[qznc]

I always wonder why cf-engine is so unpopular on HN. It has some nice advantages like no dependency on ssh or a scripting language. It is not as simple to get started, though.

[atsaloli]

I'm working on a CFEngine Tutorial to help people get started. I was inspired by Michael Hartl's "Learn Enough Tutorial Writing To Be Dangerous" talk at LA Ruby Conf to finally turn my CFEngine course materials into a book. It'll be my first commercial product so I'm excited!

Edit: added link to mhartl's tutorial: http://www.learnenough.com/tutorial-writing

[betaby]

As a former user of puppet and chef, I would say cfengine has a higher entrance brier. It pays the efforts thought.

[ybx]

Is SSH really a dependency you have to worry about though? Basically every server out there runs SSH.

[bovermyer]

SSH's major problem here is performance. When you need to orchestrate dozens of servers with many separate tasks, then the slowdown is very noticeable.