AI Accelerates Development, Demands New Database and OS Paradigms - Episode Hero Image

AI Accelerates Development, Demands New Database and OS Paradigms

The Changelog: Software Development, Open Source · · Listen to Original Episode →
Original Title: Down the Linux rabbit hole (Friends)

TL;DR

  • Agentic Postgres is the first database built for agents, enabling faster development by allowing agents to run at their expected speed rather than being constrained by traditional database limitations.
  • Rootless Podman, while technically sound, introduces complexity in user ID mapping for volume mounts, creating a usability gap compared to Docker's simpler, albeit root-dependent, approach.
  • Bootc represents a logical evolution towards immutable, atomic operating systems, enabling self-changing systems where updates occur underneath existing data, simplifying system management.
  • ZFS Rent offers an affordable offsite backup solution by allowing users to send a hard drive to their facility, providing a dedicated replication target for $10/month per slot.
  • AI's impact on individual productivity is significant, enabling developers to rapidly prototype and build complex applications like the Quicksync benchmarks website, which would have taken exponentially longer solo.
  • The homogenization of media services and removal of physical media options is creating a vacuum that may lead to a resurgence in piracy as consumers seek accessible and permanent content ownership.
  • Declarative operating systems like Talos Linux, which enforce immutability and versioned configurations, eliminate config drift and simplify system management by requiring updates only through configuration changes.

Deep Dive

The integration of AI into software development is rapidly shifting the bottleneck from code creation to integration, enabling small teams to achieve the velocity of much larger organizations. This paradigm shift necessitates a reevaluation of traditional development processes, particularly in areas like code review and build pipelines, to prevent them from becoming the new choke points. The implications extend to the very structure of engineering teams and the tools they employ.

The current landscape of software development is increasingly characterized by AI-driven agents acting as developers, fundamentally altering how code is generated and managed. This transition, evidenced by the significant AI contribution to major products like Claude and Google's codebase, means that traditional database systems, designed for human interaction, are becoming inadequate. TigerData's Agentic PostgreSQL aims to address this by providing a database built for AI agents, offering native search and retrieval, instant zero-copy forks, and an MCP server designed to handle the scale and parallel processing demands of AI interactions, thereby accelerating development cycles.

The proliferation of AI in development also raises questions about the sustainability and business models of AI providers and tool creators. While AI is here to stay, the current economic model, characterized by a circular flow of investment between AI providers and hardware manufacturers like Nvidia, raises concerns. Furthermore, the energy demands of AI are substantial, potentially necessitating new infrastructure like nuclear power and impacting the availability and cost of essential components like NAND chips, which could soon affect consumer electronics and automotive sectors. The challenge for developers is to upskill and leverage these AI tools to remain relevant and solve problems efficiently, rather than being overtaken by the pace of change.

Emerging technologies like Boot C and immutable operating systems represent a significant evolution in system management, moving towards declarative configurations and disposable nodes. This approach, exemplified by Talos Linux, aims to eliminate configuration drift and simplify updates by treating infrastructure as code. The benefit is a more reliable and manageable system, particularly for home labs and servers, where traditional update processes can lead to instability. However, the transition to these declarative models requires a shift in mindset and tooling, moving away from imperative scripting towards a more structured, version-controlled approach to system configuration.

The self-hosting movement, particularly in media management, is gaining momentum as individuals seek greater control over their data and a more sustainable alternative to subscription services. The migration away from platforms like Google Photos and the rise of self-hosted solutions like Immich highlight a desire for digital sovereignty and a rejection of practices like data usage for AI model training and content deletion for tax write-offs. This trend, coupled with the increasing fragmentation of media services and potential for piracy, suggests a future where individuals prioritize ownership and control over their digital content.

