If you’re managing multiple Ubuntu machines in a network, downloading updates and packages for each system individually is a pain, as it eats up your bandwidth and takes more time than it should. Wouldn’t it be nice if you could download all the required packages just once and let all your systems install them locally from your own repository? that’s exactly what apt-mirror helps you do. In this article, I’ll walk you through step-by-step on how to set up a local Ubuntu repository using apt-mirror. What is apt-mirror? apt-mirror is a small tool that downloads an entire APT repository (or…
Author: drweb
Agentic applications – what actually are they and how do we make them easier to build, test, and deploy? At WeAreDevelopers, we defined agentic apps as those that use LLMs to define execution workflows based on desired goals with access to your tools, data, and systems. While there are new elements to this application stack, there are many aspects that feel very similar. In fact, many of the same problems experienced with microservices now exist with the evolution of agentic applications. Therefore, we feel strongly that teams should be able to use the same processes and tools, but with the…
DevOps.com is now providing a weekly DevOps jobs report through which opportunities for DevOps professionals will be highlighted as part of an effort to better serve our audience.Our goal in these challenging economic times is to make it just that much easier for DevOps professionals to advance their careers.Of course, the pool of available DevOps talent is still relatively constrained, so when one DevOps professional takes on a new role, it tends to create opportunities for others.The five job postings shared this week are selected based on the company looking to hire, the vertical industry segment and naturally, the pay…
If you’ve ever tried to set up HTTPS locally for development, you’ve probably run into a wall of complexity. Generating a self-signed certificate, getting your browser to trust it, and dealing with the warnings can be a real pain, that’s where mkcert comes in. mkcert is a simple tool that lets developers and sysadmins create locally-trusted SSL certificates for development and testing, which eliminates the annoying browser warnings, and yes, it’s free, open-source, and works beautifully on Linux. In this guide, I’ll walk you through what mkcert is, how it works, how to install it, and how to use it…
Organizations increasingly leverage DevOps for its ability to accelerate delivery, enhance reliability and spark innovation with enhanced automation ideas. But what happens when the very success of scaling automation and cloud infrastructure leads to costs that silently spiral out of control? It’s a common, frustrating scenario: One day, you’re staring at a doubled cloud bill with no clear answers. Through my work advising and guiding numerous technical initiatives across various teams, I’ve consistently found that true cost optimization isn’t about arbitrary mandates or a sudden realization or reactive response after looking at the monthly costs. Instead, it’s about cultivating a leadership…
In 2022, DevEx surged in prominence. Roles like “Head of DevEx” became common, and companies invested in onboarding platforms, feedback surveys and internal tooling initiatives aimed at fostering “happier developers.” But as economic conditions shifted, so did executive expectations. Initiatives without demonstrable impact on delivery velocity or system reliability have been scrutinized. What we’re witnessing is not the end of DevEx, but the end of a narrow interpretation of it: One that equated developer satisfaction with engineering success. To remain relevant and impactful, DevEx must evolve into a more outcome-driven, systems-aware discipline. The Happiness Trap Most DevEx programs optimize developer happiness in isolation,…
The software engineering landscape is experiencing a paradigm shift. While most AI coding tools have focused on generating code faster, a new player is tackling the more substantial challenge that consumes 70% of engineering time: Understanding existing codebases and collaborating effectively on complex problems.Reflection AI, founded by DeepMind researchers behind AlphaGo and Gemini and backed by $130 million, has launched Asimov. This code research agent promises to transform how engineering teams navigate the complexities of large-scale software development.The Real Engineering ChallengeThe conventional wisdom around AI coding assistance has been misguided. Research shows that engineers spend only about 10% of their…
In a world increasingly shaped by AI, the rules of software development are undergoing a shift. As organizations accelerate digital transformation, the pace of software production is staggering — more than 500 million new applications are built globally each year; by 2030, this number will be nearly one billion. Yet, the workforce (quality assurance (QA) professionals) tasked with ensuring these applications are functional, scalable and reliable remains drastically under-equipped. At present, there are only 1.5 to 2 million QA testers worldwide. Even if we are optimistic about automation, the gap only continues to grow. We believe this mismatch in scale presents not…
GitLab this week made available a public beta of a platform for building, managing and orchestrating artificial intelligence (AI) agents that have been trained to automate a range of DevOps tasks and workflows.Emilio Salvador, vice president of strategy and developer relations for GitLab, said the GitLab Duo Agent Platform will enable DevOps teams to assign tasks to AI agents both synchronously and asynchronously using an extensible platform that provides full visibility across the software development lifecycle (SDLC).GitLab as part of that effort is building a catalog for AI agents and a knowledge graph that will enable AI agents to access…
Generative AI tools aren’t just autocomplete for code—they’re reshaping the very first rung on the engineering career ladder. Host Mike Vizard asks Juan Salinas, VP of business development at Jalasoft, and software engineer Rolando Lora whether entry‑level developer jobs are about to disappear.Salinas is blunt: the routine, low‑risk tickets that once taught newcomers the ropes are now exactly what teams hand to AI agents. University graduates were “20–30 percent job‑ready” before; today the same agents that help them finish coursework will compete for their first paychecks.Lora counters that the picture isn’t all doom. Lightweight “vibe‑coding” chats let designers and product owners spin…