May 2020 Summaries

GitHub has announced the private beta of GitHub Codespaces, which provide container-based dev environments for GitHub projects. This aligns with the vision of describing developer environments in code, which offers benefits such as eliminating onboarding friction, enabling remote work, and ensuring everyone gets the same setup. Gitpod is a similar solution that also allows users to take snapshots of any state of their dev environment and share exact clones of it. The integration of VS Code or Eclipse Theia into these environments provides powerful tools for developers. GitHub's investment in automated developer environments will help promote this new way of developing software, which is expected to improve lead times from ideas to production.

Gitpod Self-Hosted version 0.4.0 has been released, allowing users to set up and run a service with the same features as gitpod.io in their cloud or corporate network. The software runs on Kubernetes and can be installed via "helm install". It supports OAuth from self-managed GitLab or GitHub enterprise for user authentication. Gitpod Self-Hosted is truly self-hosted, operating entirely within the user's network without requiring an internet connection. This release includes bug fixes and improvements, particularly in GitLab integration, as well as a new admin UI for easier administrative tasks. The software is free for up to five users, with pricing details available on their website. Future releases will add support for AWS, Azure, OpenShift, and Atlassian's Bitbucket.