Hosting of this Website
There are two reasons why I want to share this with you:
- Costs - both capital and ongoing
- Your freedom to publish your message online without some big corporations ideology obstructing you.
Costs
This software for this website runs on a Raspberry PI 3 Model B. This cost was about $120 at the time. OSMC was installed on it, which is a very lean version of Debian Linux, along with some server software.
This hooks into an ordinary modem/router via wifi and with a few user adjustments on the modem router the webpages can be seen by the rest of the internet.
The cost of the electricity for a Raspberry PI is miniscule, even with today's prices. The internet access was already being paid for so the additional cost is very small.
This is in contrast to say, a large business, that wants the world to see a commercial site. Then you would need a powerful computer to deal with the bandwidth, plus it's own NBN fee, plus a back up in case of equipment failure.
Publishing Freedom
We don't have to say too much here. If you're being censored you know it. When the internet was first built it was so with everyone in mind. It was meant to be the great leveller as anyone would be able to publish what they like. Then the large corporations got in on the act and decided to do everyones thinking for them whether they liked it or not.
If you feel a need to break free of that then you need a means available. OK, we've done it, which is why you're reading this. If you're technically adventurous you can learn all about html,css and javascript from here.
Should your busy schedule not permit the learning involved you can drop in at The Commons and be shown the ropes.
Website Features
All the code for the menu, fonts and colours for each page are kept in one external file. This file only have to be called up once when you visit the website. This makes life easier for your Raspberry Pi and also makes its responsiveness very fast.
The website has been handcoded. So it wasn't made with Wordpress or Drupal, it was made with the text editor gedit. This means that the whole website is super optimised. It also means that any web server capable of having files uploaded to it can have this website hosted on it.
Key information only has to be changed once. Information like names, phone numbers, etc, are recorded and the detail is plugged into the webpages where needed. So if someone leaves and is replaced the old name only has to be changed to the new name once and this change is reflected across all webpages. Not only does this save time but it also reduces human error.
Do I have to learn everything?
There are times when you have to showcase your skills. Since the topic is webpages it was felt that some effort needed to be put into making it look cool. That way you're confident of our expertise. If you're starting a small business then you're website needs to have a bit of class about it. If however you simply want to get a message out then things can be simplified a lot.
If you need help with any of this drop in at The Commons.