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Comment by impulser_ | Hacker News Reader

I think you are thinking that Fly is like a serverless platform. They aren't. They are the opposite. They are a server platform. They provide server for you and you have to manage your server yourself.

Nothing they provide is managed by them. You have to do that.

LiteFS is just a replication service for your sqlite database so you can keep your database synced across multiple nodes.

https://github.com/superfly/litefs

LiteFS Cloud which is the a service they provide just helps you backup and recover sqlite databases. You can do this yourself.

https://fly.io/docs/litefs/backup/

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I go into a project folder and can run "fly launch" and then the application is alive in multiple regions around the world. Where exactly am I manging this server?

Open up the Dockerfile they generate for you.

How does a Dockerfile change things? Your application is packaged into a container. The Fly service runs any application not just web applications or build artifacts. Of course your application is going to get a complete operating system environment to run in.

I don't think the Dockerfile has anything to do with them pulling your container from their registry and running it on their server.

Fly.io does not run containers. They convert your docker image to a VM.

Ah right okay thanks. The point still stands the Dockerfile and image is used as a container for your application and does not imply a manage-it-yourself server is being used.

So a scaffolding tool?

There is no such thing as "serverless", that's just a higher than normal level of vendor lying.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serverless_computing

The first sentence in your link includes "in which the cloud provider allocates machine resources on demand, taking care of the servers". =

There is NO SUCH THING as serverless. There are always servers.

Serverless doesn't mean servers don't exist, any more than calling a radio a "wireless" doesn't mean wires don't exist. It just means for the consumer, servers aren't a consideration, just as with a wireless wires aren't.

The irony is that many things that are advertised as wireless actually need wires, and things that aren't, don't.

My wireless printer needs a wire for power.

My dog doesn't need a wire for anything, but no-one talks about them being 'wireless'.

(Come to think of it, my dog is serverless too...)

> My dog doesn't need a wire for anything, but no-one talks about them being 'wireless'.

Indeed :-) But isn't this the same sort of definition you want for "serverless"? Not something relevant to consumers (e.g. "you don't manage servers") but a description of something where servers are not involved in any way?

Dear God this is a tired point. The rest of the damn paragraph of the Wikipedia article fully addresses that. Nobody who uses the term "serverless" thinks that magic fairies are replacing servers. The point is who is managing it for your application or business.

I said nearly the same thing decades ago. Smashed a few friends’ so-called “wireless” telephones and showed them all the wires. Just look out a window; what’re those long, wiry things running between the utility poles, huh?! It’s ridiculous, the level of lying.

I think it's "lying" if you mislead another person.

In those two examples: serverless and wireless phones, it's not misleading consumers.

Serverless is a way to communicate that the consumer won't need to provision and maintain servers. It is true.

Wireless phone means you can move for quite long distances while talking without any wire connecting your device to the wall. It is true.

You may argue they're "misnomers". But to call it a "lie" is quite a stretch...

> you have to manage your server yourself

Can you give an example? You mean backups, OS patches, firewall config, etc etc? Are they like Hetzner?

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