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Announcing HashiCorp (a Company for Vagrant)
- trotsky 14y agogood luck! vagrant seems to fit a sweet spot in real world configuration management needs. i look forward to a future independent of oracle.
- ukd1 14y agoCongratulations and best of luck Mitchell!
- mitchellh 14y agoI'm here to answer any questions, if you have them. I'm really excited! Fun fact, I first "launched" Vagrant on HN almost exactly 1000 days ago: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1175901 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1175901
- gerad 14y agoWhat's Vagrant?
- dboat 14y agovagrant is a tool for automatically setting up ("provisioning") new vms, according to scripts. For instance, once you have scripts that download and compile apache, php, python, and perhaps mysql and postgres, you can automatically create a new virtual machine with any combination of those things at any time. Even your applications can be automatically installed in a fresh development environment with a single command. It's great for allowing new developers to get going in their own environment on a team project, and good for you individually, if you have a lot of different things on the go, you can keep them isolated in their own environments and easily setup and destroy them at any time. The value is adds is great, although it also adds a bit of inconvenience. If your OS likes to update virtualbox a lot, vagrant might suddenly stop working until they update it. Developing the scripts to provision a vm can take quite a bit of time. If you're doing lengthy compiles in the process and those compiles are failing, it can be slow to find out why. Once you get a module down, and it's solid, it's very nice to have.
- varikin 14y agoThe place it shines is setting up a complex dev environment and snapshotting that. Then share the snapshot to other developers. They then do something like "vagrant init complex-env", "vagrant up", "vagrant ssh" and they are working in the environment without worrying about Postgres or Apache or Java or anything like that when they just need to work on CSS and HTML.
- stukpixel1 14y agoVagrant was amazingly helpful for my dev work this summer. Good to hear that you're making its development a priority. I suppose my only question is if you plan on redesigning the Vagrant Docs website to be more like your attractive company landing page.
- mitchellh 14y agoThe Vagrant website and the docs website is being completely re-designed by the same designer. It is going to look _very_ attractive. :)
- dmackerman 14y agoSorry, but that logo is so...1998.
- nirvana 14y agoThat's what I love about it. It is a very classic logo. It evokes for me the idea that it was designed for a high tech company in a sci-fi film. Like Cyberdyne Systems or TYRELL Corp.
- semanticist 14y agoI was instantly reminded of the OCP - Omni Consumer Products - logo from Robocop, and yes, I also like the slightly retro-future feel. As much as it's entirely irrelevant to Vagrant-as-a-tool itself, I'd love to see a whole 'brand identity' in the same theme. It's a small thing, but it makes me slightly happier when the tools I use have a little bit of character to them. (See also: Github & Octocats)
- LeafStorm 14y agoWill it be possible to run development VMs in VirtualBox and production VMs in vSphere with the same Vagrantfile?
- mitchellh 14y agoYep.
- LeafStorm 14y agoCool. I was considering using Vagrant for my current project at work, but our production VM infrastructure is on vSphere. Fortunately, we don't need to spin up new servers very often, so I just wrote a shell script to set everything up. It would be nice to use something a bit more battle-tested.
- adient 14y agoPuppet, chef, cfengine, etc...
- blhack 14y agohttp://vagrantup.com/ http://vagrantup.com/ A bit of constructive criticism: The "this changes everything" thing has become way, way, overplayed. I saw that and immediately rolled my eyes and stopped reading. It is about at the level of "code ninja" now.
- mitchellh 14y agoThanks, I agree that I'm tired of that. The Vagrant website is being redesigned at the moment, so that'll disappear shortly.
- igorgue 14y agoBut, and take this as a compliment, Vagrant does change everything. I'm so happy with vagrant now I can really say I have the same OS as my server in my laptop, I can easily switch between them and distribute the env between my peers.
- varikin 14y agoI agree, vagrant changes everything. At the moment, it is feasible for what we at work, yet. But I really want to use it more.
- RDDavies 14y agoAs an avid supporter of the project, shoot an email if you want a Web dev to build it out for you :).
