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GoDaddy.com Dumps Linux for Microsoft
RobertB-DC writes "Bargain-basement registrar GoDaddy.com has decided to move all its parked domains to Microsoft servers, saying that they'll provide 'a technology platform that is security-enhanced, highly scalable and easy to manage.' This is a shift away from Linux, a decision met with derision by other registrars such as Gandi.net, which greeted the news with the headline 'Go Daddy and never come back'. Late last year, GoDaddy.com had some 'issues', shall we say, with non-Microsoft browsers."
Ghandi never struck me as the kind of guy who trashtalks others. Well you learn something new everyday, I suppose.
Since most of these parked domain names are just misspellings of respectable sites or total nonsense, full of links to casinos and places to get prescription drugs, which no one would ever actually register and use for hosting, does it really matter what OS the server is running?
An OS is no good without applications on top of it.
If GoDaddy doesn't have the wherewithal to develop applications for Linux, maybe they'll have better luck with Windows. It gives them the ability to use ASP.Net on the server side with all the benefits that entails.
GoDaddy has jumped the shark,
News at eleven
All your base to Microsoft.
The filesystem is the package manager
I use GoDaddy for my hundreds of domain registrations....too bad to see them make this decision. Not to be a blatant Microsoft troll, but it is nearly generally recognized in the server community that Linux/Apache is a more secure solution than Windows. Why would GoDaddy site security as their reason to change vendors?
Read the only personal Runyon page out there.
I think we can all agree that, at the very least, Linux SERVERS are better than Windows servers.
And, GoDaddy should at least know that much.
So, the question is, why are they doing it? Do you think Microsoft is paying them to do this? Did management's preconception that "Windows is what we use on our desktops, so it MUST be good for our servers" override any rational thought? Did they think it would trick customers who didn't know better and think, "They use Windows, just like our own computers, it must be good"?
Any thoughts?
Want a high quality FOSS RTS game? Try Warzone 2100!
It's interesting that GoDaddy.com is looking for people with Linux skills:x &cn=GoDaddy&sort=rv&vw=b&cy=US&re=14&brd=1%2C128%2 C1862%2C1863
3 8005&AVSDM=2006-02-20+15%3A04%3A46&Logo=1&q=linux& cn=GoDaddy&lid=338&sort=rv&vw=b&cy=US&brd=1,128,18 62,1863
5 5008&AVSDM=2006-02-24+17%3A38%3A10&Logo=1&q=linux& cn=GoDaddy&lid=338&sort=rv&vw=b&cy=US&brd=1,128,18 62,1863
http://jobsearch.monster.com/jobsearch.asp?q=linu
Examples:
Linux Systems Manager
http://jobsearch.monster.com/getjob.asp?JobID=399
Senior Linux Software Engineer
http://jobsearch.monster.com/getjob.asp?JobID=401
They talked about moving to Windows and said, basically, that the costs roughly in line with Linux when you take into account administration/management costs and that MSFT was bending over backwards to meet their needs. They liked MSFT's customer service. They like ASP.NET because of the capabilities it provides. They like MSFT's vision and...most important of all...their customers liked the results when they used Windows hosting sevices.
MS is just pissed off that they keep loosing market share on netcraft so the likely dropped godaddy a big ole wad of cash to move all those worthless
.net is. Being a ex asp programmer I grabbed the latest copy of visual studio and had a little go with
parked domains to IIS servers....To think there is a technical reason or advantage is pure hog wash...
And don't give me a bunch of bull about how great
it.....guess what, it is still the same buggy piece of crap it always was.
Got Code?
I have half a dozen myself, and the only reason I have this many is Go Daddy is so inexpensive. As far as parking domains, who cares? It's just a "under construction" or whatever site. For real hosting you pick one of the innumerable other options that give you PHP/MySQL etc. for a few bucks a month, or more elaborate if your traffic needs it.
When I waste money registering misspelled domain names and register tons of word combinations while speculating on new product names, I need somewhere that can handle the strenuous demands of parking my domains.
I'm not stupid - I wouldn't trust the job of handling web redirects to any of that old legacy stuff like UNIX. That stuff was old back when I was using Windows 3.1... and Windows has gotten a lot better since then. When people try to access my domainnames, I expect the performance of Geniune Windows.
