At Red Hat we like to say, “Containers are Linux—Linux is Containers.” Here is what this means. Traditional containers are processes on a system that usually have the following three characteristics:
1. Resource constraints
When you run lots of containers on a system, you do not want to have any container monopolize the operating system, so we use resource constraints to control things like CPU, memory, network bandwidth, etc. The Linux kernel provides the cgroups feature, which can be configured to control the container process resources.
New data debunks several myths around which companies lead in open source contributions.
Microsoft has been nipping at the top open source contributor position for years, but a new analysis by Adobe developer Fil Maj puts Microsoft into a whole other universe of contributions. Or, at least, of contributors.
Using the GitHub REST API to pull public profile information from all 2,060,011 GitHub users who were active in 2017 (“active” meaning ten or more commits to public projects), Maj was able to pull the total number of corporate contributors to GitHub, with results that might surprise you.
The ability to extend Kubernetes is its secret superpower, said Chen Goldberg, Director of Engineering at Google, speaking at the recent KubeCon + CloudNativeCon in Austin.
In the race to build tools that help engineers become more productive, Goldberg talked about how she once led a team that developed a platform that did just that. Despite the fact the platform initially worked, it was not extensible, and it was also difficult to modify.
Fortunately, said Goldberg, Kubernetes suffers from neither of these problems. To begin with, Kubernetes is self-healing system, as it uses controllers that implement what is called a “Reconciliation Loop.” In a reconciliation loop, a controller observes the current state of the system and compares it to its desired state. Once it has established the difference between each of these two states, it works towards achieving the desired state. This makes Kubernetes well-adapted to dynamic environments.
3 Ways to Extend Kubernetes
Goldberg then explained that to build the controllers, you need resources, that is, you need to extend Kubernetes. There are three ways to do that and, from the most flexible (but also more difficult) to the easiest they are: using a Kube aggregator, using an API server builder, or creating a Custom Resource Definition (or CRD).
The latter allows to extend Kubernetes’ functionality even with minimal coding. To demonstrate how it is done, Goggle Software Engineer Anthony Yeh came on stage and showcased adding a stateful set to Kubernetes. (Stateful sets objects used to manage stateful applications, that is applications that need to store the state of the application, keeping track of, for example, a user’s identity and their personal settings.) Using catset, a CRD implemented in 100 lines of JavaScript in one single file, Yeh showed how you can add a stateful set to a Kubernetes deployment. A prior extension that was not a CRD, required 24 files and over 3,000 lines of code.
Addressing the issue of reliability of CRDs, Goldberg said Kubernetes had started a certification program that allows companies to register and certify their extensions for the Kubernetes community. In one month over 30 companies had signed up for the program.
Goldberg went on to explain how the extensibility of Kubernetes was a hot topic in this year’s KubeCon, and how Google and IBM were building a platform to manage and secure microservices using CRDs. Or how some developers were bringing machine-learning to Kubernetes, and others were demonstrating open service broker and the consumption of services on hybrid settings.
In conclusion, Goldberg said, extensibility is about empowerment. And, the extensibility of Kubernetes makes it a general purpose and easy to use platform for developers, which allows them to run any application.
Red Hat is a testament to the success of open source, but it still benefited from some organization and goal-setting in its community efforts.
“The Open Source and Standards office, or what some would refer to as an open source program office, was established six years ago to create a consistent way to support communities which Red Hat is actively participating. We created a centralized organization of expertise and resource to support our goals by flanking the considerable upstream engineering efforts ,” explained Deborah Bryant, senior director, Open Source and Standards, in the office of the CTO at Red Hat.
Platform providers lack adequate support resources for developers, according to an Accenture report.
Only 23% of developers strongly agree that adequate support is readily available from their platform provider.— Accenture, 2018
Amazon Web Services (AWS) was named the most developer-friendly platform. — Accenture, 2018
Developers must rely on their platform provider as a base for their work, but most lack adequate support resources for them, according to a new report from Accenture.
The report surveyed more than 750 US-based developers to determine what they look for in a platform provider—particularly key given the critical role developers play in a platform’s adoption and ultimate success, Accenture noted.
As we kick off 2018, the OPNFV Compliance & Certification committee—the members driven body within OPNFV that defines recommendations to the Board for policies and oversight for compliance and certification—is pleased to announce the launch of the OPNFV Verified Program (OVP). The program is designed to simplify adoption of NFV in commercial products by establishing an industry threshold based on OPNFV releases. The fact we are using an open source platform as referent to measure compliance of commercial products—not necessarily based on its source code—is a new and innovative step for the industry.
The OPNFV Verified Program facilitates both vendor self-testing and third-party lab testing using the Dovetail test suite.
Gaming in Linux has evolved a lot in the past few years. Now, you have dozens of distros pre-optimized for gaming and gamers. We tested all of them and hand-picked the best. There are a few other articles and lists of this type out there, but they don’t really go into detail and they are pretty outdated. This is an up-to-date list with any info you’d need.
Before we start listing out the best distros, you’d still need to choose one of them. Here are a few guidelines you can use to help you choose the right one for you:
Any Linux distro can be used for gaming. You can install Linux games on any distro or you can use tools like PlayOnLinux, Wine, Steam and a bunch of other emulators. At the end of the day, it all boils down to which one you personally prefer. Try them out. Use a live CD (flash drive) image and test it out without even installing it. Watch some videos, check some screenshots, read some reviews…
The main feature that matters when choosing a distro for gaming is support for drivers. Most distros support the latest (and even oldest) hardware out of the box. Even if they don’t, you can still manually find and install the driver yourself on any distro. If you’re really unsure, you can just google some info for your hardware and see if the distro supports it out of the box.
With 65% of companies using open source software, it’s not just internet-scale companies that can benefit from formal open source programs.
Many internet-scale companies, including Google, Facebook, and Twitter, have established formal open source programs (sometimes referred to as open source program offices, or OSPOs for short), a designated place where open source consumption and production is supported inside a company. With such an office in place, any business can execute its open source strategies in clear terms, giving the company tools needed to make open source a success. An open source program office’s responsibilities may include establishing policies for code use, distribution, selection, and auditing; engaging with open source communities; training developers; and ensuring legal compliance.
Check out the initial round of keynotes announced for Open Networking Summit North America 2018.
Hear from industry visionaries and leaders on the latest updates and the future of Networking beyond SDN/NFV including 5G & IoT; cloud networking (Kubernetes & Cloud Foundry); AI & ML applied to networks; and the use of networking in industry verticals like FinTech and Automotive. Including:
Vint Cerf, Vice President and Chief Internet Evangelist, Google
Andre Fuetsch, President, AT&T Labs, and Chief Technology Officer, AT&T
Wendy Cartee, Senior Director of Cloud-Native Applications Marketing, VMware
We have opened the LinuxCon + ContainerCon + CloudOpen China (LC3) 2018 call for proposals, and we invite you to share your expertise in this exploding open source market. Proposals are due March 4, 2018.
We’re seeking a wide range of talks, from topics such as Open Source Business & Strategy, Linux Development, Cloud Native and Containers, Networking, AI and more.
Got a great idea, case study, or technical tutorial you’d like to share? Learn more about the CFP process and submit your speaking proposal before the CFP closes on March 4.
