5 ms·

LinkedIn is 99% Java but 100% Mac

30 points by kungfudoi 18y ago

dmix 18y ago
"A new engineer that comes in gets a new MacPro with dual quad-core CPUs and 12GB of ram and a MacBook Pro." That's my kind of company. I'd do the same if I was in their position.
- Hexstream 18y ago
  I really feel like a newb, only using 450MB RAM max... How do you fill up any significant portion of 12GB RAM on a workstation without doing intensive video editing?
  - deleted 18y ago
    [deleted]
  - jpeterson 18y ago
    Virtual machines.
    - Hexstream 18y ago
      Sometimes I don't get it, is this 17-karma comment really more than 3 times as desirable than the 5-karma comment by tx?
  - tx 18y ago
    Easy: run several VMware instances on parallel desktops ("spaces" they call it). We do that for: a) Testing cross-browser compatibility, each version of IE needs its own VM, plus Opera/FF on Linux b) Have a copy of deployment environment running, i.e. VM for an appserver and the mailserver running separately, etc. Moreover, I like to have instances of PhotoShop and Fireworks running in their own "spaces", and both of them love RAM. Basically each programmer gets his own farm of machines he can do anything with. The key is to never reboot. We don't have 12GB machines, but 4GB get eaten pretty quick.
    - mpc 18y ago
      I would imagine the biggest hit is B. If you're developing search functionality or other features that work against the social graph then you'll probably need to get a large chunk of that into memory. I've worked on a couple of non-trivial web apps, but nothing even close to linked in and 4gb was a necessity at times.
      - whatusername 18y ago
        An VMWare sharts to chew through my RAM - espeially if you're trying to do something non-trivial in a couple of VM's simultaneously.
  - staunch 18y ago
    I'll bet most really don't ever push 12GB in practice. The thing is that these days memory is ridiculously cheap (especially if you don't buy it from Apple), so going to 12GB is really just a choice to never worry about running out of memory ever again.
    - deleted 18y ago
      [deleted]
  - siculars 18y ago
    i got my octo-core macpro machine with 16gb ram (ram from http://www.macsales.com/ http://www.macsales.com/) the day i got back from apple wwdc07. developing everything you ever wanted to develop on virtual machines from one physical machine (with a few terabytes of disk space) on leopard (spaces ftw) has been one of the biggest boons of my development career. with that kind of ram you can spin up an webdev stack and mix and match pieces all day long.
  - gaius 18y ago
    LinkedIn cache their social graph in memory, I'd imagine if you were developing on that you'd want a significant subset of it to test on http://hurvitz.org/blog/2008/06/linkedin-architecture http://hurvitz.org/blog/2008/06/linkedin-architecture
- karzeem 18y ago
  I know they're well-funded, but that seems absurd. Would I accept it if I were working there? With extreme pleasure.
st3fan 18y ago
"""most of our core business logic is written in Java on a Spring/Jetty/Tomcat stack""" Which is an AWESOME stack. We use it too :-)
- mpc 18y ago
  Why do you like it so much?
- mosburger 18y ago
  I might be retarded, but I don't get it... Jetty and Tomcat are both servlet containers, why do you have both in your "stack"?
  - st3fan 18y ago
    They probably run stuff on both jetty and tomcat. For standard web apps there is no difference. For some specialized stuff, like cometd, you could prefer to use one or the other.
jrockway 18y ago
Amusing screenshots. It seems that the bigger the monitor you give people, the more space they waste. I can't believe that people still want to manage the position and size of their windows.
omnipath 18y ago
"The down side of the whole deal is that you have to choose between two 23’’ or one 30’’ Apple Cinema display. Life is tough and you just can't have it all." Tough? Two 23'' all the way. My heart went all a flutter reading the development box specs.
softbuilder 18y ago
If they give you big enough monitors you can fashion them into walls for your cubiclette. Ugh. Seriously, I'd trade a 30" monitor for a quiet spot with almost any view and a minimal amount of privacy.

