Update Your Wordpress!

We’re big fans of Wordpress here at DreamHost.  It powers this website and many of our own personal websites.  It’s also probably the number one most popular web application running on our servers.

It’s so popular in fact that it’s increasingly become the target of security exploits.  Fortunately for all of us, the Wordpress coders have done a good job patching up security holes quickly once they’ve been discovered.  Unfortunately, that doesn’t matter one bit if you don’t update the copy of Wordpress running your website.

If you are a lucky DreamHost customer, installing and updating Wordpress is very easy.  You really have no excuse for not updating.

We provide a one-click installer and upgrader for Wordpress (and several other popular web applications) making it as simple as clicking a button in our web panel.  We even let you request that we email you whenever a new release is available so you don’t have to keep track of it yourself.

If that is still too much effort and you are willing to give up some flexibility, we also provide what we call an easy one-click installer, which is really just a fully managed and hosted version of Wordpress that we update and maintain for you.  Even better, you can get this service from us absolutely free from DreamHost Apps (which also includes a bunch of other popular web apps for the same $0 price tag).

Why Not?

The only reason I can think of to not upgrade Wordpress as soon as it is released is the worry that it will break some plugin you’re using.  While that is a very valid concern, you should really consider how much those pesky plugins are worth to your website.  Are they worth the days of time it might take you to clean up a hacked website?  Are they worth the shame you would feel if your hacked website is used as a base to infect hundreds or thousands of other websites?  These are very real risks.  If you are using a plugin that prevents you from easily upgrading your Wordpress install, please consider abandoning it or finding a replacement that’s more robust and compatible.

Do It!

So, long story short:  UPDATE YOUR WORDPRESS RIGHT NOW. There is a major Wordpress hack going around targeting older versions of Wordpress.  The latest version is unaffected so if you have been a good upgrader you are safe!  A couple of big name bloggers (here and here) got hit recently, and it can also happen to you.  In fact, it might have happened already!  Check this post from Lorelle on Wordpress with lots of gorey details about the hack and to find out if you may be a victim.

DreamHost Apps Invitation Codes

Thanks for helping us put DreamHost Apps through its paces. We appreciate all the feedback we’ve gotten so far.

Remember, by signing up during this beta period you’ll have access to DreamHost Apps free forever.

If you’ve not yet signed up, or if you’ve got some friends that would like to sign up, we’ve got some more invitation codes for you at the end of this post.

First, however, we’ve got some exciting news to share – you can now generate your OWN invitation codes that you can distribute to your friends, family, and “other”. Just look at the top of your DreamHost Apps management panel and click to generate your codes – bingo bango!

Right now you’re limited to creating just two codes, so choose your recipients wisely!

Continue reading DreamHost Apps Invitation Codes…

Free Hosting from DreamHost is Here

When we started DreamHost back in 1997, we were in it to make money. Throw up a server, get some customers, collect fat checks, retire at 35. Simple!

Somewhere along the way (I think it was shortly after the fat checks showed up) we developed a conscience and decided – No fat checks!

For us it wasn’t enough to just not be evil – we realized that the only way to really feel good about ourselves was to lose money hand over fist, and just hope that we broke even somewhere along the way…kind of like a non-profit!

We took a multi-pronged approach to Operation Money Loss! We resolved to:

• Provide our employees the most comprehensive health insurance package we could find, free.
• Give away free hosting to non-profit organizations.
• Match customer donations to selected charitable organizations.
• Offset our carbon footprint through the purchase of renewable energy credits and carbon offsets.
• Provide financial support to open-source projects that we use ourselves – Jabber, MySQL, Linux-VServer, and grsecurity to name a few!
• Consistently offer ridiculous coupons that, even now, seem like a bad idea.
• Keep all our company cash in the stock market.

I’d call that a good start, but it’s just not enough.

Today we’re announcing DreamHost Apps, a completely free hosting service for web-based applications.

Well, it’s free for now anyway. We’re flirting with the idea of a $50 yearly fee once it’s out of beta…but if you sign up RIGHT NOW to help us test things out we’ll let you use DreamHost Apps for free for ever!

But wait! If you’re reading this and you’re already a DreamHost customer (and why else would you be reading this), you don’t need to worry.. you can already log in to DreamHost Apps with your same DreamHost Web Panel login!

For you, it’s really just an Ajax-ified way to manage your easy one-clicks and any domain registrations. But, for the hundred or so people out there who’ve read this blog and aren’t DreamHost customers… but do want some free hosting of a WordPress Blog, Drupal Site, Zenphoto Gallery, Mediawiki Wiki, and/or PhpBB Forum (plus Google Apps and Gmail) and aren’t afraid to do a little “beta testing” (and unlike some other web shops, when we say beta, we mean it), today must be your BIRTHDAY!

Right now usage of DreamHost Apps is by invitation only. Lucky for you I like your face and I’ve posted about 100 invitation codes in the comments of this post. If a code doesn’t work, it’s already been redeemed – try another one! When the codes run out, I may even post more!

If you’re a current DreamHost customer you’ve already had access to DreamHost Apps for months! That’s because the exact same functionality (minus the free part) can be found under “Easy Mode” in the “Goodies / One-Click Installs” section of your account control panel. There’s no need for you to sign up for DreamHost Apps because you’re already living the dream!

DreamHost Apps customers do miss out on a few perks that paying DreamHost customers take for granted, though. Apps users can just forget about FTP access, SSH access, email, and even technical support.

DreamHost Apps is provided ‘as-is’, and unfortunately technical support is not part of the ‘is’!

You try providing tech support for a free service and let us know how that works out.

For all intents and purposes, DreamHost Apps are entirely self-contained.

You can install and delete any number of apps through the DreamHost Apps management interface, and you’ll use each Apps’ own web-based interface to make application-level changes. Upgrading to full-featured hosting is just a click away!

DreamHost Apps was assembled over the course of a few months by a small team of four hardworking DreamHost Employees, Pete V, Mike P, Joshua H, and me, Brett D. In fact, this is the first major DreamHost project that Josh Jones hasn’t been personally involved in writing in a very long time, so rest assured that your data is safe and your credit card won’t be charged more than it should be!

If you find any bugs, please post them over in our DreamHost Apps discussion forum.

We’ve been working on this for a while, and we’re kind of tired. We’re just gonna take a quick little nap if you don’t mind…

Please enjoy DreamHost Apps!