I know that sometimes domain names need to be rebooted too, like when critical updates get applied, but that's okay. I wouldn't want my domain names parked on an unpatched, so-called "highly available" server.
No sir, it's genuine-windows-advantage-plays-for-sure for me and my domain collection.
If you're not running MS, your domain will stop working.
If you believe this, I have great waterfront property in Florida I'd be willing to let you have. Cheap.
"I'd rather be a lightning rod than a seismometer." -Ken Kesey
I beg the Linux zealots not to do their thing right away. GoDaddy will come back sooner or later. Nothing can hide a fact, nothing! We've seen this before. They will come back. May be this is part of the incompetence I have seen in US companies lately. I hope I am wrong.
umm, you do realize that's talking about the special interactive player, and the movie plays just fine?
11 was a racehorse
12 was 12
1111 Race
12112
- Server-side development on Unix/Linux platform, Windows experience a plus
- SQL development utilizing MySQL DBMS and MS SQL
Not exactly a linux engineer.Do you even lift?
These aren't the 'roids you're looking for.
I was lazy... here's an article
Don't blame me, I voted for Baltar.
That is my assumption... I used to work for Register.com and we were having a HUGE number of parked domains and redirected domains served by Linux. Basically Microsoft approached us and offered us a pile of cash AND some of their engineers to help so we migrate the servers serving this (futurestep it was called if i remember right) to Windows and that they can use that as advertisement AND that netcraft would show a significant change in the number of sites hosted by Windows.... Let's say that it was very hard to refuse this...
So yeah... I would assume the same. How much money/services did they got from Microsoft?
http://www.domainsatcost.ca/
.ca registrations as well, but I use them for everything.
Very solid, been with them for about 4 years with 9 domains. Not as cheap, but that doesn't matter if the service is better. They do
I'm going to move my remaining 4 domains off GoDaddy as well and over to domainsatcost. Big business needs to realize that associating itself with MS or Windows is a bad thing.
Nice try, but that was due to bugs in MacOS 8.x, not a WB/Microsoft conspiracy.
Do you even lift?
These aren't the 'roids you're looking for.
Oh c'mon, Go Daddy is not suddenly the bad guy because they chose a different technology platform. They didn't choose it to make Linux advocates resentful or to make Microsoft partners happy. It was a business decision. They think it will help them for their specific need. If Mac OSX would have been more helpful to their business they would have chosen it instead, or Atari OS or whatever. So what if they had problems with non-Microsoft browsers in the past or not; the author tries to draw a correlation but it's irrelevant. The author is just acting stupid I'm afraid to say. I mean, the issue is very interesting in and of itself, but I want to see mature discussion. Let's not put Go Daddy down because we prefer apples over oranges. I would rather see mature discussion about the switch. Indeed the good posts are already coming in ...
When you boss points out this time you can say, "Google uses Linux, not Windows."
I don't think 10,000 outfits such as GoDaddy are going to have a pull anywhere near Google collectively.
... Who's your daddy now?
This space left intentionally blank.
"Microsoft, the preferred platform for content-free websites"
"Microsoft, recommended by 9 out of 10 get-rich quick customers"
Seems kind of appropriate that MS is out to capture the scammer segment of the market, doesn't it? (Apologies to folks who park sites to protect themselves from scam artists.)
Microsoft has just released their much anticipated hands-free cordless mouse. Warning, it may hurt a little at first.
Most of the other servers hold xxx% of the Internet, and the remaining 5 hold the tech/geek content.
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
In my 12 years of working on the Internet, no registrar with the possible exception of Network Solutions has caused more wholesale heartache for legitimate customers than Godaddy. They are the biggest bunch of sleazebags on the planet. At least NSI had an excuse... they had monopoly power early on and exploited it. GoDaddy came out of the gate with the intention to defraud, mislead and exploit consumers. Every time I have a client who is using them, my immediate response is, "Oh Fuck!" That's how much they suck. That's how difficult it is to get any decent amount of customer service; that's how much bullshit I have to go through in order to get my client domains operating properly. There is no worse domain registrar on the planet in my opinion than GoDaddy. If you're a total moron, you use GoDaddy. That's it plain and simple. There are no people who disagree with me; there are merely people who haven't been screwed over yet, and will be eventually. That's the GoDaddy creedo that they haven't figured out.