The evolution of tooling in software development is creating powerful new capabilities for individual developers. Projects like the QuickSync benchmarks, built using AI assistance, demonstrate how individuals can leverage AI to create complex tools that would have previously required significant time, collaboration, or specialized coding skills. This empowers individuals to solve their own problems and build innovative solutions, contributing to a collective advancement of technology. The open-source nature of these tools further amplifies their impact, fostering a collaborative ecosystem where individual contributions can lead to significant collective progress.

Action Items

  • Audit ZFS backup strategy: Implement offsite replication to a trusted third party or friend (ref: zfs.rent, friend in Canada) to address lack of disaster recovery.
  • Evaluate self-hosted Immich migration: Plan for family photo frame workflow transition and data deletion from Google Photos, considering potential impact on shared albums.
  • Explore Talos Linux for home servers: Investigate declarative OS configuration for improved stability and reduced config drift, aiming to avoid manual upgrades and potential breakage.
  • Benchmark Intel CPU transcoding performance: Contribute to or utilize the crowdsourced quicksync.ktz.me website to inform hardware purchasing decisions for media servers.
  • Develop a plan for Kubernetes adoption: Allocate dedicated learning time (e.g., Thanksgiving weekend) to explore its application in home lab environments, potentially for new software projects.

Related Episodes

Key Quotes

"80 of claude was built with ai over a year ago 25 of google's code was ai generated it's safe to say that now it's probably close to 100 most people i talk to most developers i talk to right now almost all their code is being generated that's a different world here's the deal agents are the new developers they don't click they don't scroll they call they retrieve they parallelize they plug in your infrastructure to places you need it to perform but your database is probably still thinking about humans only because that's kind of where postgres is at"

The speaker highlights the increasing role of AI in code generation, suggesting that a significant portion of code written by developers is now AI-generated. This shift implies that "agents" are becoming the primary developers, interacting with systems through calls and retrieval rather than traditional user interfaces. The speaker contrasts this with traditional databases like PostgreSQL, which are still designed with human interaction as the primary use case.

"the trouble with podman though is when you want to do basic stuff like even just mounting a volume you've got to do this user id shuffle because i'm talking specifically about rootless podman here you've got to do this user id shuffle because the user ids inside the container don't map to the ids on the host properly unless you do this shift and so it ends up being this world of complicated uid scripts shuffling nonsense that i just haven't got time for"

The speaker expresses frustration with the complexity of using rootless Podman, specifically regarding volume mounting. They explain that managing user IDs between the host and the container requires a complicated "shuffle" to ensure file permissions work correctly. This process, involving intricate UID scripts, is described as time-consuming and cumbersome, leading the speaker to prefer simpler solutions.

"the trouble with any cloud provider is that once you get over a few hundred gigs of storage the cost becomes prohibitive pretty fast so there's a service called and i'm not affiliated with them in any way but there's a service called zfs rent go take a look what you do is you send them a hard drive and they put it into a slot in one of their servers i think in california but don't quote me on that and you pay them 10 bucks a month per slot that you occupy so if you want 20 terabytes of offsite backup you send them a 20 terabyte hard drive it can be direct shipped from amazon or best buy or wherever they'll rack the the drive for you and then they'll give you an ipv4 address and a vm and then you use that as your zfs replication target offsite 10 bucks a month job done"

The speaker identifies cloud storage costs as a significant barrier for large data backups. They introduce a service called "zfs.rent" as a cost-effective solution, where users send their own hard drives to be hosted in a data center. The speaker explains that for a monthly fee, users receive a dedicated IP address and VM, enabling them to use the drive as an offsite ZFS replication target, thus avoiding prohibitive cloud storage fees.

"the reality was some of that stuff was the reason i even got into self hosting in the first place so i have to find a whole other seam of stuff to talk about which can be challenging admittedly sometimes but then we have product release weeks and you sort of think to yourself right well now i'm going to actually put together an advert effectively for the products but how am i going to do this in a way that doesn't feel like an advert and so it can be tricky but also very you know it's very creatively challenging and rewarding at the same time"

The speaker discusses the challenges of creating content for a corporate brand, particularly when certain self-hosting topics are off-limits due to company policy. They explain that while they must find alternative content areas, product release weeks present a unique challenge: creating promotional material that doesn't feel like a direct advertisement. This balancing act is described as creatively demanding but ultimately rewarding.

