The Craft Of Open Source

Interview With Malcolm Matalka: Co-Founder, TerrateamBen Rometsch chats with Malcolm Matalka, co-founder of Terrateam, to discuss the company's inception and its eventual shift to open source. Together, they discuss how his frustrations with the click ops approach prompted Malcolm to create his own team to disrupt the system and pave the way for much more innovative methods. He opens up about the challenges they faced due to the licensing changes of HashiCrop and how it led to the creation of OpenTofu. The two also emphasize the undeniable dynamic of community-driven projects and how they offer people options and opportunities to adjust, transform, and collaborate.

With almost every transaction being done through the internet, your personal information and finances must be protected at all costs from hackers and scammers. Therefore, cybersecurity is important now more than ever. Leading the charge in keeping the digital world safe and secure is OWASP, a non-profit organization working mainly on software security. Joining this episode is Sam Stepanyan from the OWASP London Chapter who emphasizes why cybersecurity must be accomplished at the start of development, not as an afterthought. He also explains why education on cybersecurity is severely lacking and what should be done to make it a staple subject in schools.

Interview With Chris Villa: Co-Founder, Puck & MeasuredPuck, an open-source project, has exploded in popularity, becoming a major focus for Chris Villa and his team. But how do you balance a runaway open-source hit with the demands of running a consultancy? Join Ben Rometsch as he sits down with Chris Villa, co-founder of both Puck and Measured, to dissect this very dilemma. Chris reveals the fascinating origin story of Puck, its meteoric rise, and the overwhelming "pull" from the community that signals a powerful product-market fit. Find out Chris and his team's bold plan to spin Puck out as its entity, poised to take the project to even greater heights.

Joining this episode is James McLeod, Open Source Program Lead at NatWest Group. He looks back on his career journey, from his role at the Linux Foundation, his efforts in scaling the FINOS project, to the creation of London.js. Reflecting on the many lessons throughout his professional life, James stressed the importance of proper data documentation and education to make open source more accessible to the public. He also explained what it takes for engineers to fully embrace their roles in the wider digital ecosystem, making open source an essential platform for career advancement and development.

This episode features Moritz Klack and Christopher Möller, Co-Founders of xyflow. They look back on their career journey leading to their current company, from developing webkid, creating Datablocks, and launching React Flow. They discuss their transition from agency work to open source, their pricing strategies, and the importance of community feedback. Moritz and Christopher also bare their plans for the future and what trends in the digital space they are most excited about.

With their keen eye for innovation and their knack for spotting the next big thing, Runa Capital is at the forefront of the tech revolution. In this episode, Ben Rometsch delves into the world of open-source software with Konstantin Vinogradov, General Partner at Runa Capital. Konstantin reflects on the founding principles of Runa Capital and its commitment to investing in open source and AI technologies. He also discusses the potential for open-source endowments to provide long-term support for open-source projects, drawing parallels to the funding mechanisms of universities. Join them as they delve into the intersection of technology, investment, and the future of open source in the digital age.

Ivan Burazin proudly presents Daytona, a secure open-source development environment manager that allows developers to tailor their environments according to their specific needs. Ivan looks back on how their company started as an enterprise product before becoming an open-source project for individual developers. He breaks down its most important features, particularly those that assure ease of use, clarity, and simplicity. Ivan also explains how automation and AI tools could further improve Daytona, all while balancing user privacy and accurate data collection.

Buckle up for a journey into Shepherd! In this episode, Chuck Carpenter, the founder of Shepherd Pro and host of Whiskey Web and Whatnot, joins Ben Rometsch to delve into Shepherd and Shepherd JS, an influential open-source library for creating interactive guides in JavaScript. Chuck shares his deep involvement over seven years as a maintainer, highlighting Shepherd's evolution from its origins at HubSpot to becoming a robust tool with broad community adoption. Don't miss Chuck's insights on Shepherd's edge in the user experience space, its business potential, and his vision for leading the developer community forward.

Managing a modern application landscape can be a balancing act. Enter Prometheus, an open-source champion for monitoring and alerting. In this episode, Julius Volz, co-founder of Prometheus and founder of PromLabs, joins Ben Rometsch to discuss the origins and evolution of Prometheus. Julius traces its inception to his early days at Google and SoundCloud, where the need for a robust monitoring system inspired Prometheus. He explains how Prometheus revolutionized monitoring with its pull-based approach, powerful PromQL query language, and flexible data model, enabling effective monitoring, alerting, and automation. Discover how Prometheus continues to shape the future of monitoring!

