Eric Anderson (@ericmander) welcomes Peter Wang (@pwang) for a conversation about the Python ecosystem and the open-source communities that have built it. Peter is the creator of Anaconda, the near-essential Python distribution for scientific computing that makes managing packages a lot more manageable. In today’s episode, Peter offers a unique and powerful perspective on how to make the economics of open-source work for everyone. In this episode we discuss: The paradox of the PVM and Python’s packaging difficulties How Guido van Rossum implied permission for Anaconda and the open-source Python movement Python as the lingua franca of a new professional class Looking to Roblox for inspiration for a scientific computing creator community Giving back to open-source communities through the NumFOCUS Foundation Links: Anaconda NumFOCUS NumPy SciPy Enthought  Jupyter TensorFlow MicroPython scikit-learn pandas Quansight Red Hat Roblox People mentioned: Travis Oliphant (@teoliphant) Fernando Pérez (@fperez_org) Brian Granger (@ellisonbg) Min Ragan-Kelley (@minrk) Guido van Rossum (@gvanrossum) James Currier (@JamesCurrier) Other episodes: NumPy & SciPy with Travis Oliphant TensorFlow with Rajat Monga

Eric Anderson (@ericmander) is joined by Alexander Gallego (@emaxerrno) for an examination of Redpanda, the source available event streaming platform designed as a drop-in replacement for Kafka. Redpanda’s storage engine is attractive to developers for its performance and simplicity, removing the complexity of running Kafka to scale and deploying with a single binary. Listen to today’s episode to learn more about how Alexander and the team at Vectorized are looking to advance the conversation around streaming into the future. In this episode we discuss: What Alexander means when he says that hardware is the platform for data streaming The 3 things that turn a data stream into a data product Comparing Redpanda to Kafka and Pulsar A difference in product philosophy between selling to data teams vs app developers How Alexander approached the challenge of monetizing data infrastructure Links: Redpanda Vectorized Apache Kafka Apache Pulsar Apache Spark Apache Beam Apache Storm Apache Flink Elastic CockroachDB Other episodes: TensorFlow with Rajat Monga Scylla with Dor Laor

Eric Anderson (@ericmander) and Zoltan Olah (@zqzoltan) discuss Storybook, the open-source UI component development tool. Storybook supports all the most popular frontend frameworks and libraries such as React, Vue and Angular, but allows users to test and develop components in isolation. In today’s episode, learn more about the early days of the component-driven development methodology and how Storybook was saved by a passionate community of engineers. In this episode we discuss: Storybook as an integral part of UI design workflow How Zoltan and his team inherited Storybook and saved it from being “left out to dry” Solving a pain point for front-end engineers with Chromatic’s UI regression testing, built on top of Storybook Why Zoltan compares components to APIs, and Storybook to a service mesh What’s happening today in the world of open-source design systems Links: Storybook Chromatic Meteor GraphQL React Tailwind Selenium Cypress Material-UI Figma Learn Storybook People mentioned: Dominic Nguyen (@domyen) Tom Coleman (@tmeasday) Arunoda Susiripala (@arunoda) Norbert de Langen (@NorbertdeLangen) Michael Shilman (@mshilman)

Eric Anderson (@ericmander) and Sheng Wu (@wusheng1108) discuss Apache SkyWalking, an open-source APM tool focusing on cloud-native and distributed systems. SkyWalking was originally developed in 2012 as a training tool for developers new to distributed systems architecture, but it became Sheng’s pet project for several years until he brought it to the Apache Incubator program. Listen to today’s episode for the inside scoop of how this “hidden gem” fits into the Apache network of open-source software projects. In this episode we discuss: Why open-source APMs are not very common SkyWalking’s focus on attracting more contributors rather than users How a conflict of interest at Huawei led to a “bake-off” between Apache and CNCF The impact of Elastic changing their license on the open-source community The name “Skywalking,” its sources of inspiration, and an easter egg Links: Apache SkyWalking Kubernetes The Apache Incubator CNCF Tetrate Apache ShardingSphere Apache APISIX Envoy Proxy Apache Airflow Apache Beam Dynatrace New Relic Elastic Helm Zipkin Other episodes: Envoy Proxy with Matt Klein

Eric Anderson (@ericmander) and Fred K. Schott (@FredKSchott) dive into the world of Snowpack, an open-source, frontend build tool for web developers. Snowpack is special because it uses Javascript’s ES module system to instantly write file changes to the browser. Fred created Snowpack and the Skypack CDN to fulfill his vision of the future of the web, which he first recognized while trying to advance the Javascript ecosystem with an earlier project called Pika. On today’s episode, find out how Fred rejected the pain of modern web development, and came up with a better solution. In this episode we discuss: Reconfiguring old ideas for today’s web development landscape How Snowpack and Skypack lighten the load when it comes to Node modules and storage space Questioning what it means to build a modern application that works for developers and users alike Skypack and the future of shared dependencies across different sites Why Snowpack is using an open governance framework Links: Snowpack Skypack OCTO Speaker Series - Fred K. Schott Svelte React Ripple Microsite Deno Next.js esbuild webpack People mentioned: Rich Harris (@Rich_Harris) Nate Moore (@n_moore)

