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Changelog & FriendsOxide is crossing the chasmBryan Cantrill returns in the wake of Oxide Computer Company’s $100M Series B. Bryan tells us how he’s avoiding an appearance on Silicon Valley (ding), why their uniform compensation is working, where Oxide fits in the AI datacenter, what scaling to 50+ rack orders looks like, and more. (GitHub has no CEO and saving Intel)++
Join the discussionChangelog++ members get a bonus 22 minutes at the end of this episode and zero ads. Join today!Sponsors:CodeRabbit – AI-native code reviews, built for the modern dev stack. — CodeRabbit is your always-on code rev...
2025-08-151h 39The Changelog: Software Development, Open SourceOxide is crossing the chasm (Friends)Bryan Cantrill returns in the wake of Oxide Computer Company’s $100M Series B. Bryan tells us how he’s avoiding an appearance on Silicon Valley (ding), why their uniform compensation is working, where Oxide fits in the AI datacenter, what scaling to 50+ rack orders looks like, and more. (GitHub has no CEO and saving Intel)++
Join the discussionChangelog++ members get a bonus 22 minutes at the end of this episode and zero ads. Join today!Sponsors:CodeRabbit – AI-native code reviews, built for the modern dev stack. — CodeRabbit is your always-on code rev...
2025-08-151h 39Changelog Master FeedOxide is crossing the chasm (Changelog & Friends #106)Bryan Cantrill returns in the wake of Oxide Computer Company’s $100M Series B. Bryan tells us how he’s avoiding an appearance on Silicon Valley (ding), why their uniform compensation is working, where Oxide fits in the AI datacenter, what scaling to 50+ rack orders looks like, and more. (GitHub has no CEO and saving Intel)++
Join the discussionChangelog++ members get a bonus 22 minutes at the end of this episode and zero ads. Join today!Sponsors:CodeRabbit – AI-native code reviews, built for the modern dev stack. — CodeRabbit is your always-on code rev...
2025-08-151h 39
Oxide and FriendsDiving In with Robert BogartOn the heels of Bryan's blog post about the similarities between aspiring college athletes finding a team and entrepreneurs raising a round of capital, Bryan and Adam were joined by Robert Bogart to discuss his own experiences with both--and the life lesson accrued along the way.In addition to Bryan Cantrill and Adam Leventhal, we were joined by special guest, Robert Bogart.College Baseball, Venture Capital, and the Long MaybeOxF: Debugger‑Driven DevelopmentAnthony Ervin – WikipediaEddie Reese – WikipediaMetaweb – WikipediaIf we got something wrong or missed something, please file a PR! Our next show will lik...
2025-06-191h 43
Oxide and FriendsAI Discourse with Steve KlabnikLast week, our colleague (and frequent Oxide and Friends guest) Steve Klabnik made some new friends on the Internet with a blog entry on AI discourse. Bryan and Adam were joined by Steve to try to de-polarize the discussion a little.In addition to Bryan Cantrill and Adam Leventhal, we were joined by special guest, Steve Klabnik, and valued listener, Julian Giamblanco (aka "Oatmealdealer").Some of the topics we hit on, in the order that we hit them:Steve's blog post: I am disappointed in the AI discourseOxF: A Baseball Startup with Paul Freedman...
2025-06-051h 34
Oxide and FriendsRIP USENIX ATCBryan and Adam discuss the recent announcement of the discontinuation of the USENIX Annual Technical Conference (ATC), reminiscing about their own visits to the ATC and the impact of the conference. Long-time Oxide Friend, Tom Lyon, joined to dial the reminiscence back a couple more decades!In addition to Bryan Cantrill and Adam Leventhal, we were joined by Tom Lyon.Some of the topics we hit on, in the order that we hit them:Bryan's blog 2025: RIP USENIX ATCOxF s1e13: Put the OS back in OSDIBryan's Lisa 2011 talk: Fork Yeah! The Rise and...
