2022-05-19 –, Kirkstone
By integrating Mender into the Yocto build pipeline, developers can free resources from maintaining custom solutions and use a robust end-to-end mechanism for software distribution across the whole development and maintenance period.
In traditional software development for embedded devices, compiling and handing the resulting artifact off to manufacturing was the final step. These devices would be in operation for years without their software ever being touched again. But in today's connected world, users expect updates to be delivered to their devices in the field for a number of reasons, like new features, bug fixes, and security updates.
The natural reaction for many software developers is to come up with a “quick and simple” solution for this requirement, often in the form of a homebrew shell script. Yet like most “it is just a couple of lines”-approaches, this creates massive technical debt, usually for the whole life cycle of the product in question.
This should be avoided by proper planning early in the development process. By integrating Mender into the Yocto build pipeline, developers can free resources from maintaining custom solutions and use a robust mechanism for software distribution across the whole development and maintenance period. The end-to-end approach removes the need to learn and manage multiple components, and gives back time to the developers, helping them to do what they love: create good software.
Josef has been active for more than 15 years as a "Complete”-Stack developer for industrial controls by now. He's done everything from debugging hardware to writing drivers, from application development to web front ends.
A passion for showing, telling and teaching people in a both entertaining and engaging way led Josef to northern.tech, where he tries to make the world a better, and more secure place by enabling OTA updates for as many devices as possible.
Taking this passion, combining it with a keen interest in building systems and how they can be brought to the next generation of developers, Josef has been awarded Yocto Project Ambassador status and is a practicing Gitpod Community Hero.
As such, Josef has also reached many thousands of aspiring developers not only through his presentations at various events and conferences but also by livecoding sessions and webinars.