Our Static Site Generator Has Just Turned 2, It'll Turn 1 in Techrights in Two Months' Time
Our Static Site Generator (SSG), which is written from the ground up in Perl* and includes full Gemini support, had an anniversary this past week
YESTERDAY we worked on some site speed-ups, focused initially on the sister site Tux Machines (which turned 20 last month; it's 2 years older than this site). Tux Machines is still growing. Yesterday and on Thursday (2 days ago) it served about 1.2 million Web requests and yesterday alone it served 5,552 Gemini requests (a lot less than the Web, but nowhere near negligible). 2 days ago the new system that runs the site turned 2 (exactly 2) and 2 months from now that same system turns 1 in Techrights. On that occasion we plan to publish details about the transition, including the transition between hosting (hosts). Our prior host was helpful in several ways, helping the migration behind the scenes. She had been threatened by thugs who lied to her and tried to scare her. That too we'll shed light on, albeit at a much later point (maybe next year). Transparency, even if delayed a bit (for diplomatic reasons), is invaluable to us.
Either way, as we explained in length yesterday, we now have a much more robust system - a system that had been under development (in Git) for over 2 years already. It continues to improve and it evolves along the trajectory that serves our needs, both as a site and as a community, rather than some "one-size-fits-all" system, e.g. WordPress, Drupal, and MediaWiki (we used all three until last year). We no longer use PHP, as it was a security liability** anyway and moreover it tends to result in significant technical debt, partly due to version increments and cumbersome 'moving parts' that can lead to unforeseen downtimes. █
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* An associate has reminded us that Tux Machines "has been running with the new SSG for almost exactly 2 years. It was 2 years as of yesterday. If it slows down, then we'll have to re-fit with PostgreSQL. Maybe a switch to Python at the same time even though the Perl tools are better for the time being."
** The old sayings go, complexity is the enemy of real security, especially when that complexity is unneeded or when thousands of functions are supplied only for a few to be actually used in practice. With "Global Warming" in the public psyche, reducing complexity should also be considered beneficial to the planet/environment.
