[windexh8er]

Building platforms is akin to building cars by hand - few do it that way anymore, and those who do are premium brands, built for very specific purposes wherein it doesn't make sense to automate those things. If cars were built all by hand, one by one, by "artists" they would not be affordable or as reliable as they are today. There is consistency, there is scalability, and there is reference in automation.

Do you think Amazon builds one compute node at a time? You may think it is art, but you can conversely look at a very sterile, well built environment where there is no room for error as art as well - something produced by DevOps.

Finally DevOps threatens nothing, at least nothing that shouldn't be. It promotes progress. Why? Because if your skill and craft is so good, why not be able to push it to the masses. And if you want to remain in the realm of niche then find the players that need one-off art. Past that, DevOps is long overdue.

DevOps hasn't ruined anything. Get over sysadmin as "art", otherwise I have unicorns and rainbows to sell you. Sure, there are good sysadmins and bad, but it's a stretch to say that you're so good your job can't be replicated with a build framework that fosters sane and repeatable process.

[maratd]

So, that piece was satire. Unfortunately, satire is frequently used to attack the opposition without actually having to make a cogent argument.

> Get over sysadmin as "art" > Building platforms is akin to building cars by hand

Uhhh... no. My server is art. Now, I built my own build system, so do I really build servers by hand? No. But I built the build system. And I configured it. And it produces a server that is exactly to my specification. Down to every single file.

After the build? I click save. Then I duplicate. Then I have lots and lots of servers that are built to my precise desire. That's art.

Is my system more performant and secure than the system you built with:

(your favorite package manager) install (all the shit you need)

Yes. By a lot.

(chef or whatever off-the-shelf build system) install and configure (all the shit you need)

Yes. By a little.

But, hey, you know what? It's my server. And it's exactly the way I want it. And there's value in that. I own my stack.

Which makes writing software for it more fun. By a lot.

[windexh8er]

"Is my system more performant and secure than the system you built with:

(your favorite package manager) install (all the shit you need)

Yes. By a lot."

You should take a look at DevOps.

[Terretta]

You've perfectly grasped the author's point, and repeated it in your own words.