…as does a huge slice of the internet infrastructure: LAMP = Linux Apache mySQL PHP
Apache is the actual web server and nginx is another popular alternative. The P is sometimes rendered as Python instead, this and PHP can communicate with the database (that’s the mySQL) and render the results in ways that browsers understand. What happens further down the stack is basically magic 
5filters is running way better on my Android too.
De-googling is a great idea. Good luck with that! Much harder on the android platform, but still possible it seems.
Glad that the site is more responsive now. We have options to beef up our (virtual) hardware should we need to. It might involve a move from the current onerous $7/month to a truly astronomical $15/month which would double our CPUs, RAM and hard disk.
At that point we should also consider moving towards a community funded approach, so the whole site is user-owned and moderated.
For those who are interested, we are using Linux (ubuntu), Ruby on Rails and Docker to run this site. The forum software is a free, open-source project called Discourse. All our software is free and open source. Our cloud provider is Digital Ocean, so no Amazon, Google or Microsoft within a sniff of our site.
Cheers all
It seems to have worked for me…thanks for your effort my friend it’s much appreciated! Glad to hear we’re open source…
Bit difficult for me “blogger” is Google provided (I hope “they” read it sometimes 
)!
Given the information that I’ve learned from various posters here, I’d be happy to contribute towards fees, and I say this as a carer who subsists on sixty odd quid a week.
Given the nature of hard drives, extra storage would be great for performance, as would more RAM.
Thanks Adders! The site is zipping along now! Glad to hear that it’s all open source & google free etc. Happy to contibute funds if it comes to it. Cheers!
Ditto. Maybe we should avoid GoFundMe for passing the hat around though…
I get good success from putting banknotes into an envelope and handing it to my best-beloveds. I use other means too - like for example buying sovereigns using banknotes, and giving them to my family, to keep in their own homes. I also use Ebay, and since the Department of Work and Pensions conned us all into being paid through a commercial bank, I use a debit card for this - never credit! - whilst taking great care to cost the gangster bank more than anything they might make out of my paltry dealings with them; always make sure to have less than a K in the account, for example.
Any of these means - or certain others - could fund this website without having to trust any of the gic-controlled outfits - such as Payschmuck or GoThieveFromMe. Or any of the commercial banks.
Karen (and admin)
I’m just not that techy.
I first used Ubuntu on a laptop back in 2008. It worked well, but then the update stuff didn’t work and it effectively crashed the operating system.
All these years later, whatever strain of Linux you chose works very well.
The usual 64,000 dollar question, though, is why is it still so difficult to install a Linux OS on your computer if you’re an ‘average/non techy user’?
It did take me a few attempts. Main reason was the laptop I used had minimal free disk space but I didn’t think to check this first. The most time consuming part was decrypting the hard disk. At some point I’ll add back software encryption.
Due to the space problem I ended up trying to run Ubuntu in <10 GB partition of a dual boot system. I opted for this because there’s licensed software on the Windoze partition that I’d be unwilling to pay for again, Dragon Naturally Speaking mainly.
After lots of tidying up I’d freed ~20GB and started again, all good this time. Gradually adding/trying new stuff. I know printing might be tricky but at worst I’ll email myself PDFs and print from somewhere else.
I very much doubt this is a fully secure system eg I logged into Gmail via Brave browser. This forced me to authenticate via iPhone. So that’s a triangulation right there. But I’ll start all over again once all the known issues are worked around and once fully degoogled the trail will start to go cold.
Other options are very much available and I don’t entirely trust Ubuntu. The NCSC trusts Ubuntu Long Term Support versions, therefore I don’t. But one step at a time, learning as I go along.
(The trusted operating systems might be on the IASME website rather than NCSC but Ubuntu LTS was the only flavour of Linux I recall seeing there.)
It’s playing up again A…it looks like it’s out with the spanners and the WD40…!
Thanks @GKH
I’ve had a quick look under the hood but see nothing particularly untoward. Please keep an eye open and get back to me if you continue to observe a slow down…
cheers
Appreciated admin. will do.