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I was chatting with a friend last week, who made me realize that open source skills are a lot like Linux skills these days. Everyone in tech has heard something about Linux. Many of us have had the word Linux in our job titles, or could have. Linux powers most of the internet. Disney+, Netflix, Google, Amazon, Verizon, Meta, NASA, CERN, and many, many other organizations, big and small, for-profit and not-for-profit, use Linux to run their workloads. Linux expertise is now a big part of an organization’s knowledge base. Many of these organizations also run Kubernetes at scale. Which means Kubernetes is going to become like Linux, a skill most folks have. Open source skills, much like Linux skills, have become far more widespread. This is a part of the reason our friends in Open Source Program Offices are struggling to either keep their jobs or find new places that want their expertise (myself included). My job hunt is going okay. The outpouring of support is greatly appreciated. Thank y’all so much! But, if you’re looking for a technical storyteller to up-level customers using your product or service, look no further (especially if you’re in the cloud native space), as I’m looking for a new role. ...

After a bit of a hiatus, DevOps’ish is back! I’m restarting the newsletter to get back into speaking, networking, and keeping myself visible in the industry. The timing? Well, I got laid off last Friday (see my LinkedIn post and amplify it if you don’t mind). Back on the job market = the perfect time to restart. What’s different? One word: simplicity. Everything lives on Buttondown now—no more dual posting to a website and a newsletter/email platform. I’ll write in Markdown while keeping the format free-flowing and less structured. The content? Same approach: I’ll share what I’m reading, with social media interaction guiding what makes the cut. One big change is that I now have better metric aggregation, which greatly streamlines things. On AI: Yes, I’m using it for tasks here and there (for example, Claude helped me make this intro shorter). But here’s the deal—I’m not copy/pasting AI output to y’all (chances are you deal with that too much already). As a friend reminded me this week, DevOps’ish has my voice, and that’s what made it popular in the first place. That’s not changing. ...

It’s been a while. I am happy to say that DevOps’ish will be returning to an inbox near you. I’m reaching out because you were an active subscriber to DevOps’ish prior to going into hiatus. If you want to receive the new editions of the DevOps’ish newsletter, no action is required on your part. If you no longer wish to receive emails from DevOps’ish click the unsubscribe button below and you won’t hear from me again. Thank you! Chris Short Subscribe to DevOps'ish Cloud Native, DevOps, Open Source, AI, tech industry news, culture, and the 'ish between. A newsletter by Chris Short. ...

This is not how I wanted things to end. I’ve been dealing with an elbow injury for a while. I finally went to the doctor’s to figure out what was going on. That became the least of my worries shortly thereafter. I’ve been diagnosed with yet another ailment. This time it’s my heart 🫀. I’m under explicit doctor’s orders to cut stressors out and do things that bring me more joy. Basically, I need to stop doing so much. Writing a newsletter is like working under a constant deadline. DevOps’ish is many hours of extra work every week. I walk on a razor’s edge to continue managing it as an independent brand while working a full-time day job at a major cloud provider. DevOps’ish turned into a second job and income stream years ago. At the very least, I’ve proven I can do it (which means I could always do it again). Every Q4 (October), I ponder long and hard about continuing DevOps’ish. It was a topic of discussion at KubeCon with my close friends. Before I got the doctor’s order, I had decided to put DevOps’ish into hiatus mode at the end of the year. It has been an excellent six-year run. I’ve learned a lot, and I hope you have too. But, in light of this recent news, I have to idle the newsletter immediately. ...

Side Note: I have no doubt that Twitter is going to unban people that really shouldn’t be for national security reasons. With that in mind, I’ve consolidated my Mastodon presence on the Mastodon server hachyderm.io so please follow me there @ChrisShort! Also, Happy birthday, Max! My youngest’s birthday is today. Stay awesome, buddy! Let me be abundantly clear. I had a great KubeCon. It was rough physically, though, as I’ll explain. Seeing Ihor come on stage was the inspiration I needed FOR SURE. It was a negative in my “keynotes from the hotel room strategy,” though. I am truly sad I couldn’t say hello to more people and help folks more. Please DM me on the platform of your choosing. Let’s get you booked into the podcast schedule or a Zoom or phone call. Every KubeCon, I tell myself, “Take Wednesday completely off, and you’ll make it through the whole thing.” Every time, I fail. This past Wednesday wound up being the busiest day. I also over-extend myself to do more during KubeCon than anyone else could; this habit dies now. ...