If you don't know what ZFS and zfs-snapshots are, you are not the target audience of the service. No sense in trying to explain it.

If you have even the slightest knowledge about zfs-snapshots, the product is self-explanatory.

Because it's an alpha product and they do not want those types of users right now.

They're literally trying to filter out uninformed users.

Customer discrimination is a perfectly valid tactic in certain scenarios. Do you dispute this?

I think it is not the purpose of this site to explain somebody how ZFS works, because this is simply just not done in 2 sentences. You need some hours and days to get the idea of ZFS.

Because such an explanation will lead to:

1. Near-zero conversions. If you aren't already using ZFS, you aren't going to start just to use this service. And If you do use ZFS, you likely know what `zfs send` does.

2. The few conversions that do happen are almost certain to be high-maintenance.

I don't think they want to have to spend time doing tech support for people who don't already know what ZFS is.

If you actually want to learn about ZFS and how it works, there's a submission today on the front page that you should spend some time on

https://www.servethehome.com/an-introduction-to-zfs-a-place-...

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25157491

I have a pretty low attention span, but know the answer to several of those questions without even having to go back to the page (though I will, for the sake of argument). This might not be the case for everyone, but for the way I consume information, the product is described pretty well.

    1. What OS is this whole thing running?.

Listed under "storage" section:

    OpenZFS + CentOS 8.2   (maintence support until 2029)
    OpenZFS + Ubuntu 20.04 (maintence support until 2025)


    2. How many drives do I get? What’s the point of ZFS on a single drive? Is this just a way for me to temporarily hold a file system?

Listed under the "storage" section:

    We rent out KVM virtual machines with dedicated 8-TB hard drives.

Listed under "pricing model" section:

    Rent out multiple drives if you wish to create a RAIDZ or Mirror ZPool. 


    3. I don’t remember all the flags for the various zfs/zpool commands so the example command means little to me. This seems to be the main thing explaining what the service is for, yet I would have to go and look at the man pages to figure out what it does. Best I can tell: I can send my whole filesystem from my local NAS to my drive in the sky, but why would I want to do that?

`zfs send` isn't exactly an exotic command, and while I can't blame you for not knowing each and every flag, does that matter? The site clearly states that you have a raw disk passed through to a KVM machine, which is pre-configured in a storage pool, but that you can configure it however you wish.

    4. Why do I get root access to the box? And if that’s the case, why do I need it?

I agree that the unmanaged aspect of the service should perhaps be more prominently highlighted, but the site clearly states that you configure the machine however you like. To do that, root access is needed.

    5. What are the details of the data center they are in? Or the location? Or how did they arrive at their 99.999% reliability? 

I agree that more information about the data center would be relevant. The location of the DC is listed under "set-up time" section (Sacramento).

To be honest most of your questions' answers are on the page. Let me answer on them, if you don't bother reading the page :)

1. It is written on the given website: Centos 8.2 and Ubuntu 20.04

2. As many as 5U server can fit. Each drive is 8TB in passthru mode to your VM.

3. I think they are willing to work with users who know what is ZFS. At least for now.

4. Because it's your box. Do whatever you want.

5. Agree with you on that.

1. You get to choose Centos 8.x or Ubuntu 20.x for your KVM node

2. They explain you can one or more drives. They intend the product as remote snapshot storage it seems.

3. You might not be the target audience then. Not every company wants to target every possible person willing to pay.

4. As indicated on the page, you need root to provide the encryption key on a reboot.

5. They said Sacramento, but I agree, more details on which DC would be better, for their target audience anyway.

The OS options are listed. The pricing is clearly per disk, and "Rent out multiple drives if you wish to create a RAIDZ or Mirror ZPool.". Backup. With root access you can do whatever you want with your system, including (as the page mentions) non-ZFS things.

5. is indeed missing.