I'm running into some difficulty having my MT blog hosted fully due to unwillingness of my host to provide PerlMagick. At first the tech gave me a non-answer, only discussing the availability of ImageMagick generally. It looks like my host wants me to move to VPS in order to get PerlMagick. This is true of HostingRails.com and Railsplayground.com. I'm now looking into MediaTemple at this point.
Does anyone know of a developer-friendly and MT-friendly host that supports PerlMagick in a shared environment, or must I go VPS?
Is there an alternative to automatically generating thumbnails that will work on shared plans?
Reported on Movable Type 4.3
You may like to consider switching to GD or NetPBM
Changing to any of these two alternative libraries is as simple as defining:
ImageDriver GD
or
ImageDriver NetPBM
Inside your mt-config.cgi file!
I won't recommend hosting with Media Temple for many reasons, including terrible security.
What I would recommend is hosting with Pair Networks and if you need I could help you get up and running with it, as I'm partnering with Pair for professional movable type hosting.
No need for VPS!
Thanks for the response. I wasn't aware that GD would work with MT. I'll look into Pair straightaway. I'm doing a VPS right now, and it's just not my thing. It's been years since I've administered a system. As nice as the control is, I am finding that control is stealing away time that can be better spent on my actual blog.
Would Pair allow me to run MT on Lighttpd instead of Apache? That would be a big plus.
You're welcome!
Pair allows only Apache.
Hosting Matters is another great MT-friendly host.
Mihai:
"I won't recommend hosting with Media Temple for many reasons, including terrible security."
I use Media Temple. Could you expand on that? I'd like to know whether I should leave them, and if so, why.
http://michaeltorbert.com/blog/media-temple-hacked/
What are the other "many reasons"?
slow performances
poor support
I've been with Livingdot.net for several years now and have very few complaints about them.
Nexcess.net is a great hosting provider for Movable Type. Highly recommended.
I'm recommending Pair Networks and I'm available for testing/benchmark comparing with any other provider you would like.
All the extensions in mt-check.cgi is "green" with us! Our site is linked above.
We're presently running a good number of customers with MT installs, and so can provide testimonials, if anyone is interested.