Heroku commands & tips

I wrote a quick howto of Heroku commands and tips I use all the time.

It covers creating instances, configurations, common add-ons such as databases & email, deployment strategies and more.

As mentioned in the document I tend to have multiple applications per project, so I always append --remote staging for example, resulting in this long deploy command:

git push staging master && \
heroku logs -t --remote staging; \
heroku open --remote staging && \
heroku logs -t --remote staging

For the eagle eyed you will have noticed the ";" which means as the log tailing never really finishes, when you notice the app is up and running you have to manually end it with control+c to proceed with opening up a browser.

Obviously these commands ties nicely into my use of Play on Heroku and the howtos I wrote on integrating both.

They are perhaps obvious commands and basic but I hope they are of use to some people.

Ubuntu releases

Ps. This is not directly regarding the latest 11.04 Natty release with the infamous Unity UI. (As of 03.05.2011) I am on 10.04 Lucid on my desktop and 10.10 Maverick on my servers (I know, it should be the other way round...), so I have not even tried Unity yet.

Current release schedule

Ubuntu releases a new version every 6 months, in April and October. They are supported for 18 months. I do not really have an issue with this frequency.

Every 2 years one of these releases is a LTS, Long Term Support, version that they will support for 3 to 5 years. This is the release to use for more production systems.

In practice

In practice this 6 month release schedule means a lot of bleeding edge software and versions go into every version. This is good. It means the distribution is up to date, and the software is pushed and cannot rest on its laurels and falter.

Most software versions are stable enough, but however new divergences are often not polished enough and lack enough extensions, documentation, etc. E.g. Unity, Gnome 3, GDM2, Plymouth etc. For the initiated that will research solutions and like dabbling with new software this is not a big issue. For the vast majority of users that just wants something that works, this is risky and often backfires on their impression of Linux and Ubuntu.

Also a 6 months release schedule does mean quite a frequent upgrade requirement. Especially for the uninitiated non heavy Linux fanboys (if such a name exists). But you have to set the line somewhere, and a more frequent upgrade does mean a smaller delta difference and less chance of broken upgrades. On production servers however, 6 months upgrade schedule is a non starter. The LTS schedule is thus more suitable.

LTS

Unfortunately the LTS version is not always the version Ubuntu "promote". After a newer minor version has been released it takes a back burner. Too much emphasis I feel on promoting, discussing and supporting the newer versions and not backporting enough to the "stable" LTS version.

Also when an LTS version is released it is "promoted" as LTS immediately. Being a "major" release a lot of people upgrade to it soon after the release date, but there are still many teething errors before it is more "solid", usually then they release a X.x.1 version.

Small modification

They should promote LTS to everyone, and let fanboys use the latest non LTS versions. This way the keen users will still be up to date, and will ensure fixes and velocity of the features. But they will keep a very stable version for the majority users.

They should not apply the LTS "brand" to the version until the X.x.1 version a few months after the general X.x release. That way teething errors are never found in an LTS version, and more trust can be applied to the version branding.

They should include more backports to the LTS versions. After about a year my LTSes are a nuisance as their packages are too out of date.

Large modification

LTS current biennial release schedule is a large gap. What about a LTS every year or 18 months?

Have a "major", "minor", "tiny" or better "solid", "stable", "unstable" release versioning? Or an unstable release every 4 months(fanboys), stable every 8 (desktops) and solid(servers)(LTS) every 16 months? Too much admin or release confusion perhaps?


While debian's stable/testing/unstable naming is a close match, Ubuntu has always been relible. But lately I have been reluctant to upgrade, waiting months before all initial problems are out of the way before I dabble. And now I usually skip a release or two every time.

Summary

Basically change the promotion of LTS. Let the LTS be the default version. And do not call it LTS until the Ubuntu x.x.1 teething problem bugfix version is released.

And optionally change the schedule to more frequent LTS, or even 3 levels of stability/support releases.

Ubuntuing Dell work PCs and 3G

Now I have had two Dell laptop PCs from work recently, D610 and D820. Both worked flawlessly with Ubuntu and both work with my 3G USB key from Telenor, an Option iCon 255.


On my Dell D610, I installed Ubuntu 8.04 Hardy Heron. To get 3G working I installed all HSO script from PHARscape.


On my more recent Dell D820, I installed Ubuntu 8.10 Intrepid Ibex, which now comes with great 3G support. It does include the HSO driver in the kernel. And by installing the new zerocd and udev script from PHARscape, basically following his howto you can get it up and running.

However the HSO driver with Ubuntu 8.10 is an older version, and caused my PC to crash after awhile, so I installed the newer version from PHARscape, which works flawlessly.

The new Network Manager works great with the 3G USB dongle, however it needs to be plugged in on boot to pick it up. If you sometimes plug it in afterwards, it is wise to also install PHARscape's HSO Connect GUI as a backup.

Encryption stops linux?

Does work laptops which are pre installed with Windows, using full disk encryption software stop you from using Linux?

Well at least for me.

The problem I have is I have several laptops handed to me by clients that I have to use while working for them. No problem with that, they are much higher spec than my own pcs anyway. Pre installed with MS Windows is fine, it usually is company standard and most of their employees would insist on it. Previously I have just shrunk the windows partition and dual booted into linux.

But my current two work laptops have both got full disk encryption software, to protect lost laptops, from two different providers (PointSec and SafeGuard). And you cant run dual boots with them, nor resize partitions.

So this means for the past half a year I have had to use windows full time, as I rarely get any time at home to use my own linux pcs.

Okay it is not that bad, I am not suffering from starvation or illness, but it is annoying, feels like having a hand tied behind my back when I work. But I shouldnt complain, I am after all getting hardware and licenses for weblogic and oracle handed to me.

I do wonder though, how many others are affected by this? Does it have any effect on the amount of people using Linux?