On Fri, 9 Aug 2024 18:07:27 -0400 ma...@mohawksoft.com wrote: > There was no failure, it was nothing more than constantly evolving > technology adjusting to new realities.
This. I've ranted about how ShareLaTeX, now Overleaf(?), abuses containers to distribute garbage code. Here are some counter-examples that I use daily. First is Nextcloud. Their preferred distribution method is Docker containers. Six containers to be specific: a master container which orchestrates five other containers that all need to work together. My original Nextcloud install was straight on the OS, and it was pretty painful installing and updating everything. The container based upgrade is clicking a couple of buttons in a web browser: click to stop the stack, click to update the master container, click to update and start the rest of the system. In fact, I updated my private Nextcloud stack this morning in less time than it took me to write this paragraph. Nextcloud has done as much to sweeten me towards containers as Overleaf had done to sour me. (note: I hold the same regard towards Docker the company as I do towards Oracle and Broadcom, but the tech mostly is fine). Second is Kiteworks. I don't use this much personally, but my employer does and I'm part of the team responsible for manintaining it. It's a hyper-thyroidal FTP system with a fully redundant, geographically diverse, many-hot clustering configuration. Kiteworks is distributed as turnkey VM appliances, and we have cluster members on three continents. Upgrades are much like Nextcloud: back up configuration information, drop in new appliances, restore configuration information. I'm making it sound faster than it actually is, but the process is simple, much simpler than traditionally packaged software. I have been using a lot of Flatpaks since my adoption of Tumblweed early this year . Okay, technically that came with my Steam Deck but that's beside the point. I like Flatpak packages. Flatpak solves dependency hell problems without the overhead of a Docker or Kubernetes stack. It's the same code as for examples Portal for Teams (Ismael Martinez' unofficial Teams client for Linux), Calibre and Ungoogled Chromium, but the Flatpak versions are just immensely more convenient than native packages. You know how in-car software is notoriously insecure and never updated? Red Hat are looking to change that with Red Hat Automotive. It's a small Kubernetes based environment where each software component, from the engine management software to the dash information and entertainment systems, runs in its own container. This is a double win for security. The infotainment container is isolated from the containers housing the drive by wire systems so things like this can't happen (or at least not nearly so easily): https://www.wired.com/2015/07/hackers-remotely-kill-jeep-highway/ and containers make for simple software updates of the components that need updating. Meanwhile, Canonical are moving along with their Immutable Ubuntu project. I'm not a fan of Snap packages in particular. I think they a mostly worse take on Flatpak, intended to prop up Canonical's proprietary storefront. But the concept of a read-only operating system is pretty neat. -- \m/ (--) \m/ _______________________________________________ Discuss mailing list Discuss@driftwood.blu.org https://driftwood.blu.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
