A few months ago I posted a rant about my web host and said this:

Why can't Fasthosts upgrade their damn version of GD to one that can create GIFs? Right now I've got no way to upload GIFs because the installed version GD won't support them thanks to that damn Unisys patent.

I discovered today that Fasthosts have actually upgraded their Linux servers!

They are currently running Apache 1.3.33, PHP 4.3.9 and have GD 2.0.28. GIF Create support is enabled in this version of GD, Coppermine 1.3.2 (the gallery software I use) required a few hacks before it'd work with GIFs and GD 2.x but now I can upload GIFs without any trouble at all.

This makes me very happy!! Thank you Fasthosts!