San Luis Potosi, S.L.P., Mexico, November 27, 2007 -- I am always amazed when I read on the news about startups getting millions of dollars in venture capital funding. In Latin America this is not a very common practice, and so I had to settle with a more modest budget. ElAmiguero.com (a social network site) has been just launched with $1,033.97 dollars using Linux.
-
One 4 year old computer: $245. This was a top notch desktop back in the day. But
for today standards, this would be more like an entry level system. What is nice
about it though, is that it has 1 GB of memory and a 200 GB hard drive.
-
One 250 GB hard drive: $89.54. Since it is critical to ensure data and service
resilience in the event of a hard drive crash, I installed Debian GNU/Linux with
software RAID (Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks) Level 1.
-
One 800 VA UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply): $115.30. Blackouts are not that
uncommon over here.
-
Software licenses: $0. All server software used is free. This includes: Debian
GNU/Linux operating system, Apache web server, MySQL database server and
Exim mail server.
-
Web development: 8 weeks. Although this was my first major project in PHP (a
server-side scripting language), PHP allowed for fast development. It is easy to
program and has many built-in capabilities, such as: database access, session
management, mail functions, image manipulation, etc. When required
functionality was not built-in, we were able to find external open source libraries
that would have taken weeks to develop otherwise.
-
Domain name registration: $28.60. Two domain names were registered. The site
name, and one misspelled name.
-
Mail relay service: $135. A mail relay service is being used temporarily. This is
because the site is currently hosted on a dynamic IP address and this causes sent
mail to bounce.
-
DSL Internet access with static IP: $213.54/month. A static IP is necessary to send
mail.
-
Web hosting: $6.99/month. Images are hosted on an external server.
-
Web advertisement: $200 ($10/day).
With hardware costs going down, hardware capabilities going up, the increasing availability of broadband Internet access, and free high-quality open source software, the barriers to start a Web 2.0 site have been lowered.
Although ElAmiguero.com, a site to make friends (un sitio para hacer amigos), is in Spanish, you are more than welcome to register. Mi casa es tu casa!
Rene Tapia
http://elamiguero.com