Eric Anderson (@ericmander) and Travis Oliphant (@teoliphant) take a far-reaching tour through the history of the Python data community. Travis has had a hand in the creation of many open-source projects, most notably the influential libraries, NumPy and SciPy, which helped cement Python as the standard for scientific computing. Join us for the story of a fledgling community from a time “before open-source was cool,” and their lessons for today’s open-source landscape. In this episode we discuss: How biomedical engineering, MRIs, and an unhappy tenure committee led to NumPy and SciPy Overcoming early challenges of distribution with Python What Travis would have done differently when he wrote NumPy Successfully solving the “two-option split” by adding a third option Community-driven open-source interacting with company-backed open-source Links: NumPy SciPy Anaconda Quansight Conda Matplotlib Enthought TensorFlow PyTorch MXNet PyPi Jupyter pandas People mentioned: Guido van Rossum (@gvanrossum) Robert Kern (Github: @rkern) Pearu Peterson (Github: @pearu) Wes McKinney (@wesmckinn) Charles Harris (Github: @charris) Francesc Alted (@francescalted) Fernando Perez (@fperez_org) Brian Granger (@ellisonbg) Other episodes: TensorFlow with Rajat Monga

Eric Anderson (@ericmander) and Dor Laor (@DorLaor) go under the hood of Scylla, the open-source NoSQL database designed for low latency and high throughput in big data applications. Dor and his team have reimplemented Apache Cassandra in C++ from scratch, with additional compatibility for DynamoDB. In today’s episode, Dor shares details on the exciting work coming out of ScyllaDB, including Seastar, their open-source C++ framework. Also, check out Scylla Summit 2021 to learn what’s next for Scylla. In this episode we discuss: Enabling Scylla to “gain control” by implementing Apache Cassandra in C++ How Dor and his co-founder were ahead of the curve with their vision for virtualization Scylla’s unique shard-per-core architecture Working with distributed teams, even before the COVID-19 pandemic The growing significance of separating the interface from the engine in open-source Learn about Project Circe, which is being featured at Scylla Summit 2021 right now Links: Scylla Seastar Scylla Summit 2021 Apache Cassandra DynamoDB MongoDB Redhat QEMU Redis Vectorized Apache Hadoop Apache HBase Apache Beam Apache Flink Apache Spark People mentioned: Avi Kivity (@AviKivity)

Eric Anderson (@ericmander) chats with Sven Efftinge (@svenefftinge), Christian Weichel (@csweichel) and Gero Posmyk-Leinemann (Github: @geropl) about their work on Gitpod, an open-source Kubernetes application that allows engineers to spin up a server-side dev-environment from a Git repository, all within their browser. The three team members are part of TypeFox, a consulting firm that specialized in developer tools for different companies before branching out into open-source projects. Upon Gero’s hiring at TypeFox, he was tasked with creating a minimum viable product for the idea that would eventually become Gitpod. Tune in to hear how shifting from consulting to working on their own open-source projects was a breath of fresh air for the developers at TypeFox. In this episode we discuss: How Gitpod solves the problem of switching between multiple dev environments, and improves deep code review The trap that many open-source founders fall into Why TypeFox wanted to switch from a consulting firm to a product shop Details on how Gitpod handles licensing Learn how you can instantly try out a Gitpod environment for any existing Github repository Links: Gitpod TypeFox Theia Kubernetes People mentioned: Anton Kosyakov (@akosyakov) Sid Sijbrandij (@sytses)

Eric Anderson (@ericmander) interviews Graham Neray (@grahamneray) about oso, the open-source policy engine for authorization. oso was originally born from a desire to make infrastructure and security easier for developers, which is why Graham and his company describe themselves as being in the “friction-removal business.” Listen to today’s episode to learn how the team at oso are working to put security in the hands of developers.  In this episode we discuss: Developers building RBAC (role-based access control) systems over and over again Why open-source is the best way to handle authorization logic The history behind oso’s core policy language, Polar How someone beat Graham to the punch submitting oso to a Python newsletter Comparing oso and OPA (Open Policy Agent) Links: oso Stripe Trulioo MongoDB Auth0 Show HN OPA Polar Adventure People mentioned: Sam Scott (@samososos) Alex Plotnick (Github: @plotnick) Stephen Olsen (@olsenator4) Other episodes: Presto on Contributor OPA on Contributor

Eric Anderson (@ericmander) is joined by Rajat Monga (@rajatmonga), a co-creator of TensorFlow. Originally developed by the Google Brain team, TensorFlow is now one of the most popular open-source libraries for machine learning. The team at TensorFlow seek to “democratize” the world of AI as we know it, and by all accounts, they are succeeding. Listen to today’s episode to get inside one of the largest and most exciting open-source projects of the decade. In this episode we discuss: How TensorFlow compares to other open-source projects at Google Taking bets on launch day numbers Balancing the demands of different kinds of TensorFlow users Lessons from Keras and PyTorch Links: TensorFlow Keras  PyTorch Kafka Kubernetes MapReduce: Simplified Data Processing on Large Clusters Bigtable: A Distributed Storage System for Structured Data People mentioned: Jeff Dean (@JeffDean) Andrew Ng (@AndrewYNg) François Chollet (@fchollet)