2025-05-151h 24
Oxide and FriendsLip-Bu Tan's IntelIntel has a new CEO! And it's Lip-Bu Tan. We had assumed it would not be Lip-Bu--he was such a clear front-runner that the more time passed the less likely it seemed it would be him... and yet! Bryan and Adam were joined by Reuter's Max Cherney to discuss.In addition to Bryan Cantrill and Adam Leventhal, our esteemed guest was Max Cherney; we were also joined by Bryan Russett, and Alex Kesling.Some of the topics we hit on, in the order that we hit them:Cooking with Oxide and FriendsThe Oxide John...
2025-03-211h 22
Oxide and FriendsA Crate is BornBryan and Adam were joined by Oxide colleagues Andrew, Rain, and John to talk about creating a general purpose crate for diffing structures. More generally, how do you know when something new is needed? How do you know when the investment of time to validate an idea is warranted? Software engineering is hard! (And also: general enthusiasm for Rust macros.)In addition to Bryan Cantrill and Adam Leventhal, we were joined by Oxide colleagues, Andrew Stone, Rain Paharia, and John Gallagher.Some of the topics we hit on, in the order that we hit them:
2025-03-061h 43
Doom DebatesSuperintelligent AI vs. Real-World Engineering | Liron Reacts to Bryan CantrillBryan Cantrill, co-founder of Oxide Computer, says in his talk that engineering in the physical world is too complex for any AI to do it better than teams of human engineers. Success isn’t about intelligence; it’s about teamwork, character and resilience.I completely disagree.00:00 Introduction02:03 Bryan’s Take on AI Doom05:55 The Concept of P(Doom)08:36 Engineering Challenges and Human Intelligence15:09 The Role of Regulation and Authoritarianism in AI Control29:44 Engineering Complexity: A Case Study from Oxide Computer40:06 The Value of Team C...
2025-01-311h 05
Oxide and FriendsConferences in TechBryan and Adam were joined by Theo Schlossnagle, KellyAnn Fitzpatrick, and Steve O'Grady to talk about conferences in tech. A lot has changed in the past couple of decades about the impetus for conferences and what makes it worthwhile to attend.In addition to Bryan Cantrill and Adam Leventhal, speakers included Theo Schlossnagle, KellyAnn Fitzpatrick, and Steve O'Grady.The lightly edited live chat from the show:ellie.idb: 2005, huh? y’all met when i was 2goodjanet: yea i was younger than 10 loljgrillo_: I was just thinking I feel very young because I was a ju...
2024-12-141h 30
Oxide and FriendsTechnical BloggingBryan and Adam were joined by authors of the forthcoming book "Writing for Developers", Piotr Sarna and Cynthia Dunlop, to talk about blogging--for Bryan and Adam, it's been 20 years since they started blogging at Sun. The Oxide Friends were also joined by Tim Bray and Will Snow who kicked off blogging at Sun.In addition to Bryan Cantrill and Adam Leventhal, speakers included Tim Bray (BlueSky), Will Snow, Cynthia Dunlop and Piotr Sarna.Some of the topics we hit on, in the order that we hit them:Writing for Developers50% off (!) with code OXIDE50...
2024-11-211h 40
Oxide and FriendsReflecting on Founder ModeWith some time passed, Bryan and Adam offer a non-hot take on Paul Graham's "Founder Mode" post. While there is plenty to quibble over, there's also the kernel of an important idea: how to balance experience, novel thinking, and limited time? Also stay tuned as they share a years old "ego con".Your hosts were Bryan Cantrill and Adam Leventhal.Some of the topics we hit on, in the order that we hit them:Paul Graham Founder ModeBryan Reflecting on Founder ModeTim O'Reilly How I FailedCamille Fournier Founder Create ManagersBryan Chesky interview we mentionOxF...
2024-09-201h 22
Oxide and FriendsWhither CockroachDB?Lots of engineering decisions get made on vibes. Popularity, anecdotes—they can lead to expedient decisions rather than rigorous ones. At Oxide, our choice to go with CockroachDB was hardly hasty! Dave Pacheco joins Bryan and Adam to talk about why we choose CRDB… and how Cockroach Lab’s recent switch to a proprietary license impacts that.In addition to Bryan Cantrill and Adam Leventhal, our special guest was Dave Pacheco.Some of the topics we hit on, in the order that we hit them:TechCrunch: Cockroach Labs shakes up its licensing to force bigger...