Moderne is a pioneer in the field of mass-scale automated code refactoring, and it has some pretty interesting origins. In this episode, co-founder Jonathan Schneider talks about the genesis of Moderne, how he started his open-source journey from being an engineer at Netflix, and their current initiatives, including some interesting developments at Openhaus. Tune in for more details!

Ever wondered how the backbone of streaming giants like Netflix or gaming consoles like Sony PlayStation ticks? Dive deep with us in this episode as we unravel the legacy and impact of FreeBSD, one of the unsung heroes of the tech world. Join us in an insightful conversation with Deb Goodkin, the Executive Director of the FreeBSD Foundation, as we explore the history, evolution, and significance of FreeBSD. From its roots in Berkeley UNIX to its integral role in modern technology, Deb sheds light on why this powerful, cohesive operating system stands out from Linux and how its permissive licensing has attracted major players. Discover the fascinating story behind FreeBSD's stability, performance, and community-driven development. Tune in for more intriguing details and expert insights you won't want to miss!

Success is not just about focusing on the grind. It is also about applying yourself every single day and letting your efforts compound over time. In this episode, open source consultant Eddie Jaoude shares how he applied this mindset in his own career path. Joining Ben Rometsch, he explains how he successfully built a strong online following through his edutainment content about the open source industry, especially on Twitter. Eddie also opens up on how he takes care of his mental health as he deals with online trolls, toxic feedback, and negative comments on social media every single day.

In this episode of The Craft of Open Source, Ari Zilka describes his transition from his previous projects to founding a new company that aims to improve control over observability data in IT. He identifies issues with current observability tools, such as high costs and lack of flexibility, and propose using OpenTelemetry to offer a more customizable and manageable system. This new approach gives DevOps teams better tools for handling large amounts of data, ensuring security, and optimizing costs without relying on proprietary solutions. Tune in to learn more about MyDecisive.ai and Ari's outlook on the open-source space!

Ben Rometsch sits down with Birk Jernström, who shares the genesis story of Polar, a creator platform for developers. He explains how he established his company using his experiences and expertise gained from Tictail and Shopify. Birk discusses how he changes the status quo for open-source developers in terms of working on their passions full-time and independently. He also talks about the power of changing your perspectives and how he handles the needs of every single person down the dependency tree.

These past few years, open-source has been on the fast track to dominating the software market. It might sound contradictory to many people, but open-source is big business. A project's source code may be free, but the products generated from that source code can certainly be commercialized. If you're a project developer, therein lies the potential for economic benefit, if only you had the financial backing and business know-how. Heather Meeker, Founding Partner at OSS Capital returns to the show to talk about the different aspects of open-source business, from finding venture capital backing to navigating the intricacies of branding and product positioning. Tune in to this informative episode!

Join us in this episode, where we take a deep dive into the story of Pulumi with its CEO and Founder, Joe Duffy. From its inception in 2016 with the ambitious goal of simplifying cloud infrastructure management through the creation of a new programming language, Joe takes us on a journey into the team's evolution that helped Pulumi become what it is today. He talks about the intricacies of Pulumi Cloud, insights product, and the strategic alignment of Pulumi's business model with the community's success. Get ready for a candid conversation as Joe shares his insights on overcoming challenges, chasing future goals, and dreaming big about an open ecosystem in cloud infrastructure management. Tune in now and discover how Pulumi is shaping the future of cloud development!

Jenkins, an open-source stalwart and a foundational project of the Continuous Delivery Foundation, underwent a transformative journey towards independence within the foundation. In this conversation with Oleg Nenashev, Governance Board/Core Maintainer, we navigate through the significance of feature flags in continuous integration and delivery, culminating in excitement about the potential standardization through the open feature project. Shifting gears, the conversation delves into WireMock, a widely-used API mocking tool, exploring its capabilities, commercial extensions, and upcoming improvements in version 3. Oleg emphasizes collaboration and alignment across diverse languages and repositories. The conversation concludes by spotlighting Penpot, an open-source design platform, as a noteworthy project. Join in for a comprehensive exploration of Jenkins, feature flags, WireMock, and the broader open-source landscape.

