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Discussion on: What am I missing out if I'm not using a VM/Container for my development setup?

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david_j_eddy profile image
David J Eddy

"...pretty much identical to my production..." So it is not 100% parity w/ the production machine. Wait until that one OS package changes and you up date locally, spent a month building a new feature that relies on that new OS package version but production will not be updated until next quarter and YOU have to spend weekend re-writing the feature.

"Works on my machine" ... guess you machine is production now, seriously. You work machine is not the 8 year old Thinkpad with the broken keyboard 'cause you fancy Macbook Pro now has to host that feature that only runs on your machine.

Your operations people will also greatly appreciate the effort of doing your due diligence in ensure the application install/operation/load/shutdown/etc will indeed operate as expected.

Going back to the item of environmental parity. Given the levels of abstraction required to execute even the simplest web application removing fear uncertainty and doubt (FUD) as much as possible pays off in the longer term.

Now, if your project is a small side hustle, class project, non PII proof of concept; then yes, parity is overkill. But that one time you spend all weekend stuck figuring out why a feature does not work, only to find out it is some low level OS package minor version change or slightly different API (see sed on OSX vs Ubuntu) you will come to value parity.

Hope this helps out and is not to ranty. I've been bit by this issue to many times.

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alchermd profile image
John Alcher

I appreciate your thoughts on this, it really gave me a new perspective on the issue.

And yeah, I agree that removing uncertainty is a good payoff for the effort. I personally haven't experienced an OS package disparity messing up my production setup, so I guess getting environment parity is a good way to make sure I never experience it at all.

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david_j_eddy profile image
David J Eddy

Glad I could provide a different perspective. Life everything else in life 'there is not perfect answers, only trade-offs', so I will not pretend to be dogmatic about solution options.

I hesitate to agree with "..never experience it at all.". Nothing in life (or computing) is assured.

If you are so included, feel free to message me any time.

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alchermd profile image
John Alcher

I hesitate to agree with "..never experience it at all.". Nothing in life (or computing) is assured.

Wait a second, do you mean that even if I build two identical images there's still a chance for disparity? Or you're just giving me advice and I misunderstood it lol.

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david_j_eddy profile image
David J Eddy

General life advice. :)