"my positives around ai are that i know just enough to be dangerous as someone that's been adjacent to developer technologies for the last 15 years i'm not very good at actually writing the code it takes me way too long and i get bored before i get finished this allowed me to get something finished and out the door way faster than i ever could have done by myself okay i didn't learn the intricacies of how you know the api calls work and and what have you under the hood but honestly i don't need to it's just a flat json file that gets stored in cloudflare r2 this page loads that json file client side and then renders the web page locally and that's all i need to know as a kind of like a normal developer adjacent person i don't need to know every every intricacy"

The speaker shares a positive perspective on AI's utility, particularly for individuals with a broad understanding of technology but limited coding proficiency. They explain that AI enabled them to complete a project, a benchmarking website, much faster than they could have alone. The speaker emphasizes that they did not need to understand the deep technical details of the AI's API calls, as the AI's output was sufficient for their needs as a "developer adjacent person."

"the nodes are completely disposable you know the storage the nodes are like for years you've written ansible playbooks to configure nodes and install packages and do this and do that and now i have a declarative file that says system do this and when it bootstrapped itself it doesn't know what it is until you give it that instruction and then it just figures it out i don't have to there's no config drift it's impossible for there to be config drift it just is what i tell it to be exactly and the only way to make a change is to update the config so it gets versioned it gets all the niceties of that"

The speaker describes the benefits of a declarative system, contrasting it with traditional configuration management methods like Ansible playbooks. They highlight that in this new model, nodes are "completely disposable" and configuration is managed through a declarative file. This approach eliminates "config drift" because the system only becomes what it is instructed to be, and changes are versioned and managed through updates to the configuration file.

Resources

External Resources

Books

  • "Office Space" - Mentioned in relation to a quote about motivation and compensation.

Articles & Papers

  • "The Four Dim Problem" (Podcast) - Discussed as a recent podcast episode that alluded to issues with RAM configurations on AMD processors.

People

  • Alex Kretzschmar - Guest on the podcast, discussing Linux, homelabs, and self-hosting.
  • Adam - Host of the podcast.
  • Carl George - Mentioned for inviting the host to Texas Linux Fest and for offering "pocket meat."
  • Cory Doctorow - Mentioned in relation to the phrase "you will own nothing and you will like it" and his views on digital ownership.
  • Chris Kelly - Guest on the podcast, co-founder and CEO of Augment Code.
  • Justin Garrison - Mentioned as someone who would be happy about the host's use of Talos Linux.
  • Morgan Peterman - Mentioned as the original creator of the Quicksync Calc script, which was forked and built upon.
  • Nabil - Mentioned as a participant in a Zulip conversation about the "Four Dim Problem."
  • Andrew O'Brien - Mentioned as a participant in a Zulip conversation about the "Four Dim Problem" and for trying Bluefin.
  • AJ - Mentioned as a participant in a Zulip conversation about the "Four Dim Problem."
  • Ron - Mentioned as a participant in a Zulip conversation about the "Four Dim Problem."
  • Yorg Castro - Mentioned as someone running Fedora Silverblue.
  • Chris Benson - Co-producer of the "Practical AI" podcast.
  • Daniel Whitnack - Co-producer of the "Practical AI" podcast.

