[TheDong]

The fact that DO had to make this announcement at all is a sign that things have gotten worse for VPSs.

Before, when a company provided Xen or Kvm, you generally would get to have low-level access such as the ability to virtually connect to a serial port or vnc session of your box as it booted. You also, typically, could provide your own ISO images.

Even if you couldn't provide your own iso, being able to interact with the VPS in the above way would allow you to use one of the provided disks and then bootstrap the install of another (this is how I installed gentoo on many providers that didn't "support" it)

DO's stance that you must use one of their images, you can't upload your own, and you can't even use your own kernel (I'm not kidding! If you "sudo apt-get update" to get a new kernel security update and reboot, DO will IGNORE your shiny new kernel because they hardcode the kernel as one they control. See [0]).

This is terrible. We shouldn't be happy that they're adding FreeBSD to the list of images they allow you to use, we should be showing, with our wallets, that their restrictive setup that doesn't allow you to touch anything outside of their tiny garden and exposes you to security issues is unacceptable. We should be using other providers, like Linode, AWS, and GCE, all of which allow bringing your own image in some form.

[0]: https://digitalocean.uservoice.com/forums/136585-digital-oce...

[skrebbel]

I assume you also complain about the availability of microwave meals? That'll only become a problem when you can't buy raw fruits and vegetables anymore, but I didn't see that happen. Likewise, you mention more customizable VPS options in your post.

There's a market for everything. You don't understand my use case. My use case is "I want to click a button and then I want to be able to `apt-get install what-i-want` and then it should work. I don't even care whether it's Debian or Ubuntu, as long as it has apt-get because that's all I understand.

Granted, maybe I shouldn't be running VPSes at all but hey, it works, and I bet DO has many customers like me.

[ownagefool]

Part of his point is DO will ignore apt-get where kernels are involved. Sure, it'll look like you're running the latest, but unless you undertake additional steps, it'll be booting their kernel, not yours.

[skrebbel]

So? My whole point is that my Rails app will run on every kernel DO will ever care to support.

If you want to do such low-level things as upgrade kernels, then maybe DO's one-click-and-poof-you're-running is less important to you than some other features and DO isn't the best option for you.

[mrkipling]

Also, it's $5/mo. I'm sold (and have been for a year now). No complaints.

[RaleyField]

> I assume you also complain about the availability of microwave meals?

DO is well know, judging by the fact that I know of it and I don't know a lot about VPS business. The fact that you and many of their customers want easy to configure VPS doesn't preclude them from offering a more configurable option for other users where you are able to install whatever kernel you want. Use more imagination and less microwaves.

[blfr]

There are plenty of companies that will let you upload your own images. It's not very convenient. Provider's images are somewhat easier to use.

The best solution is to have maintainers of the OS prepare cloud distributions. Many already do for AWS or OpenStack. Our own 'cperciva is responsible for EC2-compatible version of FreeBSD.

Until this becomes a standard, there's nothing wrong with partial solutions. I created a FreeBSD droplet right away.

[themartorana]

Allow me to again express to @cperciva how appreciative I am of the FreeBSD EC2 image(s). We now run our entire stack on FreeBSD in EC2, and it's a joy.

[quicksilver03]

This is the reason why I no longer have VPSes at DigitalOcean, sometimes I couldn't update my CentOS kernels when important updates were available because DO lagged for a few days in making them available.

[elahd]

Ubuntu DO instances have a modified apt sources.list file that points all apt requests to a DO-run repository. If you revert to the default repositories, you should be able to get updates as they are released.

Not sure if the same applies to CentOS.

[toni]

> Before, when a company provided Xen or Kvm, you generally would get to have low-level access such as the ability to virtually connect to a serial port or vnc session of your box as it booted. You also, typically, could provide your own ISO images.

It's remarkable that you start your sentence with "before". As a prgmr.com user, I can still get an out-of-the-band console and run my own kernel without any fanfare. (no affiliation at all, just a happy user)

[dewarrn1]

Regarding custom kernels, DO says that BSD will be able to boot them: http://disq.us/8lqxh7.

[dhaivatpandya]

If DO users don't need the ability to upload their own images, why is this a problem?

[vacri]

Read the link. There are over a thousand votes and six pages of comments of people saying "this is a problem for me".

[TheDong]

The one that's for custom images, not just kernels, is actually even higher up at over 3k votes and second highest on the list currently: https://digitalocean.uservoice.com/forums/136585-digitalocea...

[newaccountfool]

Some DO users will want this, others who aren't DO customers will also want this. As a growing company DO want to attract as many new customers as possible.

They're still in early stages though, I'm sure this is in the pipeline.

[_xzu]

Why would a growing company want to attract as many new customers as possible? This seems to be a fast lane to default. Growing company wants as many profitable customers which can be served as possible. Or should growing companies try to offer everything for all?

[blfr]

Growing companies generally want to attract as many new customers as feasible because it generates buzz, and gives them a shot at becoming the go-to place for their kind of service.

[vidarh]

Not if a large subset of those customers are not profitable, was the point.

[icelancer]

>They're still in early stages though, I'm sure this is in the pipeline.

I would not call Digital Ocean all that early. This has been an issue for years.

[compuguy]

Sounds like they aren't using kvm or xen (even though most providers do not allow for image uploading). OpenVZ is even more frustrating when your working with ipv6 (UGH!).

[saper]

With FreeBSD, bootloader and kernel are stored on the root filesystem. So you can change them as you desire. Only repartitioning is painful a bit.

[nly]

You can select the kernel your droplet uses via their admin interface. Just remember to update the VM first.