20 yeas of blogging platforms
In the early 2000s, while studying at the Art Institute of California - San Diego, I was introduced to Perl. My teacher had me install the CMS Movable Type, which led me to learn about the CGI-Bin, how Perl works, and deploying to DreamHost. That was my introduction to blogging platforms. Thanks, Kristian Secor!
As web publishing evolved, PHP grew in popularity, leading to the birth of WordPress. I used WordPress, but its vibrant community of plugins and systems often presented problems. It always felt like a heavy solution and never quite inspired me to write.
Years later, as JavaScript and static sites gained popularity, a myriad of options emerged: Jekyll, GitHub solutions, React-based frameworks, and the JAMstack. Despite these advancements, none truly inspired me to write.
It was always a bit of a hassle to write in my GitHub repo, then push it and wait for CI/CD pipelines to run. After years of maintaining my blog with only a few articles, I finally reached a conclusion that I’m happy with and believe will last for years.
See now JavaScript is less popular. Rails removed support for TypeScript and the godfather of JavsScript and author of "JavaScript The Good Parts" is urging people to NOT USE JavaScript.
I chose to use Ruby on Rails, and here are a few reasons why:
Hosting prices have significantly decreased, allowing us to obtain very affordable compute from companies like AmericanCloud. Additionally, Kamal simplifies deployment, allowing us to easily obtain TLS certificates and push our code in Docker containers to the server.
Cloudflare helps protect our site and allows us to run a much smaller server. Currently, I’m hosting my Rails app with SQLite on just 1 CPU and 2GB of memory.
In conclusion, I urge you to write your application in your favorite language. It’s no fun having to learn Liquid templates or front matter for a simple blog. Ruby on Rails offers straightforward design patterns with simple controllers and models. Plus, with features like the Active Text editor and Rails authentication generator, I was able to build this site in just four hours using plain Rails and a template from TailwindUI.com.
Be sure to visit AmericanCloud and check out their great hosting prices.
As web publishing evolved, PHP grew in popularity, leading to the birth of WordPress. I used WordPress, but its vibrant community of plugins and systems often presented problems. It always felt like a heavy solution and never quite inspired me to write.
Years later, as JavaScript and static sites gained popularity, a myriad of options emerged: Jekyll, GitHub solutions, React-based frameworks, and the JAMstack. Despite these advancements, none truly inspired me to write.
It was always a bit of a hassle to write in my GitHub repo, then push it and wait for CI/CD pipelines to run. After years of maintaining my blog with only a few articles, I finally reached a conclusion that I’m happy with and believe will last for years.
See now JavaScript is less popular. Rails removed support for TypeScript and the godfather of JavsScript and author of "JavaScript The Good Parts" is urging people to NOT USE JavaScript.
I chose to use Ruby on Rails, and here are a few reasons why:
Hosting prices have significantly decreased, allowing us to obtain very affordable compute from companies like AmericanCloud. Additionally, Kamal simplifies deployment, allowing us to easily obtain TLS certificates and push our code in Docker containers to the server.
Cloudflare helps protect our site and allows us to run a much smaller server. Currently, I’m hosting my Rails app with SQLite on just 1 CPU and 2GB of memory.
In conclusion, I urge you to write your application in your favorite language. It’s no fun having to learn Liquid templates or front matter for a simple blog. Ruby on Rails offers straightforward design patterns with simple controllers and models. Plus, with features like the Active Text editor and Rails authentication generator, I was able to build this site in just four hours using plain Rails and a template from TailwindUI.com.
Be sure to visit AmericanCloud and check out their great hosting prices.