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Ammar Bandukwala
77 lines
3.5 KiB
Markdown
77 lines
3.5 KiB
Markdown
# About Coder
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Coder is an open source platform for creating and managing developer workspaces
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on your preferred clouds and servers.
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By building on top of common development interfaces (SSH) and infrastructure tools (Terraform), Coder aims to make the process of **provisioning** and **accessing** remote workspaces approachable for organizations of various sizes and stages of cloud-native maturity.
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> ⚠️ Coder v2 is in **alpha** state and is not ready for production use. For
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> production environments, please consider [Coder v1](https://coder.com/docs) or
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> [code-server](https://github.com/cdr/code-server).
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## Why remote development
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Migrating from local developer machines to workspaces hosted by cloud services
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is an increasingly common solution for developers[^1] and organizations[^2]
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alike. There are several benefits, including:
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- **Increased speed:** Server-grade compute speeds up operations in software
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development, such as IDE loading, code compilation and building, and the
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running of large workloads (such as those for monolith or microservice
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applications)
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- **Easier environment management:** Tools such as Terraform, nix, Docker,
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devcontainers, and so on make developer onboarding and the troubleshooting of
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development environments easier
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- **Increase security:** Centralize source code and other data onto private
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servers or cloud services instead of local developer machines
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- **Improved compatibility:** Remote workspaces share infrastructure
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configuration with other development, staging, and production environments,
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reducing configuration drift
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- **Improved accessibility:** Devices such as lightweight notebooks,
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Chromebooks, and iPads can connect to remote workspaces via browser-based IDEs
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or remote IDE extensions
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## Why Coder
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The key difference between Coder v2 and other remote IDE platforms is the added
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layer of infrastructure control. This additional layer allows admins to:
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- Support ARM, Windows, Linux, and macOS workspaces
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- Modify pod/container specs (e.g., adding disks, managing network policies,
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setting/updating environment variables)
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- Use VM/dedicated workspaces, developing with Kernel features (no container
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knowledge required)
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- Enable persistent workspaces, which are like local machines, but faster and
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hosted by a cloud service
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Coder includes [production-ready templates](../examples/templates) for use with AWS EC2,
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Azure, Google Cloud, Kubernetes, and more.
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## What Coder is _not_
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- Coder is not an infrastructure as code (IaC) platform. Terraform is the first
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IaC _provisioner_ in Coder, allowing Coder admins to define Terraform
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resources as Coder workspaces.
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- Coder is not a DevOps/CI platform. Coder workspaces can follow best practices
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for cloud service-based workloads, but Coder is not responsible for how you
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define or deploy the software you write.
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- Coder is not an online IDE. Instead, Coder supports common editors, such as VS
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Code, vim, and JetBrains, over HTTPS or SSH.
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- Coder is not a collaboration platform. You can use git and dedicated IDE
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extensions for pull requests, code reviews, and pair programming.
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- Coder is not a SaaS/fully-managed offering. You must host
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Coder on a cloud service (AWS, Azure, GCP) or your private data center.
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Next: [Templates](./templates.md)
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[^1]: alexellis.io: [The Internet is my computer](https://blog.alexellis.io/the-internet-is-my-computer/)
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[^2]: slack.engineering: [Development environments at Slack](https://slack.engineering/development-environments-at-slack)
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