Changelog & Friends

A farewell conversation about retirement and a two-decade tech partnership. They break down Ladybird’s move to Rust and how AI helped port huge C++ codebases. Rust tooling and high-performance JavaScript tools come up. A lively debate on self-hosting, Tailscale identity, and building self-hosted CI. They speculate on AI reshaping code review, software lifecycles, and future engineer roles.

Our ol’ friend, Brett Cannon, is back to talk all things Python. But first! Star Wars, Machete Order, Lost, Babylon 5, Game of Thrones, Murderbot, Ted Lasso, Project Hail Mary, David Attenborough, perpetual voice rights, and the AI uncanny valley. Join the discussionChangelog++ members save 4 minutes on this episode because they made the ads disappear. Join today!Sponsors:Namespace – Speed up your development and testing workflows using your existing tools. (Much) faster GitHub actions, Docker builds, and more. At an unbeatable price. Tiger Data – Postgres for Developers, devices, and agents The data platform trusted by hundreds of thousands from IoT to Web3 to AI and more. Fly.io – The home of Changelog.com — Deploy your apps close to your users — global Anycast load-balancing, zero-configuration private networking, hardware isolation, and instant WireGuard VPN connections. Push-button deployments that scale to thousands of instances. Check out the speedrun to get started in minutes. Featuring:Brett Cannon – Website, GitHub, LinkedIn, Bluesky, MastodonJerod Santo – Website, GitHub, LinkedIn, Mastodon, XAdam Stacoviak – Website, GitHub, LinkedIn, Mastodon, XShow Notes: What is the Star Wars Machete Order? Pep 665 (lock file format) python-build-standalone Astral: high-performance Python tooling Pypi: Page Not Found Incus documentation Python/prebuilt-cpython Something missing or broken? PRs welcome!

Amal Hussein, director of software engineering at Istari and platform engineer with aerospace and JavaScript chops, talks about moving beyond the browser into distributed, security-heavy engineering. She covers digital twins, iterating hardware with AI pipelines like a lunar vacuum case, compliance and FedRAMP challenges, and how polymath teams scale in space and aerospace projects.

A whirlwind tour of the Clawdbot/MoltBot saga and what personal AI assistants can actually do. Discussion of Mac mini local inference setups and hardware buying tips. A trend-focused look at hackers replacing subscriptions with weekend-built Mac apps. Debate about which SaaS services are vulnerable and how bespoke tooling shifts engineering toward operations and maintenance.

Techno Tim, homelab creator known for practical self-hosting guides and Proxmox tooling. They discuss 2026 as the Year of Self-Hosted Software. Topics include AI tools running on home gear, automating Proxmox with CLIs like PXM, squeezing performance from TrueNAS and ZFS tiering, and strategies for building reliable, agent-driven homelabs.

Gerhard Lazu, a Kaizen expert and engineer specializing in systems and infrastructure, returns to analyze out-of-memory errors and discuss the innovative Pipedream instance status checker. He dives into the intriguing 'let it crash' philosophy, explaining how it ties to Erlang's design principles. Gerhard also examines abnormal download trends, notably a single episode being repeatedly accessed from Asia, and proposes solutions for managing those traffic spikes. His insights on Varnish behavior and LLM analysis reveal valuable strategies for performance optimization.

Joining the discussion is Mat Ryer, a seasoned software engineer known for his contributions to Go and open source projects. He brings a humorous touch as they dive into Microsoft’s grip on GitHub and its impact on the open-source community. The conversation also highlights Tom Tunguz’s intriguing predictions for 2026, from agent-first design to the future use of AI in business. Mat's spontaneous musical talents add a fun twist as they reflect on AI's responsibilities and the role of emerging technologies in shaping the future.

Kyle Galbraith, founder and CEO of Depot.dev, shares insights on enhancing build reliability and optimizing CI/CD pipelines. He explores how Depot can drastically accelerate builds, cutting down precious time for developers. The conversation dives into the role of efficient workflows in modern development and the critical balance between speed and quality. Expect engaging discussions on real-world applications of these practices and how they can transform the software development landscape!

Alex Kretzschmar joins Adam for a trip down the Linux rabbit hole – Docker vs Podman, building a Kubernetes cluster, ZFS backups with zfs.rent, bootc, favorite Linux distros, new homelab tools built with AI, self-hosting Immich, content creation, Plex and Jellyfin, the future of piracy and more. Join the discussionChangelog++ members save 10 minutes on this episode because they made the ads disappear. Join today!Sponsors:Tiger Data – Postgres for Developers, devices, and agents The data platform trusted by hundreds of thousands from IoT to Web3 to AI and more. Depot – 10x faster builds? Yes please. Build faster. Waste less time. Accelerate Docker image builds, and GitHub Actions workflows. Easily integrate with your existing CI provider and dev workflows to save hours of build time. Augment Code – Adam loves “Auggie” – Augment Code’s CLI that brings Augment’s context engine and powerful AI reasoning anywhere your code goes. From building alongside you in the terminal to any part of your development workflow. Framer – Design and publish in one place. Get started free at framer.com/design, code CHANGELOG for a free month of Pro. Featuring:Alex Kretzschmar – Website, GitHub, LinkedIn, Mastodon, XAdam Stacoviak – Website, GitHub, LinkedIn, Mastodon, XShow Notes: Tailscale YouTube Docker Podman Kubernetes zfs.rent bootc Immich Plex Jellyfin Something missing or broken? PRs welcome!

Nick Nisi joins us to dig into the latest trends from this year and how they’re impacting his day-to-day coding and Vision Pro wearing. Anthropic’s acquisition of Bun, the evolving JavaScript and AI landscape, GitHub’s challenges and the Amp/Sourcegraph split. We dive into AI development practices, context management, voice assistants, Home Assistant OS and home automation, the state of the AI browser war, and we close with a prediction from Nick. Join the discussionChangelog++ members get a bonus 10 minutes at the end of this episode and zero ads. Join today!Sponsors:Tiger Data – Postgres for Developers, devices, and agents The data platform trusted by hundreds of thousands from IoT to Web3 to AI and more. Namespace – Speed up your development and testing workflows using your existing tools. (Much) faster GitHub actions, Docker builds, and more. At an unbeatable price. Notion – Notion is a place where any team can write, plan, organize, and rediscover the joy of play. It’s a workspace designed not just for making progress, but getting inspired. Notion is for everyone — whether you’re a Fortune 500 company or freelance designer, starting a new startup or a student juggling classes and clubs. NordLayer – Protect your business with NordLayer, the toggle-ready network security platform built for modern teams. VPN, access control, and threat protection—no hardware or complex setup required. Get 28% off NordLayer yearly plans this Black Friday with code changelog-28 at nordlayer.com/thechangelog Featuring:Nick Nisi – Website, GitHub, Bluesky, Mastodon, XJerod Santo – Website, GitHub, LinkedIn, Mastodon, XAdam Stacoviak – Website, GitHub, LinkedIn, Mastodon, XShow Notes: Apple Vision Pro upgraded with M5 chip and Dual Knit Band Bun is joining Anthropic Anthropic acquires Bun as Claude Code reaches $1B milestone Amp, Inc. The Browser Company explains why it stopped developing Arc Letter to Arc members 2025 The Browser Company launches Dia in beta Home Assistant 2025.12: Triggering the holidays Home Assistant Green Migrating from GitHub to Codeberg Something missing or broken? PRs welcome!