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Apache plus Dropbox = Hello World

By Dave Winer on Thursday, March 10, 2011 at 12:46 PM.

With all the money going into startups it's amazing that the underlying web isn't being built out. 

There have been some innovations in the basic web, the biggest in the last decade clearly is Dropbox, but even that is just a taste of nirvana. Their public folder is so incredibly useful. Amazing one of the hundreds of startups out there haven't seen fit to pick up that ball. Behind the scenes I've been urging Amazon and Rackspace to go there. Amazon's effort is so disappointing. They're such a great competent company. But they just don't understand the problem. I guess. Their product misses the mark, again and again. 

In a comment, Ryan Tate says: "It would be neat if someone combined S3's innovative pricing model with old-school Apache webhosting. Bonus points for supporting the S3 API." 

I added of course that I want Dropbox too. And offered an explanation of why we're waiting so long. "The vendors aren't users." So many things waiting for this to be easy. It's as if the PC had been invented, but we were waiting for someone to create a word processor.  

Update: An old friend from the dotcom days, Miko Matsumura, asks for a better explanation. Here goes.. 

I want to forget about running Apache. It should be a commodity. I want two ways to manage the content that's served for me by Apache. The S3 API, and Dropbox. I need a few of the features of htaccess files, the ability to specify my index file, error file, and to redirect permanently or temporarily. Maybe one or two other simple features. No dynamic bits. I pay for bandwidth and storage. Super-important that I pay. The hosting provider must be an entity whose longevity is obvious. Would be great to be able to pay in advance for 10, 25 or 100 years. As Ryan Tate says in a subsequent comment, with something like this in place, reliable, utility-level HTTP storage and serving, an industry could develop. One that, btw, would not be bubbly. Hope this explains it!