With the digital world evolving nonstop, keeping your data secure must be one of your top priorities at all times. Shauli Rozen of ARMO explains how they help end-users and developers address their Kubernetes security needs through Kubescape. In this episode, he explains how their software applies security remediation without breaking the application, bringing DevOps and security together. Shauli also shares the various projects they studied and gathered ideas from in developing Kubescape and how it helps solve the ever-transforming security issues of the open-source industry.

OpenBB stands at the crossroads of innovation, uniting open-source spirit with financial prowess to empower every individual. In this episode of our podcast, Didier Lopes discusses OpenBB, a revolutionary platform aiming to democratize access to financial data. From its inception to its evolution into a versatile financial data hub, Didier shows how OpenBB thrives as a bridge connecting financial data for everyone. Join us as we explore the potential future directions for OpenBB, envisioning an ecosystem where financial data is seamlessly accessible, customized, and affordable for all types of users. Tune in now!

Positioning for open source startups is directly connected not just to their free resource but also their commercial strategy. How should business leaders approach this to yield the best results and maintain a well-performing team? In this episode, Positioning Strategy Consultant for open source startups Emily Omier talks about keeping teams in alignment and in the same feedback loop. She explains how this approach can help them navigate through the complex mind games involved in these projects and why she considers the government as the best open source clients out there. Emily also shares how she sees the industry progress in the next half decade in terms of dominance and refutes three fallacies about open source projects.

Data is the name of the game in today's world. But with the amount of data sources today, how do you sift through and get the data you want? A data pipeline is the answer, and within that pipeline is a data orchestrator. Today's guest, Pete Hunt, is the CEO of Elementl, the company behind the open-source orchestration platform, Dagster. He joins Ben Rometsch to tell us all about Elementl and Dagster as well as his career journey that took him across Facebook, Instagram, Smyte, and Twitter. In this current fluctuating environment, we can say it is a feat for a company to be able to raise money. Just this year, Elementl was able to raise $33 million Series B for Dagster. Find out how they are able to achieve this, what they are doing for data orchestration, and where they are heading in the future. Tune in to this episode to not miss out!

Celebrating the unsung heroes of open source, Fastly is shaping a future where technology meets kindness, collaboration, and a better internet for all. In this episode, we interview Hannah Aubry who shares how they are doing these things by undergoing significant innovation and a rebrand to become Fast Forward. She sheds light on the incredible contributions of the most skilled individuals behind open-source technology and how organizations like theirs are stepping up to empower them. Hannah also covers how Fastly is championing change in this particular space while celebrating the most talented builders of the digital world.

In web development, we're not just crafting code; we're shaping the digital world's future. In this episode, we interview Misko Hevery, co-founder of Builder.io, about the landscape of web development and the cutting-edge Qwik framework. Misko starts by diving into Builder.io. Discover how it aims to bridge the gap between visual web content creation and developers' expertise, creating a win-win situation for both parties. Moving on to the world of Qwik, Misko expounds on its unique approach of delivering components rather than JSON data, resulting in unparalleled user experiences. Explore how Qwik challenges the conventions of existing frameworks and offers a fresh perspective on web development. Throughout the episode, Misko also explores many topics, such as the sustainability of open-source materials, what's next for Builder.io, and more. Tune in to this conversation now and embark on a journey that could reshape the way you think about building for the web. Don't miss it!

It takes great effort to build something with the fastest star growth count. And with Cal.com, they have the greatest domain, mission, and product that made that growth possible! In this episode, Peer Richelsen, the Co-Founder of Cal.com, takes us into the scheduling infrastructure they've built to help everyone focus on their meeting, not making meetings. Peer also touches on what he needs to qualify as an Open Scheduling. Meet Cal.com today and make booking easier for you.

Do you spend so much time building and running your pipeline? That doesn't have to be the case anymore. In this episode, Darko Fabijan, the co-founder of Semaphore, shares the efforts Darko and his team went into improving Semaphore products to serve their clients. Through the development of their products, it minimizes the time spent in running your pipeline with CI/CD Solutions. Darko also explains how Semaphore On-Premise functions as your team grows. Join us in this episode and learn how Semaphore makes development teams move faster.

