Cheap servers to buy?
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Dies anybody know of where you can buy cheap servers. Like even old second hand ones?
Servers in the sense of (1) computers marketed as servers should not be confused with servers, in the sense of (2) any computing running the server part of a client‐server system. I see that Wikipedia conflates server (1) with server (2), that is it: they discuss “servers” as if (1) and (2) was the same thing.
Servers (1) are not very different from other desktop or laptop computers. There are some features sometimes found in “servers” that are not found in desktop and laptop computers, for example: ECC memory, support for more than 1 CPU, hardware RAID controller in motherboard or as a expansion card, rack mountable or blade form factor, support for SAS disks.
Almost any computer can be a server (2), you do not need a server (1). Unless you require a feature only found in servers (1), just ask your friends to give you any computer they are going to discard. This is good because it reuses what would otherwise be wasted, it means less money to megacorporations, less environmental contamination, and may monetarily cost you from nothing to less than purchasing a second hard server (1) from an stranger.
That is what I have decided to do. I am getting old PCs and such to run as dedicated servers.
Good point. But I want mega performance.
You have conflicting requirements: “cheap” and “mega performance”. Also: don't forget about freedom: not all computers allow the user to make full use of them with a fully free system; you must deliberately make sure (or have an high confidence) that the computer you are going to buy runs well with a fully free system.
Good point. Okay. Well I need old hardware then. Like old PC's. gNewSense works on my old PC in terms of networking , both wireless and wired. Hence the older machines have Free Software drivers, most of the time as compared to newer systems which only have proprietary drivers.
I can't comment on the idea that old hardware is more likely to work with free system than old hardware. In any case, I recommend you to do your best to determine whether a computer will work well in a fully free system before purchasing it; I recently wrote a short message about that (the whole thread is about hardware support of free software).
Bear in mind that the latest gNewSense release is very old. gNewSense 3 (released in 2013) is based on Debian 6 Squeeze (released in 2011). If it doesn't work with some hardware, maybe a newer release or more recent fully free distribution will work.
Good point. Freedom shall be the first aspect I look for.
Thanks ;D
Here are some computers that you may be able to find for not too much money:
Thank you very much. That looks awesome. :D
I have recently found a place in my city I live in (in South Africa, not the best place for technology or anything really), that has even given old PC components away, and since I do not need anyting fancy for my server, I can do with just an old PC, it will be perfect. :D
" I can do with just an old PC, it will be perfect. :D"
but remember to check the watts its using because if its running 24/7 you don’t want to add to much to your electricity bill
i have a old pc that uses about 120 watts
which would costs £144 a year(with my electric provider) if i left it on 24/7
most pc's use alot less than this but its good to check
if you don’t need anything too powerfully i recommend using a
getting a single board computer
my raspberry pi(sadly requires some non-free software to run it)
uses just 3.5 watts costing just £4.2 a year
the fsf recommend some good single board computers here(obviously make sure they can connect to the internet before you get them as a server!):
https://www.fsf.org/resources/hw/single-board-computers
the beagle-board seems the best one for a server
the only problems according to the fsf
are wifi and blue-tooth dosent work without non-free blobs
although you can get a usb adaptor to fix this problem
and the gpu and video decoding drivers
dont work with out non-free blobs
but you don’t need any of theses for the server as
it has a Ethernet port
and the gpu is not a problem as you probberly wont be running
a fancy DE as its a server
Bear in mind that the power consumption of any modern computer is variable. The relevant quantity is the average power consumption with the intended workload; in order to determine it, one must make the computer run that workload and measure the power consumption. The quantity with units of power in the labels of computer power supplies is usually the maximum power they can deliver under with all rails loaded to the maximum, and it is not representative of the average power consumption under any particular conditions. Due to inefficiencies, when delivering that amount of power, the power supply will consume a little more.
In other words, simply using the power rating of the computer or its power supply is not adequate for this purpose.
i used a watt meter to measure the power usage
That sounds good.
What OS does your Pi run? Have you made any alterations to it in order for it to have less closed-source blobs?
it runs raspbian:
https://www.raspbian.org/
the pi port of debian
and i have made some changes to it
by default the non-free repo's are enabled
in /etc/apt/sources.list
and a few non-free programs are installed
you can check if non-free debian packages are installed
using vrms
and remove all the stuff it detects
but still the program that start up the raspberry pi is non-free and apparently stops you from using decoding hardware for decoding mpeg-2 and VC-1 without a specific key
Have you tried this: https://www.raspberrypi.org/quake-iii-bounty-we-have-a-winner/ ?
Does it let you start up without the blob?
Now that like propretery software. But super dick. Like notepad.exe is closed source, but imagine if it could only open Microsoft text files with a license. Thatbanalogy I just made is super dick. However all proprietary software is the same, all dick crap.
I am a translator!
I think I'm gonna buy me a new English dictionary for I have NOT understood a single word of the last post.
EDIT - I just checked the dictionary I've been using all these years. It says "printed in 1987". I guess the language has changed a lot during all these years. I ordered a new one.
vrms :D lol virtual. Although that name makes sense, and it looks awesome, will definately be throwing this up onto my Pi servers. Thanks. :D
Project: http://vrms.alioth.debian.org/
“vrms” is misleading, because it is based on the Debian policy, instead of GNU policy (and the name makes it seem like so), and as far as I know, it just checks whether there are packages installed from the proprietary repository section, and you can do the same with any package manager interface (like aptitude). For more information, search “vrms” in this forum. If you install proprietary software by other means, “vrms” won't report it.
Based on the expectations on that package users have expressed in this forum, it seems like “vrms” causes more harm than good. It would be better if it was discontinued, or clearly labeled as being entirely humorous and not informational.
Maybe we should just get a de-blobing script for the RaspberryPi's Raspbian.
With what purpose? As far as I know, the SOC of the Raspberry Pi has a stupid architecture in which the GPU is the one who initializes the CPU (instead of the other way around). And since there's no free driver for the Broadcom VideoCore IV, then the Raspberry Pi won't even boot with a 100% free Raspbian. That's why it's in the list of "Single-board computers with fatal flaws" of the FSF[1].
has a stupid architecture in which the GPU is the one who initializes the CPU (instead of the other way around).
Yeah that is stupid and makes no sense.
I just made this, https://github.com/deavmi/deblob-pi/tree/master, it is a script that will uninstall the proprietary programs that come with Raspbiab, such as minecraft-pi, I also think wolframalpha is in there, I need to make sure on the programs name though.
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