Software Development

Easily have quality Git server on your laptop with Gogs and Docker, and enable auto-push to remote repository Github doesn't have to be the only game for git servers - while they run an excellent service, you can't install it on your own server, making it little better (in "Freedom" regards) than a closed source proprietary software package. Yes it's expedient to host your repositories on Github, but do we all have to cede this functionality to them? There happen to be several alternatives to github that offer a competent web-based git repository service. I've looked at Gitlab and now Gogs (Go Git Server) and while both are competent systems, I think I'll be running Gogs (in Docker) full time on my laptop. While both Gitlab and Gogs can run in Docker containers making it easy to run them full time in the background, Gogs is lighter weight.

Make your own Raspberry Pi git repository server with Gogs and Docker The Raspberry Pi is an amazing little computer that, while it's targeted at the DIY Hardware Maker, it is a full-fledged Linux computer that can be used to run services that used to require much bigger and more expensive computers. How long ago were office servers required to be $4000 systems from the likes of Dell Computers? It seems that the Raspberry Pi (and other tiny computers) can perform the same tasks at a low cost with minuscule energy requirements. To this end I'm setting up Gogs (a github-like server for Git repositories) on a Raspberry Pi. As I worked on the project it seemed most straightforward to use Docker to manage the Gogs process, and therefore the project became setting up Docker on Raspberry Pi to run other services.

Revisiting software development on Chromebooks - rapidly improving state of Chrome apps for developers Chromebooks make surprisingly great laptops for software developers. If you don't know much about the Chromebook model, you might dismiss it as just a web-browser with delusions of grandeur. I'm a long-time software developer, writing code for a living since the mid-80's primarily on Unix/Linux/MacOSX systems, and I've pretty much abandoned my MacBookPro in favor of a Chromebook. The Chromebook is much faster than the MacBook (primarily due to the SSD drive), and lots lots lots cheaper to buy/own than any MacBook or MacBookPro. Yes the Chromebook doesn't have native code apps, but there is a growing list of Chrome apps available and if you're desparate enough for native app support you can always jailbreak the thing and install Linux and access the open source native apps. The result is a system with a top-of-the-line modern web browser (Chrome), with a hugely great security story, many very interesting Chrome apps, and the possibility to install Linux.