When it comes to technology, having reliable monitoring is crucial to ensuring a positive user experience and the seamless operation of an app. Dynatrace is a company that specializes in enhancing the digital environment of organizations with their cutting-edge solutions, unlocking the full potential of digital intelligence. Their innovative platform has the power to propel your business to new heights. In this episode, Alois Reitbauer, the Chief Technology Strategist at Dynatrace, dives into how they discern the fundamental specifications and overall project vision beyond its individual components. He also explains the development of Open Feature and how collaborative efforts within the team contribute to project success. Alois reveals the instrumental role of the open-source canvas within the company. Let's embark on a journey exploring the endless possibilities in this thrilling era of digital intelligence, powered by Dynatrace.

From passion projects to corporate powerhouses, open source has evolved into a force that shapes the tech industry's future, driven by the collective efforts of passionate individuals and visionary companies. In this episode, we interview Justin Abrahms, the Principal Architect/Governing Board of OpenFeature, to discuss the diverse landscape of open-source development and its impact on the tech industry. He discusses the early days of open source, when companies like Google and eBay were just beginning to recognize their potential. Justin explained how these companies, although lacking the breakout successes of Kubernetes, played a crucial role in the open-source ecosystem. Yet he believes there's room for improvement in open-source management, advocating for a more systematic approach to stewardship and organizational support. Diving deeper, Justin explores the driving forces behind different approaches to open-source projects. Steering toward the future, Justin explores the potential paradigm shifts in open source, including how Rust rises to prominence and more. Join us in understanding the evolution of open source, from its humble beginnings to the present day.

Tea is the catalyst that shifts open source from a labor of love to a sustainable revolution, ensuring that the creators behind our digital infrastructure receive the funding they deserve. In this episode, we sit down with Max Howell, the visionary mind behind the Tea Package Manager, and explore his journey from building the widely popular Homebrew (Brew) to embarking on a mission to fix open-source remuneration. With passion and determination, Max shares his vision for Tea, a groundbreaking solution aimed at reshaping the funding landscape for open-source projects. He walks through the intricate workings of Tea, where voluntary donations are replaced by a unique investment model that rewards stakeholders with a stake in the system. By leveraging blockchain technology, Tea creates a direct link between funding and open source, ensuring that those who contribute receive their fair share. Don't miss out on exploring the power of blockchain technology and its capacity to transform the world of open-source software. Tune in now!

For the longest time, financial services organizations have largely been consumers of open-source technology, and they haven't been very keen in moving towards the contribution side. But things are starting to change as a lot of organizations in the space are beginning to give more weight to the idea of using their resources to help maintain and improve the open-source projects that they use. FINOS leads the way in promoting open innovation in the financial services industry. Joining us on the podcast today to tell us more about it is the nonprofit's Senior Technical Architect, Rob Moffat. In this conversation, Rob tells us how FINOS provides open-source software solutions that help address common industry challenges and drive innovation that benefits all organizations involved. Join in and learn the prospects lying in wait for the future of open-source fintech!

Many of us struggle with where to start whenever we embark on a new journey. For developers contending in such a fast-paced and ever-growing environment, it can be confusing to figure out what to learn next. This episode's guest is breaking down this barrier. Kamran Ahmed created roadmap.sh to help developers find their path and help them learn and grow in their careers. Kamran joins us to share his remarkable journey as the founder of this great resource project. Initially met with mixed responses, his brainchild has blossomed into a thriving community-driven initiative. Kamran shares insights into maintaining this community approach, partnering with organizations, and hosting the project on GitHub. With an impressive user base of 700,000 monthly visitors and a newsletter with 250,000 subscribers, Kamran discusses the challenges and strategies behind managing such remarkable growth. We also gain valuable insights into their creative process as well as their plans for income generation. Tune in to discover the inspiring story of roadmap.sh and its incredible success.

