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This is one where the market wants what the market wants and it wasn't mesos. In 2013/2014 I was super excited about mesos and then kubernetes came out. Having

by asim 6y ago

This is one where the market wants what the market wants and it wasn't mesos. In 2013/2014 I was super excited about mesos and then kubernetes came out. Having worked at Google, seeing this thing come out it was clear from the get go it would win. But if you're a startup with millions in funding running at 100mph you can't stop. It's impossible to course correct immediately and you shouldn't. You have to see it play out in the market. Even in hopes that you can continue to establish a strong business. In this case kubernetes ate everyone's lunch including mesosphere. It's sad. It's really sad to be a technologist who works on something for years only for that to become irrelevant when something comes out that takes the market in a different direction. And this gets even harder when every cloud provider starts using open source as a marketing and distribution channel. I experienced this with grpc. My original project is now no longer a company maintained effort but instead a side project once more and it's even been renamed. The perils of going up against Google. The only saving grace is to solve the same problem but in a different way. E.g move on to being a "platform". I'm sad for Ben, Tobi and Flo but that's the game and sometimes it doesn't go your way.

hn_throwaway_99 6y ago
This is why I think many a software engineer gets burned out around midlife. The "winner take all/most" dynamics don't just exist for internet companies, they also exist for technologies. Putting my blood, sweat and tears into some long term technology project, only to have it end up being on the losing end of "mind share" at some point, can be incredibly disheartening over time. Some years ago I worked at a company that decided to standardize on Flow (TypeScript wasn't yet the clear winner, and Flow seemed to be easier to integrate piecemeal into an existing project). It was a good bit of work - that is all now getting ripped out and converted to TS as the Flow ecosystem dies. I think that may be one reason why many software engineers take up things like woodworking or sculpting: working in a 3D, physical, non-ephemeral medium can be incredibly rewarding after working in the space of easily disposable software.
smarterclayton 6y ago
We (Red Hat) sat down with the Mesosphere team pre-Kubernetes and were seriously considering Mesos and Mesosphere to replatform OpenShift (our PaaS) onto. When Google decided to make a run at Kubernetes, we decided to switch, despite having quite a few larger customers (financial, animation studios) urging us to go down the Mesos path. For us it was less history and accumulated baggage, the opportunity to learn from previous systems, to make the container spec a bit more core to the platform (since Mesos already had fairly opinionated choices in place), and to be less “high scale scheduling” and more “application infrastructure for the masses”. I respected the choices and commitment the Mesosphere team had made, and their execution always reminds me that sometimes you have to commit, sometimes you have to pivot, and sometimes you don’t know which way is going to pay off. We might have gone down this path as well, and sometimes you’re not in the right place despite everything.
alexellisuk 6y ago
You and I have both spoken about what happens when a big vendor reinvents something you’ve created that has a lot of traction. This hurt Rancher with cattle, it hurt Docker in many ways, it’s now changed the direction of DC/OS irrevocably. I do feel for all of the above and have personal experience with this bizarre situation. I wish all the best to Toby et al and hope they can continue to innovate for their customers and to flourish.

by asim 6y ago

hn_throwaway_99 6y ago

This is why I think many a software engineer gets burned out around midlife. The "winner take all/most" dynamics don't just exist for internet companies, they also exist for technologies. Putting my blood, sweat and tears into some long term technology project, only to have it end up being on the losing end of "mind share" at some point, can be incredibly disheartening over time. Some years ago I worked at a company that decided to standardize on Flow (TypeScript wasn't yet the clear winner, and Flow seemed to be easier to integrate piecemeal into an existing project). It was a good bit of work - that is all now getting ripped out and converted to TS as the Flow ecosystem dies. I think that may be one reason why many software engineers take up things like woodworking or sculpting: working in a 3D, physical, non-ephemeral medium can be incredibly rewarding after working in the space of easily disposable software.

smarterclayton 6y ago

We (Red Hat) sat down with the Mesosphere team pre-Kubernetes and were seriously considering Mesos and Mesosphere to replatform OpenShift (our PaaS) onto. When Google decided to make a run at Kubernetes, we decided to switch, despite having quite a few larger customers (financial, animation studios) urging us to go down the Mesos path. For us it was less history and accumulated baggage, the opportunity to learn from previous systems, to make the container spec a bit more core to the platform (since Mesos already had fairly opinionated choices in place), and to be less “high scale scheduling” and more “application infrastructure for the masses”. I respected the choices and commitment the Mesosphere team had made, and their execution always reminds me that sometimes you have to commit, sometimes you have to pivot, and sometimes you don’t know which way is going to pay off. We might have gone down this path as well, and sometimes you’re not in the right place despite everything.

alexellisuk 6y ago

You and I have both spoken about what happens when a big vendor reinvents something you’ve created that has a lot of traction. This hurt Rancher with cattle, it hurt Docker in many ways, it’s now changed the direction of DC/OS irrevocably. I do feel for all of the above and have personal experience with this bizarre situation. I wish all the best to Toby et al and hope they can continue to innovate for their customers and to flourish.