https://docs.oracle.com/en-us/iaas/Content/FreeTier/freetier_topic-Always_Free_Resources.htm
Instead of hosting at home, I’ve decided to go to the cloud and I LOVE the package you get with Oracle. You get enough computer hours for 2 amd based and 4 ARM based compute instances with generous network allocations.
Perfect for those of us who are just playing around with stuff and don’t have a spare PC/Device :)
Hope this post helps someone have some fun!
some of those VMs are in short supply, and are hard to get
IMHO, there is no such thing as “the cloud.” All your doing is using other people’s computers. The history of the Internet is littered with the corpses of once “free” and low-cost services.
IMHO, self-hosting means running my own services, storing and processing my own data, on my own LAN and servers. It’s about minimizing my reliance on third-party service providers to avoid the vagaries and price shell games they play, while restricting access to my PII and staying in control of my data. I don’t do it because it’s easier or cheaper, because it’s usually not. I do it because I believe I’m better off for it.
Perfect for those of us who are just playing around with stuff and don’t have a spare PC/Device :)
right and you shouldn’t run critical stuff on other peoples hardware unless you are down pat with security, DR and HA concepts but this post was really aimed at people who just want something free to play around with and learn with
and you should know they ban accounts for no reason as well.
Setup an uptime Kuma server and they banned me without any warning or notification 😑
Tried opening an account today, when I entered a completely valid Amex it gave me an error and to contact customer service which I did through a form, no confirmation was sent to my email. Tried yet again with a valid visa same result. Seems they really have no interest on free service
Official vague answer ( 2 days after) and marked as solved
Subject: Oracle Cloud Payment UpdateIncident: 231023-???Status: SolvedResponse By Email (Customer Service Agent) (25-Oct-2023??? PDT)Hello,
Unfortunately, we are unable to resolve this or process the transaction. This is all the information we can provide.
Regards,Customer Service Agent
This is fairly common knowledge around here i think, but sure maybe someone didnt know and is happy to learn about it :)
And free yes but afaik they still require you to file a valid credit card with them (common practice but not everyone has one and therefore is locked out of this “offer”).
And also “you should know” that Oracle terminates those free tier packages every now and then, sometimes with (allegedly) no warning or reason. You should absolutely not host anything there that you rely on.
And Oracle is a absolutely horrible piece of shit company.
Sure its free, but be aware that you are the product (which isnt exactly the typical selfhosting spirit).
Thanks for the heads-up!
I know people HATE oracle but for me its perfect, i’m just dinking around and I don’t want to abuse making new AWS accounts for their 12 months free tier for a computer instance.
I know that one of the reason they terminate instances is if they are deemed inactive as such that 20 percent or less CPU activity and some other fairly high minimums.
I also know almost all cloud providers including cloudflare hate certain things like plex media servers for potential copyright violations.
I’d say the reasons are perhaps unfair but nonetheless present.
Anyways i personally just found out about it so as poorly received as the post has been, I hope someone does find this to be a fun way to dink around too
I hope it lasts for you, I created one as a secondary to my main paid VPS elsewhere. The oracle one just vanished. No warning in advance, no email and very confusingly no evidence that it ever even existed. Thankfully I had no data of note on it. So free, yes - but utterly unreliable. I was just using it to learn and it had no reason to be deleted such as breaching any fair use etc