Authorization can be a time-consuming process, but you can never get away from it because it is just as essential to your product and business. What if there is a way to make this easy? With Cerbos, that is possible. Cerbos is the authorization layer for software applications to be able to quickly and securely implement roles and permissions. In this episode, its CEO and Founder Emre Baran joins us to help us get to know the work they are doing and how they have built and grown it. He talks about decoupling authorization, making life easy for developers to implement this. He also breaks down the differences between authorization, authentication, and feature flagging as well as the benefits of open source to developing trust. Emre fills us with so many insights about the world of Cerbos and how they are making authorization simpler. So tune in to this conversation to learn more!

There is fragmentation in the field of AI that no one seems to be taking too seriously. Daniel Lenton, the CEO of Ivy, observed this, finding so many frameworks, models, infrastructures, and hardware that make it hard for collaboration. Helping solve this problem, Ivy was created to unify all Machine Learning (ML) frameworks. In this episode, he tells us how they made it possible to fit these pieces together. Daniel also takes us through his journey prior to Ivy, the walls they hit in the labs, and the lessons they learned overcoming them. Talking about Ivy's growth, he then shares their success in GitHub and Discord and where they see they're heading in the future. For more insights about AI, ML frameworks, and open-source technology, join Daniel in this conversation. Find out how Ivy uniquely allows you to bring any model, library, or function into one line of code for your project.

Flagsmith's CEO, Ben Rometsch, is a true champion of open source. His software revolution is turning heads among developers, by unlocking the true potential of simplicity and sustainability in the digital world. In this special interview episode, Jason Bosco from Type Sense takes charge and conducts an exciting conversation with Ben Rometsch. Today's episode unravels the story behind Flagsmith and the pivotal moments that drove its creation. Jason probes Ben with insightful questions, exploring his decision to embrace open source from the start and the strategic considerations around its future monetization. Together, they discuss the significance of self-hosting for customers and the synergies it brings to software deployment. Ben shares how he approaches positioning the product, bridging the gap between proprietary solutions and an open-source alternative. They also delve into the realm of developer marketing, exploring effective channels and lessons learned. Don't miss out on the exciting glimpse into Flag Smith's future roadmap and the enduring philosophy of simplicity and sustainability in software development. Tune in now!

This whole idea of having an operating system that runs many different programs on one computer is completely outdated and doesn't reflect reality whatsoever. The question is, “What would an operating system look like for something in 2020 to serve up the software?” That's where NanoVMs come in with a unikernel concept. Today, its CEO, Ian Eyberg, takes us into a deep dive into unikernels and how they function. Tune in to discover how to efficiently manage virtual machines and create a truly agile environment for your software development.

In this episode, we welcome Kasra Bigdeli, Engineering Manager at CapRover. He shares how he built an open-source version of Heroku that features one-click apps. He explains how he designed it to be newbie-friendly: easy to navigate and full of contextual help. Kasra also talks about using only organic techniques in marketing CapRover, and now its community is naturally growing with more than a hundred projects.

When you create something you love, it feels good to give it away for people to tinker around and do great things with it. That is what is open-source is all about. But what happens when the cost of maintaining an open-source project becomes too high to sustain? Some people would abandon it, but not Francois Zaninotto, CEO of Marmelab. Realizing the untapped potential of React-Admin, he managed to build a sustainable business model from an open-source core. Find out how he did it in this conversation. Plus, get a glimpse of his other project, GreenFrame.io, which allows users to estimate the carbon emissions linked to user scenarios on a web application and use that information to create a carbon reduction strategy.

Ben Rometsch and Matt Althauser sit down with Shaun Campton, Principal Engineer at Tigera, who shares his experiences as a core developer on Project Calico. He talks about their origins of moving out of the era of doing forklift moves into OpenStack and down the development of network splitting, focusing more on a dynamic firewall approach. He opens up on his experiences writing their first 10,000 lines of code, their identity-based policy, and the value they are offering to clients. Shaun also provides insights on what may be next for Kubernetes and how open-source projects must get ready for any change ahead.

As simple as they seem, feature flags cannot be underestimated. The more you dive into what it offers, the more you realize how much it can clean up your code base. Mike Beamer and Todd Baert saw the value it could further provide and founded OpenFeature. OpenFeature is an open standard for feature flag management, created to support a robust feature flag ecosystem using cloud-native technologies. In this episode, they share with us the work they are doing as well as the genesis of OpenFeature as part of Dynatrace. Mike and Todd then talk about their vision, measuring their progress and success, and what they find exciting about open source projects. What is more, they discuss the diversity of the community in the open source space, highlighting the tremendous value in bringing passions, talents, and support together.