30 points by kungfudoi 18y ago

dmix 18y ago

"A new engineer that comes in gets a new MacPro with dual quad-core CPUs and 12GB of ram and a MacBook Pro." That's my kind of company. I'd do the same if I was in their position.

Hexstream 18y ago
I really feel like a newb, only using 450MB RAM max... How do you fill up any significant portion of 12GB RAM on a workstation without doing intensive video editing?
- deleted 18y ago
  [deleted]
- jpeterson 18y ago
  Virtual machines.
  - Hexstream 18y ago
    Sometimes I don't get it, is this 17-karma comment really more than 3 times as desirable than the 5-karma comment by tx?
- tx 18y ago
  Easy: run several VMware instances on parallel desktops ("spaces" they call it). We do that for: a) Testing cross-browser compatibility, each version of IE needs its own VM, plus Opera/FF on Linux b) Have a copy of deployment environment running, i.e. VM for an appserver and the mailserver running separately, etc. Moreover, I like to have instances of PhotoShop and Fireworks running in their own "spaces", and both of them love RAM. Basically each programmer gets his own farm of machines he can do anything with. The key is to never reboot. We don't have 12GB machines, but 4GB get eaten pretty quick.
  - mpc 18y ago
    I would imagine the biggest hit is B. If you're developing search functionality or other features that work against the social graph then you'll probably need to get a large chunk of that into memory. I've worked on a couple of non-trivial web apps, but nothing even close to linked in and 4gb was a necessity at times.
    - whatusername 18y ago
      An VMWare sharts to chew through my RAM - espeially if you're trying to do something non-trivial in a couple of VM's simultaneously.
- staunch 18y ago
  I'll bet most really don't ever push 12GB in practice. The thing is that these days memory is ridiculously cheap (especially if you don't buy it from Apple), so going to 12GB is really just a choice to never worry about running out of memory ever again.
  - deleted 18y ago
    [deleted]
- siculars 18y ago
  i got my octo-core macpro machine with 16gb ram (ram from http://www.macsales.com/ http://www.macsales.com/) the day i got back from apple wwdc07. developing everything you ever wanted to develop on virtual machines from one physical machine (with a few terabytes of disk space) on leopard (spaces ftw) has been one of the biggest boons of my development career. with that kind of ram you can spin up an webdev stack and mix and match pieces all day long.
- gaius 18y ago
  LinkedIn cache their social graph in memory, I'd imagine if you were developing on that you'd want a significant subset of it to test on http://hurvitz.org/blog/2008/06/linkedin-architecture http://hurvitz.org/blog/2008/06/linkedin-architecture
karzeem 18y ago
I know they're well-funded, but that seems absurd. Would I accept it if I were working there? With extreme pleasure.

st3fan 18y ago

"""most of our core business logic is written in Java on a Spring/Jetty/Tomcat stack""" Which is an AWESOME stack. We use it too :-)

mpc 18y ago
Why do you like it so much?
mosburger 18y ago
I might be retarded, but I don't get it... Jetty and Tomcat are both servlet containers, why do you have both in your "stack"?
- st3fan 18y ago
  They probably run stuff on both jetty and tomcat. For standard web apps there is no difference. For some specialized stuff, like cometd, you could prefer to use one or the other.

jrockway 18y ago

Amusing screenshots. It seems that the bigger the monitor you give people, the more space they waste. I can't believe that people still want to manage the position and size of their windows.

omnipath 18y ago

"The down side of the whole deal is that you have to choose between two 23’’ or one 30’’ Apple Cinema display. Life is tough and you just can't have it all." Tough? Two 23'' all the way. My heart went all a flutter reading the development box specs.

softbuilder 18y ago

If they give you big enough monitors you can fashion them into walls for your cubiclette. Ugh. Seriously, I'd trade a 30" monitor for a quiet spot with almost any view and a minimal amount of privacy.