Re:We're Leaving Kubernetes
by lmm on Tuesday November 05, 2024 @07:34PM
(#42056457)
> Remote dev gives you as beefy a machine as you want, with the fastest network and lowest bandwidth.
Yes and no. Realistically, the range between the beefiest possible remote server and the beefiest possible workstation is what, one order of magnitude? So in a growing environment doing remote dev will maybe let you kick the can down the road a year or two, but you'll still have to deal with whatever was causing your requirements to grow pretty soon.
> But that's only the resource problem. Another problem I have seen my entire career, is devs can't keep their machines configured the same. They have different model laptops, they don't pin their app versions, they configure and install things by hand. Each time they change something by accident it takes them hours, days, sometimes weeks, to get it working again.
> Finally, it's rare for local setups to be secure. Often devs get too much access from their local machines, and this is stolen by infostealer malware and compromise happens. A protected remote environment is easier to secure. A lot of development is hampered by all the crappy corporate security tools that's on laptops now. Remote dev allows you to bypass all that and have a fully working yet protected network without restrictions.
This isn't a remote versus local question, it's a question of how much control developers have over their environment and how much you manage and standardise what's installed. You can have a fully locked down local machine where developers can't install anything except a short whitelist (of course you may get some pushback) and you can have a remote VM where developers curl|sh whatever random repack of Python they wanted this week - I've seen both these things happen in practice.
Security junkware I sort of agree with you, but I think that's more of an artifact of bad laws/policies and if and when remote dev takes off we'll see just as much junkware on remote dev machines as on local ones.
Yes and no. Realistically, the range between the beefiest possible remote server and the beefiest possible workstation is what, one order of magnitude? So in a growing environment doing remote dev will maybe let you kick the can down the road a year or two, but you'll still have to deal with whatever was causing your requirements to grow pretty soon.
> But that's only the resource problem. Another problem I have seen my entire career, is devs can't keep their machines configured the same. They have different model laptops, they don't pin their app versions, they configure and install things by hand. Each time they change something by accident it takes them hours, days, sometimes weeks, to get it working again.
> Finally, it's rare for local setups to be secure. Often devs get too much access from their local machines, and this is stolen by infostealer malware and compromise happens. A protected remote environment is easier to secure. A lot of development is hampered by all the crappy corporate security tools that's on laptops now. Remote dev allows you to bypass all that and have a fully working yet protected network without restrictions.
This isn't a remote versus local question, it's a question of how much control developers have over their environment and how much you manage and standardise what's installed. You can have a fully locked down local machine where developers can't install anything except a short whitelist (of course you may get some pushback) and you can have a remote VM where developers curl|sh whatever random repack of Python they wanted this week - I've seen both these things happen in practice.
Security junkware I sort of agree with you, but I think that's more of an artifact of bad laws/policies and if and when remote dev takes off we'll see just as much junkware on remote dev machines as on local ones.