Please to let me say I told you so. If you're smart you won't deal with Godaddy. I have no incentive to say this beyond the fact that my many years of trouble and torment from these jerkwads forces me to not even wish upon my worst enemy, the sleaziness that is their operation.
No seriously, I think the CEO saw the output of Linux compiling a program with gcc and screamed "LINUX IS BROKEN AND GOING CRAZY!" which made him switch to the "security" of Windows.
;P
Now I bet that's what REALLY happened!
READY.
PRINT ""+-0
That's what MS servers are good for - parking domains.
Let them go with that and let real OSs handle the real job
my sstream of consciousness
I was involved in this project, and I'm pretty sure I can relay the following information at the least:
The only thing that has changed are our PARKED web servers. Linux and open source is still used in many other places that are not changing. I can't go into specifics on this stuff, but I just wanted to clarify that that is all that changed. Hosting is still offered under both Linux/PHP (and I believe RoR) and Windows/ASP, and Linux is hosting many other systems as well.
It doesn't say much there.
Wanted: Clever sig, top $ paid, all offers considered.
If you want to run anything on Godaddy's servers that accesses files in PHP (which includes things like include and require in directories other than the current one), you have to ask to be put on a Linux server. This is because the only way Godaddy has found to keep Windows "secure" is to disable features... It's one of the reasons they recently stopped supporting "one button install" for PHPBB; it wouldn't work if it was on a Windows box, due to safe mode restrictions.
Fortunately, that isn't a problem with parked domains!
Ok, so you were involved. Just out of curiosity, why the change? I can not see any advantage to you unless there is more income coming in from elsewhere.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
That is the first sign of their evil infection
Actually, the first sign was when they started turning spammy (both in letting spammers keep their registration despite the terms of service, and in thier own behavior.)
BTW, what has Google ever given back to the OSS community it depends on to supply Linux, MySQL, Python, etc.?
Does employing a huge number of prominent open-source developers count for anything? OSS coders gotta eat, you know. A partial list, off the top of my head: Guido Van Rossum (Mr. Python), the Gaim lead developer, the Camino lead developer, Spamassassin lead developer (I think; not sure), a bunch of Firefox developers ... the list goes on. These people are paid to work on OSS projects and contribute code back to the community!
Lets disregard the fact that most of their coders are from the OSS world, and contribute heavily. Perhaps the single best thing that they have given is a superior search engine that is browser neutral. Yahoo and MSN have done a piss poor job of supporting anything but MSIE. Now that Google has come along, Yahoo has improved, but MSN is going to get far worse; Why? To counter the threat that google has created.
Google has given a great deal to the community. Far more than MS has to the world in its 30 years.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
Well, they're good guys no more. Today they have broken this long standing promise and sent their "Newsletter" to every single customer. The contents: Promotional crap for a bunch of services I don't give a rat's arse about.
Some of the Netcraft numbers are based on the number of domains hosted by a platform or web server. By paying off GoDaddy.com for parked domains they will get a large boost in Netcraft numbers for IIS and Windows Server. Sure the domains don't reflect 'productive' websites; but they still count. Not a bad plan.
From GoDaddy's point of view, it's a no brainer. Who doesn't want money? Besides, there isn't even any evil involved in this one.
They are not removing their Linux hosting. Go to godaddy.com, Hosting & Servers, Virtual Dedicated Servers. All of the preconfigured plans use Red Hat Fedora Core 2. The "Hosting Plans" section of their web site allows the user a choice between Fedora and Windows. This move to Windows is in just in a certain part of their system. Removing support for Linux web servers would be suicide. Microsoft's web serving numbers aren't going anywhere from this decision.
"it's not about aptitude, it's the way you're viewed" - Galinda
With MS essentially bribing GoDaddy to make the rather trivial move for their parked domains, you have to wonder just what MS's PR people were thinking.
Will their new slogan be, "Microsoft - where do you want to park today?"
When information is power, privacy is freedom.
