I want to mention the "polish": I personally don't believe in releasing an open source project without polish. If it is missing docs, its just not complete. If it is ugly, it is not complete. The technical aspects of Serf were done weeks ago. Getting the human side of things done took another few weeks (contracting designers and such).
> When did you realise the need for serf?
The need for something like Serf has existed since I started doing ops. Every time I hit something where I say to myself "why is this so hard/crappy" is when I write it down in my notebook for a future date. I then just think on the idea for awhile and eventually when I feel like I have a significantly better solution than what is out there already, I build it.
I decided to start building Serf when @armon started throwing gossip protocol academic papers at me. I realized he figured it out, this was clearly significantly better, so we started working on it.
> Did you work on it as a main project at some point or is it a side project?
To get it out the door we focus on it for some period of time. After it is shipped it is still what I would consider a "main project" but time is split between various projects.
> When and how did you decide to commit to getting this done?
A few weeks ago. It took about a month to build. Building it is easy. Figuring out WHAT to build... took a long time. I have to say I've had "service orchestration/membership" in my notebook for years.
> What strategies did you use to keep the plates spinning while building surf?
No good answer here, we just prioritize some things over others. Serf was our top priority this month.
Thank you - that "building was easy, compared to knowing what to build" put a lot into perspective. And reaching out to external people to build the polish is a surprise, but obvious in retrospect.
I am afraid that for such a helpful and clear answer, you get a mere 1 karma point from me - but thank you.
I want to mention the "polish": I personally don't believe in releasing an open source project without polish. If it is missing docs, its just not complete. If it is ugly, it is not complete. The technical aspects of Serf were done weeks ago. Getting the human side of things done took another few weeks (contracting designers and such).
> When did you realise the need for serf?
The need for something like Serf has existed since I started doing ops. Every time I hit something where I say to myself "why is this so hard/crappy" is when I write it down in my notebook for a future date. I then just think on the idea for awhile and eventually when I feel like I have a significantly better solution than what is out there already, I build it.
I decided to start building Serf when @armon started throwing gossip protocol academic papers at me. I realized he figured it out, this was clearly significantly better, so we started working on it.
> Did you work on it as a main project at some point or is it a side project?
To get it out the door we focus on it for some period of time. After it is shipped it is still what I would consider a "main project" but time is split between various projects.
> When and how did you decide to commit to getting this done?
A few weeks ago. It took about a month to build. Building it is easy. Figuring out WHAT to build... took a long time. I have to say I've had "service orchestration/membership" in my notebook for years.
> What strategies did you use to keep the plates spinning while building surf?
No good answer here, we just prioritize some things over others. Serf was our top priority this month.