From Chef to System Initiative (Changelog & Friends #55)

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Adam Jacob goes solo with Adam for an epic pod into his journey to get to System Initiative. From SysAdmin at 8 years old, to discovering Linux and working for Mom-and-pop ISPs, to open source changing his life and starting Opscode and building Chef. Buckle up. This is a different flavor of “Friends” for you. Enjoy.

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Sponsors:

• Neon – Fleets of Postgres! Enterprises use Neon to operate hundreds of thousands of Postgres databases: Automated, instant provisioning of the world’s most popular database.
• Test Double – Great software is made by great teams. Test Double builds both.
• Retool – The low-code platform for developers to build internal tools — Some of the best teams out there trust Retool…Brex, Coinbase, Plaid, Doordash, LegalGenius, Amazon, Allbirds, Peloton, and so many more – the developers at these teams trust Retool as the platform to build their internal tools. Try it free at retool.com/changelog
• Intel Innovation 2024 – Early bird registration is now open for Intel Innovation 2024 in San Jose, CA! Learn more OR register

Featuring:

• Adam Jacob – Twitter, GitHub, Website
• Adam Stacoviak – Mastodon, Twitter, GitHub, LinkedIn, Website

Show Notes:

• System Initiative
• Ximian
• Any Given Sunday speech
• I’ll Devour You! (I shall look forward to the fight)
• RIP Ezra Zygmuntowicz

Something missing or broken? PRs welcome!

Chapters

1. Let's talk! (00:00:00)

2. Sponsor: Neon (00:00:38)

https://neon.tech/enterprise

3. Two Adam's (00:04:07)

4. SysAdmin at 8?! (00:04:43)

5. From hobby to career (00:11:18)

6. Starting at mom-and-pop ISPs (00:18:59)

7. Linux by doing (00:27:07)

8. The ISP stack (00:31:01)

9. Open source started the fire (00:36:20)

10. Sponsor: Test Double (00:42:40)

https://link.testdouble.com/hnh

11. From HJK to Opscode/Chef (00:45:34)

12. RIP Ezra Zygmuntowicz (00:51:55)

https://www.engineyard.com/blog/ezra-zygmuntowicz-in-memoriam/

13. You must pay me (00:54:07)

14. Chef was 100% influenced by Puppet (00:57:37)

15. Opscode to Chef (01:01:28)

16. The Billion dollar pitch (01:03:20)

17. $2.5M to launch (01:04:15)

18. Chef-as-SaaS (CaS) was too early (01:06:59)

19. Docker killed the Chef star (01:10:37)

20. !! You have to decide what fuel to burn (01:16:40)

21. Good training (01:18:08)

22. Adam gets emotional (01:19:49)

23. If it wasn't for... (01:24:44)

24. "I shall look forward to the fight" (01:27:54)

25. Sponsor: Retool (01:34:40)

https://retool.com/changelog

26. Sponsor: Intel Innovation 2024 (01:37:28)

https://intel.com/innovation?regcode=CMCCHL&utm_campaign=Changelog

27. What matters to you? (01:39:01)

28. Exit well (01:44:17)

29. Picture this in your mind (01:47:40)

30. Initiating System Initiative (01:51:49)

31. Timing is everything (01:55:15)

32. Looming Dockers out there? (01:57:19)

33. The rise of Platform Engineering (02:00:54)

34. Something's coming this Fall (02:07:44)

35. We're done. That was epic! (02:15:26)

36. Closing thoughts (and stuff) (02:16:13)