- typicalrunt 14y agoYou'd be surprised how many Enterprise companies are discovering Vagrant for the first time. "You can have the same environment shared by everyone, and still look like Dev/QA/Production?" they ask. It's amazing how far behind some companies are on the tech curve.
- petercooper 14y agoThis isn't just a problem of a tech curve or conservatism but one of exposure and marketing. There are a lot of great tools and systems out there that are pretty in your face and obvious to use in certain niches yet.. you'll still run across good folks who are new to them. Always plenty of room to expand! (And that's a good thing ;-))
- lyaunzbe 14y agoCongratulations Mitchell! I have always admired your work and it is inspiring to see an such an evolution in your project. Kudos to whoever designed the site, it looks amazing!
- rbolkey 14y agoCongratulations as well! I've been using Vagrant mainly as a testing platform for authoring Puppet modules, and it's been wonderful.
- joedevon 14y agoCongrats! I'll hit you up about potentially setting up a training in Los Angeles.
- aashay 14y agoMaybe this is a stupid question, but how do you pronounce HashiCorp? Is it "HAA-she" (rhymes with Kashi, like the cereal) or is it "HASH-i" (rhymes with "flashy")? I'm guessing it's the former since it'd match the Japanese pronunciation of your last name...?
- mitchellh 14y agoRhymes with Kashi. ^_^
- recursive 14y agoI'm outing myself as a philistine here, but how do you pronounce Kashi, if it doesn't rhyme with flashy?
- yusefnapora 14y agoI think it rhymes with 'squashy' or 'washy'.
- aashay 14y agoHeh I probably should've gone with squashy or washy, but whenever I try to pick a rhyming word, I take the suffix syllable and prepend every letter in the alphabet until I come up with a word (aashi, bashi, cashi...). Kashi won... :\
- sparkie 14y agoThe "ha" sound is like in hash, but it's a distinct syllable on it's own, without the "sh". The second syllable is more like "she". The "ha" and "shi" have the same weight, so the whole word is 2 syllables and 2 morae, unlike either of the two examples you gave (which are 3 morae each.) It usually means "bridge" (橋) in the name Hashimoto, but can also mean "chopsticks" (箸) or "edge" (端), with a slightly different pitch (largely indistinguishable for non-speakers)
- rhizome 14y ago
- dfischer 14y agoGrats man. Happy for you.
- nigelk 14y agoGreat news Mitch! Congratulations, and give us a yell if I can help with anything.
- ramereth 14y agoCongrats on launching your new company! Best of luck!
- peralta 14y agoFirst of all: congrats! I have been using Vagrant for a while now and it's how we manage the development and test environments (+200) in the company I work at (tuenti.com). It is still not clear to me what the business model will be: will you be charging for selling extra providers (like VMWare Fusion), support contracts or ...?
- paulsmith 14y agoCan the first order of business be a renaming so the mascot of a useful and widely-used product isn't a homeless person?
- mitchellh 14y agoThe project won't be renamed, but it will be rebranded in the next few weeks. In the three years the project has existed I have only gotten two or three complaints about the mascot, but everyone has agreed that "Vagrant" itself is fine. Note that I've talked up to some pretty high levels of US government using Vagrant, and most are okay with it. One [fairly large/visible] organization within the US government has said they can't use it until the mascot is changed. Vince the Vagrant is being retired.
- evanphx 14y agoVince has a really good 401k plan, despite his scruff look. He's going to be sipping drinks on a Caribbean beach before we know it!
- nicholassmith 14y agoI actually like Vince the Vagrant as a mascot, but I can see why it could be troublesome.
- kstenerud 14y agoMaybe use a backpacker instead?
- stevvooe 14y agoWhat organization within the government is so vain that they can't use a great piece of technology due to a mascot?
- dreamdu5t 14y agoVagrant is a VirtualBox with a bunch of packages pre-installed? Am I correct?
- pearkes 14y agoNope - Vagrant is a tool for managing VM providers. Virtualbox has been the main provider it manages. Part of this announcement includes adding support for more providers!
- TallGuyShort 14y agoIf you frequently use VMs I suggest you checkout the example on their front page - it's super fast and I've found Vagrant to make a HUGE impact on my productivity and ability to use VMs for their intended purpose.
