About us

SOLARSPEED.NET is centered around BlueOnyx and Aventurin{e}, Linux consulting as well as the development and installation of security related software for Linux machines. We still accept the occasional work on BlueQuartz or SUN/Cobalt servers if need be and if you have one of those? We can help you to migrate to something more modern like our BlueOnyx. Our customers are mainly Internet Service Providers in Europe and the US, but we also have customers from Asia and Australia. Since the second half of 2001 we installed software on over several thousand different servers worldwide and we're constantly improving the services we offer.

In 2006 we started the development of Aventurine - The Linux Virtualization Appliance, which was released in December 2006. Aventurin{e} allows to run multiple Linux based virtual servers on the same hardware, including BlueOnyx, Debian, Ubuntu, CentOS, Fedora and back in the day Scientific Linux, SuSE and a few other exotic distributions. We are also lead developers of BlueOnyx, the successor of BlueQuartz.

Our company eventually moved from Germany to Colombia and operate servers located in the United States, Australia, Colombia and in Germany. Our clients are from all around the globe. All of our operators speak and write English and German fluently and communication in Spanish is also welcome - if you don't mind getting a response containing a somewhat terrible grammar and syntax.

Technical background:

Founder and CEO Michael Stauber graduated from Technical State College Weilburg (Germany) with a degree as electrical engineer (energy- and process-automation) and a degree in computer- and network science. During his time in Technical State College he developed many of the software enhancements for SUN/Cobalt servers, which were the early predecessors of BlueOnyx and Aventurin{e}.

After graduating he worked as contractor for Sun Microsystems GmbH as Strategic Support Engineer. His engagement for Sun Microsystems includes a brief stint as onsite engineer for one of the largest German banks, before he quit this daytime job to fully dedicate his time into SOLARSPEED.NET. For more details check out his professional resume.

About our change of incorporation:

In the past our company was incorporated as "Stauber Multimedia Design", which existed from early 1998 until November 2012 and operated out of Germany.

 

On 27th November 2012 "Stauber Multimedia Design" closed and "Solarspeed Limited" was registered in Belize. At that time "Solarspeed Limited" took over all intellectual property of "Stauber Multimedia Design". Additionally the company SOLARSPEED.NET was registered in Colombia, which took over all mercantile activities and all support activities formerly carried out by "Stauber Multimedia Design".

 

The reasons for this change of incorporation primarily had to do with changes in personal life and emigration to South-America. But there was also a strong driving force to escape the increasingly hostile e-business environment in Europe and especially the one in Germany. A small company such as ours who did business out of Germany and dealt with clients from all over the world had to cope with an ever changing maze of new laws and regulations, which created a legal minefield and a serious time sink. We sure did realize that such laws were initially designed for consumer protection, which is something we highly welcome and value ourselves. However: Well intended and well done are two different kind of things and our politicians usually get the wrong parts right and the right parts wrong. The change of incorporation allows us to provide our clients (both from the EU and from other parts of the world) with even better service than before - and with a lot less red tape and hassles.

 

Special notice to European Union B2C (non incorporated) buyers:

In an apparent state of madness and undoubtedly drunken with self importance the Council of the European Union created a new law, called the COUNCIL DIRECTIVE 2008/8/EC from 12th February 2008. Remember the law that regulates the curvature of imported bananas? This new law is one of *that* kind of "especially stupid" and affects online sales of immaterial goods and services. Such as we offer. This Lex-Google and Lex-Amazon is designed to allow the greedy EU member states to collect VAT on purchases to unincorporated EU end users. Even if the seller is not residing in the EU. That means us, too.

 

 

So if an private end user from the EU buys from us on 1st January 2015 (or any later date), then we would have to the following steps:

 

So you can certainly imagine how thrilled we were about such a prospect.

We heavily believe in the democratic principle of "no taxation without representation". We did NOT vote for this nonsense, nor for the politicians or parties responsible for this ill advised and ill designed measure. We adhere to all laws applicable in our country of residence and we declare and pay our taxes (in time and in full) in said country of residence. We are not the outsourced tax collector of 28 individual EU member states, nor will we be made accomplices against our will in such ill advised measures. Not on our dime and time.

Therefore we reserve the right to cancel and refund all purchases from non-incorporated European Union B2C clients from 1st January 2015 and onwards.

We would love to do busines with you, but we will not jump over administrative hurdles that your greedy elected officials have put up. If you don't like it, then please speak to your political representatives and raise the matter with them. After all: We might not be the only company outside (or inside) the EU that will refuse to subject to a 28x12-times increase in administrative hassles just to comply with the horse manure that COUNCIL DIRECTIVE 2008/8/EC dumps into our yard.