2024-08-211h 34
Oxide and FriendsThe Saga of SagasThe Oxide control plane coordinates multiple services to do complex, compound operations. Early on, we knew we wanted to provide a robust structure for these multi-part workflows. We stumbled onto Distributed Sagas and built our own implementation in Steno. Bryan and Adam are joined by several members of the Oxide team who built and use Steno to drive the complex operation of the control plane.In addition to Bryan Cantrill and Adam Leventhal, speakers included Dave Pacheco. Eliza Weisman, Andrew Stone, Greg Colombo, and James MacMahon.Some of the topics we hit on, in the...
2024-08-141h 57
Oxide and FriendsPragmatic LLM usage with Nicholas CarliniNicholas Carlini joined Bryan and Adam to talk about his terrific blog post on his many pragmatic uses of LLMs to solve real problems. He has great advice about when to use them (often!) and what kinds of problems they handle well. LLMs aren't great at many things, but used well they can be an amazing tool.In addition to Bryan Cantrill and Adam Leventhal, we were joined by special guest, Nicholas Carlini as well as by listeners Mike Cafarella, p5commit, and chrisbur.Some of the topics we hit on, in the order that...
2024-08-091h 33
Oxide and FriendsCrowdStrike BSOD Fiasco with Katie MoussourisBryan and Adam were joined by security expert, Katie Moussouris, to discuss the largest global IT outage in history. It was an event as broadly impactful as it will be instructive; as Bryan noted, you can see all of computing from here, from crash dumps to antitrust.In addition to Bryan Cantrill and Adam Leventhal, we were joined by special guest Katie Moussouris.PRs needed!If we got something wrong or missed something, please file a PR! Our next show will likely be on Monday at 5p Pacific Time on our Discord server; stay tuned...
2024-07-251h 41
Oxide and FriendsHeterogeneous Computing with Raja KoduriRaja Koduri joined Bryan and Adam to answer a question sent in from a listener: what's are the differences between a CPU, GPU, FPGA, and ASIC? And after a walk through history of hardware, software, their intersection and relevant companies, we ... almost answered it!In addition to Bryan Cantrill and Adam Leventhal, our special guest was Raja Koduri.Some of the topics we hit on, in the order that we hit them:3dfx Oral History Panel with Ross Smith, Scott Sellers, Gary Tarolli, and Gordon Campbell3dfxOpenGLGlideDirect3DCUDADennard scalingVLIWGPGPUAMD APUEnergy Efficiency and AI HardwarePRs...
2024-07-181h 54
Nerding Out With Viktor (audio only)Past, Present, and Future of Computing with Bryan Cantrill, CTO of Oxide Computer CompanyIn this episode of "Nerding Out with Viktor," Bryan Cantrill, CTO and co-founder of Oxide Computer Company, joins Viktor Petersson for a thought-provoking conversation about the future of cloud infrastructure. Bryan shares his expertise on DTrace, a game-changing system monitoring tool he pioneered at Sun Microsystems, which emphasized observation over modification, ensuring minimal impact on system performance.
The discussion delves into Bryan's experiences at Joyent, where he navigated the challenges of operating a public cloud on commodity hardware, and how these insights led to the founding of Oxide Computer Company. Viktor and Bryan explore the innovative design choices...
2024-07-151h 23Nerding Out With ViktorPast, Present, and Future of Computing with Bryan Cantrill, CTO of Oxide Computer CompanyIn this episode of "Nerding Out with Viktor," Bryan Cantrill, CTO and co-founder of Oxide Computer Company, joins Viktor Petersson for a thought-provoking conversation about the future of cloud infrastructure. Bryan shares his expertise on DTrace, a game-changing system monitoring tool he pioneered at Sun Microsystems, which emphasized observation over modification, ensuring minimal impact on system performance.