When Guillermo Rauch started Vercel, people asked him, “what came first, the idea of simplifying global delivery or the idea of creating a framework?” He answered, “what about both?” Guillermo explored the conception of a system where it gets better. The more it gets global, the more resilient and dynamic it becomes that the operations go away. In this episode, he tells us how he took on these two problems, watched them co-evolve, and founded Vercel—a platform for frontend developers, providing the speed and reliability innovators need to create at the moment of inspiration. Guillermo shares how they are democratizing access to the server side rendering and lowering the cost with edge functions. He also taps into the importance of developer experience, the challenges they faced along the way, and the future Vercel is heading.

Laravelis one of the most popular PHP web frameworks today and has gained much traction worldwide. However, one thing it doesn't have is a proper e-commerce system. Saurav Pathak took this gap between Laravel and the developer community as a business opportunity. He joins Ben Rometsch to share how he bootstrapped a company called Magisto, an open-source eCommerce ecosystem that provides reliable support to the merchant community. Saurav explains the community management strategies that spelled success for their team, their marketing tactics, and how they drew inspiration(and perform alongside) eCommerce giants like Shopify.

Apache Cassandra paved the way for today's biggest digital platforms to scale into the much bigger global scene. Patrick McFadin of Datastax is one of the people involved in this open-source project and saw first-hand how it burst into the world. He joins Ben Rometsch to share how Cassandra was developed, the many challenges they faced in its optimization, its relationship with Datastax, and how it changed database engine creation and data modeling. Patrick also talks about the measures they are implementing to continuously improve Cassandra and limit open-source access to ensure quality.

Fleet is the most widely used open-source OSQuery manager. It allows you to get accurate data from every endpoint in your organization and allow organizations to have complete control over their data. Fleet has been instrumental in businesses, for it is a scalable and resilient platform that manages your workloads. In this episode, Mike McNeil, the CEO of Fleet, explains how Fleet and OSQuery can significantly help your organization. Listen to this episode and learn more from Mike as he shares more information about Fleet as an open-source OSQuery manager.

Join Ben Rometsch as he talks to Gabriel Engel, the founder and CEO of Rocket Chat.

Temporal's Co-Founder and CEO, Maxim Fateev, and Head of Product, Ryland Goldstein sit down with Ben to talk about open source and the origin of their project. Temporal is a microservice orchestration platform which enables developers to build scalable applications without sacrificing productivity or reliability. Temporal server executes units of application logic, Workflows, in a resilient manner that automatically handles intermittent failures, and retries failed operations.

Greg Hayes, Director of Engineering at Coiled joins Ben to talk about the Dask project. Dask makes it easy to scale the Python libraries that you know and love like NumPy, pandas and scikit-learn.

Rob Hirschfeld is the founder and CEO of RackN, providing secure workflows and modular life-cycle automation for bare metal, edge, and cloud. Rob is a proponent of collaboration in the open source software industry. In this episode, he joins Ben Rometsch to share his insight and ideas from an infrastructure perspective on what needs solving and the potential outcomes.

As a company grows, internal tools start to play a bigger role, and these tools become harder to maintain. This is why Appsmith was created. It's an open-source platform that lets you create these internal tools. Join Ben Rometsch as he talks to Nikhil Nandagopal about Appsmith.

Thomas Payet, Co-founder & COO of Meilisearch

Medusa is an open source headless e-commerce platform founded by Sebastian Rindom. The company provides software for sellers to develop a unique commerce experience.

Cal.com offers scheduling for everyone. Ben Rometsch and the CEO of Cal.com, Peer Richelsen, give us a look at the nuts and bolts of this open source project. Peer goes back to the founding of the company, getting funded and how they approach integration with other apps.

These days, video is everybody's favorite mode of media consumption. But what really goes into video and the technology behind it? Today's guest is video technology enthusiast, Steve Heffernan. Steve is the Co-Founder at Mux and Creator of Video.js, a web video player built from the ground up for an HTML5 world. Steve gets deep into the complexities of the space and where it's headed as it scales. The future is video. Learn all about the space and what Steve's company is up to next by tuning in!