- heyadam 14y agoCongrats! Looking forward to see how Vagrant grows over the next couple years.
- Hupo 14y agoCongrats! I should probably get around to actually testing Vagrant one of these days too... Also, the website looks absolutely gorgeous. Fantastic work there.
- shizcakes 14y agoWhere can I go to find more information about Vagrant's plans for supporting more hypervisors than Virtualbox?
- orangethirty 14y agoUse a backpacker for the mascot. It matches what the product does better. Homeless people dont have much stuff. Backpackers have and take their stuff everywhere. Which is the spirit of what you are doing. Have your stuff avaiable everywhere. So, a backpacker.
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]
- dekz 14y agoI'm having trouble understanding your recommendation. Vagrants take ALL of their belongings with them, they have little where else to store any items they. Backpackers couldn't possibly take everything they own with them or they would by definition be Vagrants. I think having a Vagrant as the mascot for Vagrant is the only obvious option.
- orangethirty 14y agoOk, my point is that both take their belogings with them. Backpackers take the stuff they need to travel around. Same as Vagrants, as you mentioned. But, to the market, having a Vagrant as a mascot might be seen in bad taste. Thus, to reduce the chance of rain over his parade, he could potentially just change mascots. That way, people who get easily offended by anything won't have an excuse to say anything. Plus, when this product gets more and more traction, people will question the mascot choice. That's why Frostred Flakes has Tony the Tiger, and not Bad Luck Johnny that lives under a bridge. Its all about perception. Though this is an issue some hacker don't get, because to them the world is black and white. Not saying it is you, of course. Just talking out loud. Also, why the only obvious option? Why couldn't it be a Puppy, Cat, Horse, Printer, Cloud, Keyboard, Fish, or anything else? Why the Vagrant? Its not obvious. For all the client know Vagrant might be an acronym or some made up tech name.
- ecspike 14y agoCame here to say hi and congrats Mitchell. Was fun hanging out in CZ, we should do it again, this time, stateside.
- lixef 14y ago@mitchellh Congratulations first! As I've been reading your tweets I've been guessing that you would starting, which focuses you on Vagrant. I have a few questions: When did you think about the first time and when did you really decide to do this step? How do you start? Bootstrap it by your own or try to go with for a VC? How are you planning the addon open source/paid addon ratio will be like? I wish you all the best for your company. And because I've been using Vagrant every day: Thank you very much.
- mitchellh 14y ago> When did you think about the first time and when did you really decide to do this step? The inkling of a possibility of something like this only entered my head around March/April 2012. I committed to the idea in June 2012. > How do you start? Bootstrap it by your own or try to go with for a VC? I'm attempting to bootstrap it on my own for now, because I think I have a solid foundation so there is a clear line to revenue. Of course, my runway to do this is much shorter than if I had VC funding. On the other hand, I have a lot more freedom without VC funding. > How are you planning the addon open source/paid addon ratio will be like? There will be many more open source add-ons, and I think it should be this way. Thank YOU for using Vagrant. :)
- minikomi 14y agoJust a heads up: Your favicon is almost identical to http://gree-corp.com/ http://gree-corp.com/ , big social game maker in Japan.
- cheapsteak 14y agoIt's a cube Surely you can't trademark a cube?
- minikomi 14y agoFair enough. It's maybe not such a problem in the U.S. where the logo isn't in the media much, but to me the blue hexagon immediately triggered recognition. I'm only passing on the info.
- kanwisher 14y agoAny plans for helping unit test vm creation? One of the biggest problems I've had is trying to verify that my Chef installation works after each change
- regularfry 14y agoExcellent. I've been watching Vagrant from the sidelines. It's looking great, but it's useless to me until it gets a KVM backend.
- sciurus 14y agoUntil it does, you might want to try McCloud. https://github.com/jedi4ever/mccloud/ https://github.com/jedi4ever/mccloud/ http://jedi.be/blog/2011/09/13/libvirt-fog-provider/ http://jedi.be/blog/2011/09/13/libvirt-fog-provider/