The discussion delves into Bryan's experiences at Joyent, where he navigated the challenges of operating a public cloud on commodity hardware, and how these insights led to the founding of Oxide Computer Company. Viktor and Bryan explore the innovative design choices...
2024-07-151h 23
Oxide and FriendsInnovation Tokens with Charity MajorsCharity Majors joined Bryan, Adam, and the Oxide Friends to talk about the idea of "innovation tokens"--a fixed budget for, so called, "innovative" projects. When is boring better and when is innovation the safer approach? Is Oxide issuing innovation tokens in some sort of hyper-inflationary cycle!?In addition to Bryan Cantrill and Adam Leventhal, we were joined by special guest Charity Majors.Some of the topics we hit on, in the order that we hit them:Glyph: Against Innovation TokensCharity's Twitter ThreadOxF: Let That Sink In! (Whither Twitter?) with CharityDruidScuba whitepaperOxide RFD 68: Partnership...
2024-07-111h 26
Oxide and FriendsIs NVIDIA like Sun from the Dot Com Bubble?Every so often we like to give our Oxide and Friends hot takes (or as Adam puts it "Bryan getting trolled on Twitter"). This time, a viral tweet suggests that NVIDIA is on the same trajectory as Sun Microsystems on its ascent during the Dot Com Bubble. From two alumni of Sun's rise and fall: maaaaybe not.In addition to Bryan Cantrill and Adam Leventhal, speakers included Todd Gamblin.Some of the topics we hit on, in the order that we hit them:The Tweet!OxF: Innovation Stagnation? -- wherein we forgot to read...
2024-06-271h 28
Oxide and FriendsMusing with Changelog's Adam StacoviakBryan and Adam were joined by The Changelog’s Adam Stacoviak for a … wide ranging conversation! Something for everyone—especially fans of HBO’s Silicon Valley!In addition to Bryan Cantrill and Adam Leventhal, we were joined by special guest Adam Stacoviak.Some of the topics we hit on, in the order that we hit them:Bryan on ChangelogChangelog: 23 years of Ruby with MatzSWOTBachmanity InsanityStraight outta KubeconBreakmaster CylinderAdam Stac on githubChangelog Dance Party by BMCComputer History Museum: Oral HistoriesBryan's talk on social audioIf we got something wrong or missed something, please f...
2024-06-171h 46
Oxide and FriendsRebooting a datacenter: A decade laterBack in May 2014 Joyent accidentally rebooted an entire datacenter (not just the handful of nodes as intended!). That incident--traumatic was it was--informed many aspects of the Oxide product. Bryan and Adam were joined by members of that former Joyent team to discuss, commiserate, and--perhaps--get some things off their chests. a live show weekly on Mondays at 5p for about an hour, and recording them all; here is the recording.In addition to Bryan Cantrill and Adam Leventhal, speakers included Josh Clulow, Brian Bennett, Robert Mustacchi, and Steve Tuck.Some of the topics we h...
2024-05-301h 40
Oxide and FriendsBookclub: How Life Works by Philip BallThe long-awaited Oxide and Friends bookclub! Bryan and Adam were joined by special guest--and real life biologist--Greg Cost to discuss Philip Ball's terrific book, How Life Works: A User’s Guide to the New Biology. Spoiler: Alan Turing makes a very expected appearance!In addition to Bryan Cantrill and Adam Leventhal, we were joined by special guest Greg Cost.Some of the topics we hit on, in the order that we hit them:The Turing patternRNA as a precursor to DNAXenopus frogXenobotsAnton computerBryan's reading notesCentral themesPo...
2024-05-221h 50
Changelog Master FeedFrom Sun to Oxide (Changelog Interviews #592)Bryan Cantrill, Co-founder and CTO of Oxide Computer Company, joins Adam to share his journey from Sun to Oxide – from Sun and Fishworks, to DTrace, to ZFS, to Joyent and Node.js, and now working to build on-prem cloud servers as they should be at Oxide.
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2024-05-222h 32Changelog InterviewsFrom Sun to OxideBryan Cantrill, Co-founder and CTO of Oxide Computer Company, joins Adam to share his journey from Sun to Oxide – from Sun and Fishworks, to DTrace, to ZFS, to Joyent and Node.js, and now working to build on-prem cloud servers as they should be at Oxide.
