honestly say I’ve never seen another hosting provider come close to the value and quality of support offered here.

As an employee of Linode, an outstanding Linux virtual private server provider, I’m excited to announce their support for Ubuntu 9.10. Whether you’re a student looking to learn more about Linux, a teacher who would like a solid platform to use for teaching classes on UNIX/Linux concepts, or a professional developer, I recommend taking a Linode VPS for a test drive. Enjoy!

I’m pleased to announce my acceptance of a new position with Linode.com, an outstanding Linux virtual private server provider. I’ll be fulfilling documentation, system administration, and support roles with their team. Having been a customer of theirs for several years (this site runs on a linode), I’m excited to be part of the team that keeps the bits flowing. You can check out my hiring announcement on the Linode Blog.

The primary ClassHelper.org site and this blog will be maintained as usual; I’m not terribly good at being idle. Thanks again for supporting ClassHelper!

Written for school I.T. administrators and network professionals looking to test the open source Zimbra groupware system, the ClassHelper.org computer science section has a new tutorial explaining how to install Zimbra on CentOS 5. This comprehensive tutorial allows administrators to go from a “bare metal” machine to a completely functional Zimbra server. Enjoy!

The ClassHelper.org computer science section has a new tutorial on setting up an Openfire collaboration server using a Debian Linux virtual machine (or real, physical server… as you prefer). This is good information for anyone who’d like to get started with collaboration software in their school or business; the tutorial provides step-by-step instructions for each stage of the install. Enjoy!

ClassHelper.org’s computer science section has a new addition. The Linux VPS host tutorial will teach you how to turn any reasonably modern computer into a virtual private server hosting platform. The guide uses Ubuntu Server 8.04 LTS as the base server operating system, with virtualization provided by VMware Server 2.0. It includes full instructions for creating a Debian Linux virtual machine with the ISPConfig hosting control panel installed on it.

We experienced a few hours of downtime while investigating a kernel issue on the server that hosts the ClassHelper.org network of sites; things are back to nomal now, with a shiny new kernel installed. We apologize to anyone who was inconvenienced by this outage. Thanks again for your support!