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A New Approach to Dotfiles management with BigConfig

dotfiles
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Alberto Miorin

Managing dotfiles—the configuration files that personalize your user environment—is a crucial part of a developer’s workflow. The go-to tools for this have long been Chezmoi and Stow. While Stow is celebrated for its simplicity, Chezmoi offers powerful templating and secret management. However, what if you need the best of both worlds?

This is where BigConfig comes in, offering a new way to manage your configurations by combining the simplicity of a declarative approach with the power of code.

Why Ansible Still Rules for Your Dev Environment

ansible
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Alberto Miorin

Back in the day, before Red Hat acquired Ansible, I was using it to provision Cloudera clusters in massive data centers. And let me tell you, its killer feature wasn’t some complex, enterprise-grade capability. It was pure simplicity.

You just needed SSH, and you were ready to go. The feedback loop was in seconds—a refreshing change from the slow, manual processes we were used to. It was a DevOps dream.

Then came Docker. For many use cases, containers were the new king. They offered a more lightweight, portable solution for shipping applications. And for a while, it seemed like Ansible might get relegated to the history books.

But not so fast. While Docker took over for application deployment, Ansible found its true calling: provisioning the remote development environment.

Reimplementing the AWS EKS API with Clojure using BigConfig, Rama, and Pedestal

K8s
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Alberto Miorin

The world of cloud infrastructure often involves interacting with complex APIs. While services like AWS EKS provide robust management for Kubernetes clusters, there might be scenarios where you need a more tailored or localized control plane. This article will guide you through reimplementing the AWS EKS API using a powerful Clojure stack: Pedestal for the API, BigConfig to wrap Terraform and Ansible in a workflow, and Rama for state and jobs.

The killer feature of BigConfig

Killer Feature
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Alberto Miorin

For anyone working with Infrastructure as Code (IaC), managing configurations and deployments efficiently is key. Engineers are constantly seeking ways to enhance their workflows. Today, we’re diving into a powerful combination: OpenTofu and BigConfig, highlighting a killer feature that makes your build step practically invisible!

Why I have replaced Atlantis with BigConfig

Atlantis
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Alberto Miorin

As a long-time infrastructure enthusiast, I’ve had my share of dalliances with various tools and workflows. For a good while, Atlantis was my reliable partner in managing Terraform deployments. It brought order to the chaos of collaborative infrastructure-as-code, and for that, I’ll always be grateful.

However, like many relationships, sometimes you just grow apart. And in the rapidly evolving world of DevOps, staying stagnant means falling behind. So, after much deliberation, I’ve decided to move on from Atlantis for my Terraform needs, and I want to share why.

Forward Deployed Engineering ❤️ Open Source

Merchant of complexity
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Alberto Miorin

In the evolving landscape of software, SaaS (Software as a Service) has long been the dominant model, offering convenience and accessibility. However, I expect a new paradigm to emerge: Forward Deployed Engineering for Open Source projects. This approach could challenge SaaS in the future by offering a compelling alternative that prioritizes control, customization, and community.

Merchant of complexity

Merchant of complexity
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Alberto Miorin

Have you ever felt like a vendor is subtly, or not so subtly, making things more complicated than they need to be? You’re not alone. This phenomenon, which I like to call the “Merchant of Complexity,” describes a business model where a vendor’s profitability is directly tied to the inefficiency of your internal processes. It’s a cunning, often insidious, way for them to extract more money from you over time.