Comment by messh

1 day ago

There are plenty of alternatives out there. I built https://shellbox.dev, which gives you instant vms via ssh where unlike exe you pay only for what you use-- scale to zero. It is also regular linux, supporting vscode and zed remote, Nested virtualization, etc.

If you're looking to invest im fine with only $5M :)

5 comments

messh

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SeriousM  18 hours ago

The other day I vibed a very stable codeserver (vscode in browser) instance with zellij browser mode (console in browser), syncthing (filesyncing), ssh, pi agent and wireguard. No exposed ports, every web frontend is password secured.

I don't want to make that public, it's my way of an isolated dev environment and it runs on my private raspberry behind my tv. Costs me nothing.

I hope you have a good success with your service.

pbronez  21 hours ago

Neat service. Website doesn't provide enough information for me to trust any workloads to it. Not clear where the underlying infrastructure is, what security guarantees I get, etc.

  • messh  20 hours ago

    Thanks for the feedback. Ill improve it. In the meanwhile, there are more technical details on this blog post: https://shellbox.dev/blog/race-to-the-bottom.html

    • dr_kiszonka  11 hours ago

      I quickly grokked the product and pricing from Exe's website. You need a page with less text, less scrolling and more specifics. Can VMs not autostop? Will an API call to a service on a stopped VM fail at the first attempt? Your pricing formula is simple but I don't want to do the math on my phone. How do payments work exactly (processor)?

      Running Shellbox 24/7 is ~25% cheaper than Exe, with 2x storage but 50% of RAM. Exe seems to provide additional features (which I don't need). Not presenting this information upfront and in an easily digestible format makes me suspicious.

      I dig the overall aesthetic and may give Shellbox v2 a try.