Organizations & Institutions

  • Tigerdata - Mentioned as the creators of Agentic PostgreSQL.
  • Fly.io - Mentioned as a partner and sponsor of the podcast.
  • Red Hat - Mentioned in relation to the host's past employment and Podman development.
  • Apple - Mentioned in the context of the evolution of the internet and its business practices.
  • Google - Mentioned in relation to cloud services, data usage, and the deletion of Google Photos.
  • NFL (National Football League) - Mentioned in the context of data analysis and predictive modeling.
  • Pro Football Focus (PFF) - Mentioned as a data source for player grading.
  • New England Patriots - Mentioned as an example team for performance analysis.
  • Amazon - Mentioned as a source for IoT devices and for purchasing hard drives.
  • Best Buy - Mentioned as a place to purchase hard drives.
  • Hetzner - Mentioned as a cloud provider for production machines.
  • IX Systems - Mentioned in relation to TrueNAS and ZFS support.
  • Clara Systems - Mentioned in relation to ZFS support.
  • TrueNAS - Mentioned as an industry standard for non-enterprise ZFS deployments.
  • Anthropic - Mentioned as a major AI model provider and competitor.
  • OpenAI - Mentioned as a major AI model provider and competitor, and in relation to its business model.
  • Microsoft - Mentioned in the context of the evolution of the internet and its business practices.
  • Warner Brothers - Mentioned in relation to its acquisition by Netflix.
  • Spotify - Mentioned in relation to artist payouts and the fragmentation of streaming services.
  • Tidal - Mentioned as a streaming service that is an alternative to Spotify.
  • CoBar - Mentioned as a streaming service.
  • Netflix - Mentioned in relation to its acquisition of Warner Brothers, its ad-supported tier, and the removal of content.
  • Augment Code - Mentioned as a sponsor and a coding system.
  • Framer - Mentioned as a sponsor and a free design tool.
  • T-Mobile - Mentioned as providing a free Netflix subscription.
  • Nvidia - Mentioned in relation to its business relationship with OpenAI and its NVENC encoders.
  • AMD - Mentioned in relation to its processors and hardware transcoding capabilities.
  • Intel - Mentioned in relation to its CPUs and QuickSync technology.
  • Ars Technica - Mentioned as the former employer of Kevin Purdy.
  • ZFS.rent - Mentioned as a service for offsite ZFS backups.
  • Depot.dev - Mentioned as a sponsor for faster builds.
  • Zulip - Mentioned as a community platform for the podcast.

Tools & Software

  • Docker - Discussed in comparison to Podman.
  • Podman - Discussed in comparison to Docker, particularly regarding rootless implementation and user ID mapping.
  • Kubernetes - Mentioned as a system the host learned over Thanksgiving weekend.
  • ZFS - Mentioned extensively for its backup capabilities and reliability.
  • Z Reple - Mentioned as a program used for mirroring ZFS blocks to a remote location.
  • Tailscale - Mentioned as a VPN service used for connecting services and for easier hostname SSH access.
  • Plex - Mentioned as a media server and its business model.
  • Jellyfin - Mentioned as a media server alternative to Plex.
  • Immich - Mentioned as a self-hosted photo backup solution.
  • Agentic PostgreSQL - Mentioned as a database built for agents.
  • SELinux - Mentioned in the context of Linux security.
  • AppArmor - Mentioned in the context of Linux security.
  • Fedora 43 - Mentioned as a Linux distribution the host is using.
  • Ubuntu Server - Mentioned as a traditional Linux distribution the host used.
  • Podman Quadlets - Mentioned as a feature of Podman for running containers as systemd units.
  • Docker Compose - Mentioned as an alternative to Podman Quadlets.
  • Tailscale Careers Site - Mentioned for job postings.
  • Google Photos - Mentioned as a service the host is moving away from.
  • Image Frame - Mentioned as a project to turn devices into Google Photos frames.
  • Cloudflare R2 - Mentioned as a storage solution for the QuickSync benchmarks website.
  • FFmpeg - Mentioned as the underlying technology for the QuickSync benchmarks script.
  • Jellyfin Container - Mentioned as being used in the QuickSync benchmarks script.
  • Nvidia GPUs - Mentioned as a potential expansion for the QuickSync benchmarks.
  • Intel CPUs - Mentioned as the focus of the QuickSync benchmarks website.
  • Ansible - Mentioned in the context of configuring nodes.
  • Nix - Mentioned as a system that solves some configuration problems.
  • Argo CD - Mentioned in the context of Kubernetes deployment tools.
  • Flux - Mentioned in the context of Kubernetes deployment tools.
  • Fedora Silverblue - Mentioned as a type of operating system.
  • Bluefin - Mentioned as a Fedora CoreOS-based operating system.
  • Shipit - Mentioned as a podcast that has ceased to be active.
  • Proxmox - Mentioned as a virtualization platform.
  • Debian - Mentioned as a Linux distribution the host has used.
  • Auggie - Mentioned as a CLI tool from Augment Code.
  • Cloud Code - Mentioned as a tool used by the host.
  • Amp Code - Mentioned as a tool used by the host.
  • Framer.com - Mentioned as a design tool.
  • Claude - Mentioned as an AI model used for writing and coding assistance.
  • ChatGPT - Mentioned as an AI model used for search and information retrieval.
  • SmartTube - Mentioned as a way to avoid ads on YouTube.
  • Nand Chips - Mentioned as a component affected by AI demand.
  • RAM - Mentioned in relation to PC building and cost increases.
  • Quicksync Calc - Mentioned as the original script for calculating Quicksync performance.
  • Git - Mentioned as a version control system.
  • M2 SSDs - Mentioned as a type of storage that uses NAND flash chips.
  • USB Hard Drive - Mentioned as a potential backup solution.

