The compiler tool chain is not installed by default on the Ubuntu 16.04 image I used. GCC installs in a few seconds. You'd need to automate the setup. So startup is a bit costly (in time) for compiling, CI, etc. Maybe dlpy could add a dev-ready image one day.

edit: the init scripts make setup easy:

https://dply.co/help/cloud-init

Wouldn't web scraping be considered abusive usage as it is frowned upon by most websites?

IMO scraping is only abusive if the site explicitly asks to not be scraped (via the site's robots.txt)

There are plenty of ways to scrape responsibly.

Scraping, when done responsibly (respecting robots.txt and not overloading a server with requests) wouldn't be considered abusive in most cases. While we will be strict in enforcing abuse policies, when it's obvious a user acted with good intentions we can work on a case by case basis.

It could be done in an abusive way, certainly.