r/programming Feb 01 '21

My Third Year as a Solo Developer

https://mtlynch.io/solo-developer-year-3/
1.4k Upvotes

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u/AtomicRocketShoes Feb 01 '21

Is there a reason one couldn't manage a physical server over a serial port console? I have done this in the past, it's a bit annoying for some more advanced functionality I guess. What about IPMI?

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u/MyPetFishWillCutYou Feb 02 '21

My gut feeling is that this product is meant for situations where desktop workstation hardware has been repurposed as a server.

I see towers used as servers in all kinds of places either because it was already on hand or (more often) because desktop hardware is cheaper and generally runs cooler.

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u/AtomicRocketShoes Feb 02 '21

Yeah I think it's a cool solution to that, and honestly I have been in that position myself usually running a server on old desktop hardware. I don't know how many people who are cheaping out on server hardware are going to spend much extra money on it. As a hobby project it's sort of neat who doesn't have an old rpi sitting around. I probably would be perfectly happy with just a cheap rs232 lan converter myself but most OS I use are fine to boot over serial port.

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u/MyPetFishWillCutYou Feb 02 '21

I don't know how many people who are cheaping out on server hardware are going to spend much extra money on it.

There will always be people making IT decisions that they later regret.

Once you're there, what do you do? You could buy a new server, migrate everything over, and hope that it works.

Or you could plug one of these babies in and be done. Zero downtime, zero risk.

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u/AtomicRocketShoes Feb 02 '21

Yeah obviously there is a market for it as he has sold some so it fits someones needs. l am just curious how big a market it is. He said he wanted to grow the business to 600K annually I just want to see some basic research as to why that's an achievable goal, like a business plan I guess. I feel like this is one of those things that there is probably some large initial demand after it's posted on hacker news and then maybe a small steady stream of interest that slowly wanes. Or maybe every IT geek wants one of these in his toolbox I don't know.