Websites & Online Resources

  • Tigerdata.com - Mentioned as the website to learn more about Agentic PostgreSQL.
  • Fly.io - Mentioned as the website for the sponsor.
  • Zfs.rent - Mentioned as a website for offsite ZFS backups.
  • Depot.dev - Mentioned as the website for Depot.
  • Augment.code.com - Mentioned as the website for Augment Code.
  • Framer.com/design - Mentioned as the website for Framer.
  • Quicksync.ktz.me - Mentioned as a benchmarking website for Intel CPU transcoding performance.
  • Github - Mentioned as the location of the Quicksync benchmarks repository.

Podcasts & Audio

  • The Changelog: Software Development, Open Source - The podcast where this episode was featured.
  • Self Hosted - Mentioned as a podcast Alex Kretzschmar used to host.
  • Practical AI - Mentioned as a podcast co-produced by Chris Benson and Daniel Whitnack.

Other Resources

  • Agentic PostgreSQL - Mentioned as a database built for agents.
  • Docker vs Podman - Discussed as a topic of comparison.
  • Kubernetes Cluster - Mentioned as something the host built.
  • ZFS Backups - Discussed as a critical component of homelab management.
  • Linux Distros - Mentioned as a topic of discussion.
  • AI Tools - Mentioned as a category of new homelab tools.
  • Self-hosting Immich - Mentioned as a self-hosted application.
  • Plex and Jellyfin - Mentioned as media server applications.
  • Future of Piracy - Discussed as a potential trend.
  • Homelab Tools - Mentioned as a category of tools.
  • Agentic Databases - Mentioned as a category of databases.
  • AI-Generated Code - Mentioned as a significant portion of current code development.
  • Agents as Developers - Mentioned as a new paradigm in software development.
  • Vector and Text Data - Mentioned in relation to database capabilities.
  • Native Search and Retrieval - Mentioned as a feature of Agentic PostgreSQL.
  • Instant Zero-Copy Forks - Mentioned as a feature of Agentic PostgreSQL.
  • MCP Server - Mentioned as a feature of Agentic PostgreSQL.
  • Rootless vs. Root Containers - Discussed as a key difference between Podman and Docker.
  • UID Mapping - Mentioned as a complexity in rootless Podman.
  • SELinux - Mentioned as a Linux security feature.
  • AppArmor

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