I just dumped GoDaddy for my local linux based small-shop registrar.
It takes a man to suffer ignorance and smile
Be yourself no matter what they say
In their favour, the hosting more or less works as intended, but in my experience the hosting software is pretty awful. As soon as my hosting is up I'm off to somewhere else.
Why don't racists have the guts to speak their views in public instead of posting as AC's in slashdot forums? Sorry about the offtopic, I just got sick of all the pointless rubbish from fringe nutcases on slashdor (thankfully a minority here).
l'Homme n'est Rien l'Oeuvre Tout: Gustave Flaubert to George Sand
can you tell us how much Microsoft paid, if anything for this?
Okay...essentially, the core change is that GoDaddy is moving their parked sites from BIND to MS DNS. Curiously, most of the argument here focuses elsewhere (LAMP, IIS, LAMP's components vs alternatives).
I use MS DNS 2003. It's nice. It's easy to use. I enjoy having a GUI built in and supported by the developer in addition to having the power of command line editing. The only thing I wish I could change is that it uses a sequential zone serial number instead of a dated one (ie, instead of 2006032301, 2006032302, 2006032303, it uses a raw format - 1, 2, 3...)
I really don't see what the big deal is...
ACs are modded -6. I don't read you, I don't mod you, I don't see you. Don't like it? Don't be a coward.
and which registrar do you recommend?
The parked domains are practically worthless properties anyhow.
Whatver MS did for GoDaddy has to look nice on the balance sheet compared to the piss-poor performance of properties that would be better off deleted.
I scream. You scream. I assume that means we're both acquainted with the problem. We proceed.
I found it interesting that GoDaddy didn't make a joint announcement with Microsoft on this issue. Nor, is this mentioned on GoDaddy's website. Apparently, GoDaddy didn't think this was that big an announcement. I also noticed that only the nameservers are mentioned (which are relatively few machines), and not the rest of GoDaddy's infrastructure.
.NET stuff. Certainly, if GoDaddy was abandoning Linux, they'd switch their PHP, Ruby, and Perl hosting to Windows too.
.NET hosting, and Microsoft gets to make a big announcement about a big Windows win over Linux.
GoDaddy offers multiple Linux platforms, and their Windows platforms don't offer such services as PHP hosting, Ruby on Rails, or Perl/CGI scripting. Their Windows platforms only do ASP and
I suspect that GoDaddy and Microsoft worked out an agreement where Microsoft would provide free technical assistance, free software, and maybe some hardware if GoDaddy agreed to switch their nameservers from Linux to Windows. GoDaddy would get help setting up
"The Microsoft Solution for Windows-based Hosting supports GoDaddy.com's low-cost, high-value strategy by providing a technology platform that is security-enhanced, highly scalable and easy to manage."
:-)
I haven't the words.
The less confident you are, the more serious you have to act.
I registered a domain with them a few years ago. It made me put in my business name so I made one up. For the next year I got sales calls asking if I'm the business owner of this fake business. I'm _very_ careful about those little privacy checkboxes too. I registered a domain a couple years later with my cell number as the contact. Sure enough, I got sales calls on my cell phone for the next six months (before that I never got one).
The only upside to the whole thing was office depot kept sending coupons to my fake business.
If an officer ever threatens to taze you, say you have a pacemaker.
Back in my day, the ancient days of IT...three or four years in the dark past, it was big news when a company switched to Linux. These days it's a headline when a company switches to MSFT.
That's our life, the big wheel of shit. - The Fat Man, Blue Tango Salvage
And do it every time he decides to derail a legitimate discussion by bringing up US politics.
He's the worst political troll on this site, and I'm happy I finally remembered to foe him.
"The government grants you rights, not the other way around."-- beav007. Yes, these people really exist...
So basically:
- All the domains that are empty (parked awaiting content) will be served from Windows servers
- All the domains that have content, that somebody cares about, will be served from Linux as before
Gosh, what a victory for Microsoft.
GCHQ Quantum Insert installed. If only our tongues were made of glass, how much more careful we would be when we speak
I haven't had any issues with them yet. So far it's been fine. My site works and my RSS feeds work. Now if they move me to an IIS server, I will leave despite all that.