> it refers to "linux server machine" (whether it's physical or virtual)
No, "server" most definitely refers to software that listens for network requests. Colloquially, hardware that runs such software is often also given the server moniker ("the computer running the server" is a mouthful), but that has no applicability within the realm of discussion here. If you put the user in front of that same computer with a keyboard and mouse controlling a GUI application, it would no longer be considered a server. We'd call it something like a desktop. It is the software that drives the terminology.
> nobody knows what "serverless" is or that App Engine / Heroku already had it in 2008 :)
Hell, we were doing serverless in the 90s. You uploaded your CGI script to the provider and everything else was their problem.
The difference back then was that everyone used CGI, and FastCGI later on, so we simply called it CGI. If you are old enough to recall, you'll remember many providers popped up advertising "CGI hosting". Nowadays it is a mishmash of proprietary technologies, so while technically no different than what we were doing with CGI back in the day, it isn't always built on literal CGI. Hence why serverless was introduced as a more broad term to capture the gamut of similar technologies.
fly.io is "serverless", but there are HTTP servers inside your Docker container, so I don't agree -- in that case it refers to the lack of pinning to a physical machine
It would make for a much more interesting conversation if you cite some definitions/sources, as others have done here, rather than merely insisting that everyone thinks of the terms as you think of them
Right, with the quotes being theirs. Meaning even they recognize that it isn't serverless-proper, just a blatant attempt at gaining SEO attention in an effort to advertise their service. It is quite telling when an advertisement that explicitly states right in it it has nothing to do with serverless is the best you could come up with.
No, "server" most definitely refers to software that listens for network requests. Colloquially, hardware that runs such software is often also given the server moniker ("the computer running the server" is a mouthful), but that has no applicability within the realm of discussion here. If you put the user in front of that same computer with a keyboard and mouse controlling a GUI application, it would no longer be considered a server. We'd call it something like a desktop. It is the software that drives the terminology.
> nobody knows what "serverless" is or that App Engine / Heroku already had it in 2008 :)
Hell, we were doing serverless in the 90s. You uploaded your CGI script to the provider and everything else was their problem.
The difference back then was that everyone used CGI, and FastCGI later on, so we simply called it CGI. If you are old enough to recall, you'll remember many providers popped up advertising "CGI hosting". Nowadays it is a mishmash of proprietary technologies, so while technically no different than what we were doing with CGI back in the day, it isn't always built on literal CGI. Hence why serverless was introduced as a more broad term to capture the gamut of similar technologies.