Join the discussionChangelog++ members save 11 minutes on this episode because they made the ads disappear. Join today!Sponsors:Sentry – Code breaks, fix it faster. Don’t just observe. Take action. Sentry is the only app monitoring platform built for developers that gets to the root c...
2024-05-222h 32The Changelog: Software Development, Open SourceFrom Sun to Oxide (Interview)Bryan Cantrill, Co-founder and CTO of Oxide Computer Company, joins Adam to share his journey from Sun to Oxide – from Sun and Fishworks, to DTrace, to ZFS, to Joyent and Node.js, and now working to build on-prem cloud servers as they should be at Oxide.
Join the discussionChangelog++ members save 11 minutes on this episode because they made the ads disappear. Join today!Sponsors:Sentry – Code breaks, fix it faster. Don’t just observe. Take action. Sentry is the only app monitoring platform built for developers that gets to the root c...
2024-05-222h 32
Oxide and FriendsAll we have to fear is FUD itselfThe Oxide Friends have talked about the Hashicorp license change, the emergence of an open source fork of Terraform in OpenTofu, and other topics in open source. A few weeks ago both InfoWorld and Hashicorp (independently?) accused OpenTofu of stealing Terraform code—a serious claim that turned out to be fully unfounded. We (you!) have been lucky to avoid this topic with a couple of guests lined up to talk about the xz exploit discovery and founding the Oakland Ballers… but we ran out of distractions! Bryan and Adam talk about this FUD and FUD generally.Your host...
2024-04-251h 21
Oxide and FriendsA Baseball Startup with Paul Freedman and Bryan CarmelBryan, Adam, Steve, and the Oxide Friends are joined by the founders of the Oakland Ballers, the continuation of a long history of baseball in Oakland. There turns out to be a plenty in common between founding a computer company and founding a baseball team--and we both have our fans supporting us!In addition to Bryan Cantrill and Adam Leventhal, we were joined by very special guests Paul Freedman and Bryan Carmel as well our somewhat-special boss, Steve Tuck.Some of the topics we hit on, in the order that we hit them:The...
2024-04-171h 13
Oxide and FriendsDiscovering the XZ Backdoor with Andres FreundAndres Freund joined Bryan and Adam to talk about his discovery of the xz backdoor. It’s an incredible story… so great to get into the details with Andres. We started by ranting about the coverage in the New York Times… coverage that explicitly refused to dig into the details! It’s all the more shocking because the big story here is how Andres’ penchant for digging into the details is what saved us all from what would have been a pervasive and damaging attack!In addition to Bryan Cantrill and Adam Leventhal, we were joined by special gu...
2024-04-101h 37
Oxide and FriendsCultural IdiosyncrasiesThe Oxide Friends talk about about cultural idiosyncrasies--turns out we have a lot of them at Oxide! Some might even sound good enough for you to try out! Demo Fridays, morning water-cooler, no-meet Wednesdays, recorded meetings, dog-pile debugging (aka CSPAN for debugging), RFDs (requests for discussion), no performance review process...In addition to Bryan Cantrill and Adam Leventhal, we were joined by Oxide colleague Steve Klabnik.Some of the topics we hit on, in the order that we hit them:Bryan: Engineering a cultureMatt: It's Free Real EstateCliff: Who killed the network switch?OxF...
2024-04-031h 27
Oxide and FriendsAdversarial Machine LearningNicholas Carlini joined Bryan, Adam, and the Oxide Friends to talk about his work with adversarial machine learning. He's found sequences of--seemingly random--tokens that cause LLMs to ignore their restrictions! Also: printf is Turing complete?!In addition to Bryan Cantrill and Adam Leventhal, we were joined by special guest Nicholas Carlini.If we got something wrong or missed something, please file a PR! Our next show will likely be on Monday at 5p Pacific Time on our Discord server; stay tuned to our Mastodon feeds for details, or subscribe to this calendar. We'd love to...
2024-03-271h 23