November 2021 Gandi Newsletter
Welcome to the November 2021 Gandi newsletter. Each month, we round up the latest and greatest from our news site, our YouTube channel, and around the web. This month, learn how to install WordPress in 10 minutes or less, build your own Minecraft server, take stock of the new domain ending program, and be sure you’re using SSL! We also highlight one of our supported projects, Écritures de la Terre, and articles from around the web about defending the digital commons, alternative search providers, and the impact of current events on the .af domain ending.
Happy reading!
- A new look for Gandi
- How to install WordPress in 10 minutes or less
- Build your own Minecraft server
- Taking stock of the new domain ending program
- What’s at stake with SSL certificates
- Gandi Supports Écritures de la Terre
- What we’re reading this month
- Promo roundup
- Calendar
A new look for Gandi
You’ve probably noticed that your Gandi newsletter is changing — to keep you better informed, we’re adding not just our own posts but interesting articles we’re reading around the web as well as a calendar.
But this refresh is only part of a much larger project: we also redesigned our website, gandi.net 🙂 with a new homepage centered on your needs, new pages for more technical specifications (about the API, DNS, etc.), help available in just a click, and a color palette for the free spirit that is Gandi.
Our underlying philosophy — no bullshit — hasn’t changed. Our reputation is truly in your hands, and our customers’ satisfaction and trust are the common thread in our growth over the past 20 years.
Tutorial of the month
Install WordPress in less than 10 minutes!
Particularly popular due to its ease of use and frequent updates thanks to the open source community, WordPress is the CMS of reference. To make it even easier, at Gandi, we’ve automated WordPress installation on your Simple Hosting instance down to just a few clicks.
Minecraft fans — build your own worlds with a VPS server!
If, like us, you’re a fan of the worldbuilding game Minecraft, you can have complete control over your universe with a Minecraft VPS server. A VPS server offers greater possibilities than Minecraft Realms for creating your virtual worlds and greater flexibility than a dedicated server. In just a few minutes, you can change the amount of CPUs or RAM, or even the storage space allocated to your server.
Taking stock of the new domain ending program
In 2012, ICANN opened applications for its new gTLD (generic top-level domain aka domain ending) program, receiving over 1,400 applications. Most of these are already available, with release dates spread out over the past 10 years. What about domain endings that won’t be released or that we won’t be able to offer you?
The lock next to your URL means you can trust it
It’s the responsibility of website owners, not visitors, to ensure that data exchanged on their sites are secure. So if you want to maintain trust in your website and spare your visitors an alert message every time they go to it, it’s important to take SSL certificate management seriously.
Gandi Supports: Écritures de la terre (Earth writings)
Gandi supports Écritures de la terre, a digital book written by teens with the goal of transmitting knowledge from and highlighting the forgotten cultural patrimony of the French-speaking world outside of France — from the Amazon to Polynesia, from the Gulf of Guinea to the Gulf of Tonkin, and even from Acadia.
What we’re reading this month
Copyleft lawsuit against Vizio will allow anyone to defend the commons
When free software licenses were first introduced, they were a breakthrough innovation. Big software companies first fought them, then tried to co-opt them, but eventually begrudgingly embraced them, creating a digital commons, thanks to organizations like the Free Software Foundation and their ability to sue when the free software license wasn’t respected.
But along the way, some companies learned to exploit the system and avoid lawsuits, largely due to individual programmers lacking the means to sue. Well, that might be changing now. In a new court case, the Software Freedom Conservancy is challenging that status quo and suing Vizio on behalf of users.
Alternative search providers write letter to EU complaining that Google antitrust action achieved diddly-squat
Google is so ubiquitous that most people hardly even think about it anymore. But are they leveraging their virtual monopoly unfairly?
DuckDuckGo, Ecosia, QwantCom, and Lilo — all alternative search engines — have written a letter to the European Commission alleging just that — that Google has been unfairly quashing competition on Android.
And even though the search giant has nominally complied with requirements to offer alternative default search options, there’s more that European regulators could do, and the coalition of search providers signing on to the letter are trying to make them do it.
The fate of .AF
The .af domain ending’s popularity of late has been due to its accidental association with internet slang (warning: contains profanity). Owners of domains playing off of this meaning of ‘af’ may not realize that .af is actually the country-code top-level domain (ccTLD) for Afghanistan.
And if you’ve followed international news in the past few months, you may be aware that the government of that country was recently overthrown by Taliban insurgents. This has left the fate of .af — and much of Afghanistan’s internet infrastructure as a whole — in limbo.
While already delegated .af domain names are still functional, the fate of not just clever domains registered by English-speaking non-Afghanis, but also much of Afghanistan’s digital infrastructure, lies in the balance.
Promo roundup
Last Chance:
- .eus — $11.60 for the first year (regular price $29.00) — ends November 12!
New promos:
- .blog — $9.99 for the first year (regular price $38.35)
- Trial offer for all new hosting customers — 85% off all Simple Hosting pack sizes for the first six months (that’s 6 months for less than $7 for a size S+ instance)! Now’s the time to get your project online with Simple Hosting. Don’t delay, this offer is limited to the first 1,000 orders!
Ends December 31:
- .art — $6.99 for the first year (regular price $17.44)
- .io — $32.18 for the first year (regular price $42.18)
- .org — $9.99 for the first year (regular price $17.20)
- .global — $19.99 for the first year (regular price $80.79)
- .paris — $33.00 for the first year (regular price $52.00)
- .life and .live — $3.99 for the first year (regular price $33.61 and $40.26, respectively)
- .cloud — $9.99 for the first year (regular price $24.29)
- .club — $3.00 for the first year (regular price $17.36)
- Seven domain endings from Donuts (including .digital, .team, and .world) starting at $3.99
- .eu — $6.00 for the first year (normal price: $15.00 per year)
- Seven domain endings from GRS (including .faith, .review, and .science) starting at $5.00 for the first year
- .link — $5.99 for the first year (regular price: $13.66 per year)
- .me — $6.00 for the first year (regular price: $24.00 per year)
- .party, .trade, .win, and .stream — $9.99 for the first year
- Ten domain endings from Radix (including .online, .site, .store and .tech) starting at $3.00 for the first year
- .shop — $9.99 for the first year (regular price: $49.95 per year)
*all regular prices indicated are Grid A prices
You can find all our promotions listed on the Promotions page of our website.
Calendar
Past |
Upcoming |
| October 25 — ICANN 72 | November 22 — .zuerich enters EAP |
| November 11 — Update in .se and .nu terms and conditions | December 1 — Price increase on .za.com and .sa.com |
| January 1 — price increase on .io |
That’s all for this month! Thanks for reading. If you see something wrong, missing, or other ways your experience of this newsletter could be improved, please feel free to contact us. We really do read each and every one of your emails.
And if you’re satisifed with Gandi and our services, please help spread the word by leaving a review at Hostadvice.com and Trustpilot.com.