Scarf Newsletter
Scarf Newsletter - September 2023
Stay up to date with the latest updates from Scarf. Discover upcoming features, industry news, partnerships, and events. September 2023 Newsletter.
Switching Container Registries With Zero Downtime
Published
March 16, 2023
This article was originally posted on
HackernoonScarf Team
The Scarf Community Team
You can change the hosting provider of your packages, containers, and files without impacting the end user with Scarf.
Scarf Gateway (available under the Apache 2 license at https://github.com/scarf-sh/gateway ) and our managed Scarf service are designed to provide you with an easy way to change out the back-end container registry, package location, or file hosting platform for your open source software. Scarf Gateway does this by creating a custom domain redirect to the channels distributing your software. If you find a provider not meeting your needs, simply update the endpoint, and all your users will continue using the same commands and destinations they used previously with no noticeable change.
Scarf Gateway
How Scarf Gateway works is similar to a link shortener like bit.ly, which acts as a domain gateway to redirect traffic. Where it is different from a normal link shortener is it is designed to be compatible with the different API’s used by various services like:
- Registries like Docker Hub, Google Container Registry, RedHat Quay, Amazon Elastic Container Registry, and Azure Container Registry
- Package managers like Nix, homebrew, RPM, Apt, etc,
- Language specific package managers like pip or npm,
- Files coming via source control repos (Github or Gitlab)
- Or any file that is a direct download on the internet
One Line Change:
If you are using the open source version of the Scarf Gateway, changing container registries is literally a one-line change
Update the registry variable in the configuration, and all your user's pull commands will redirect to the new location. No fuss.
If you are using Scarf.sh’s managed service the UI is just as simple (note using our hosted managed service is free if you don’t want to run the gateway on your own):
See how Scarf enables you to see more about your downloads:
You can see an example setup using the UI here (~3 minutes):
Latest blog posts
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Measuring the Commercial ROI of DEVREL
In today's fast-paced tech world, the Developer Relations (DevRel) role has moved from the periphery to the center stage. Companies, irrespective of their size, are now seriously considering the worth of having a dedicated DevRel team. But, how do you quantify the success or failure of such an effort? What metrics should companies use? This post dives deep into understanding the commercial Return on Investment (ROI) of DevRel.
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September 20, 2023
Selling Open Source: 101 - Guide for Sales and Marketing Teams
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Beyond the Surface: How to Engage with the Quiet Members of your Open Source Community
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Daniela Villegas
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Matt Yonkovit
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Guidebooks
Mastering Telemetry in Open Source: A Simple Guide to Building Lightweight Call Home Functionality
This guidebook shows you how to implement a call-home functionality or telemetry within your open-source software while at the same time being transparent and respectful of your users data. Let's explore how to build a minimal, privacy-focused call home functionality using a simple version check and Scarf.
Matt Yonkovit
August 3, 2023
Scarf Newsletter
Scarf Newsletter - July 2023
Stay up to date with the latest updates from Scarf. Discover upcoming features, industry news, partnerships, and events. July 2023 Newsletter.
Scarf Team
August 2, 2023
Open Source Metrics: Fear and Loathing (Part 2)
Many open source contributors are reluctant or skeptical about metrics. They think metrics are overrated, irrelevant, or even harmful to their projects and communities. But in this blog post, we argue that metrics are essential for making better decisions, improving the experience for users and contributors, and demonstrating the impact and value of your open source work. We also share some tips and examples from OSPOs and DevRel teams on how to choose and use metrics effectively.
Matt Yonkovit
August 1, 2023
Why GitHub Repos Are Not Enough for Your Docs: The Benefits of Creating a Dedicated Doc Site
Many open-source developers rely on GitHub as their primary documentation source. But this can be a costly mistake that can affect your project’s success and adoption. In this blog, we’ll explain why you need to build your own docs site and how to do it easily and effectively.
Daniela Villegas
July 26, 2023
Data-Driven Open Source: Why You Should Care About Metrics (Part 1)
Open source projects and companies need data to grow and enhance their performance. However, many open source leaders and communities overlook or reject metrics and depend on intuition, relationships, or imitation. Data can help you spot problems, opportunities, and false positives in growth strategies. In this blog post, Matt Yonkovit shows you why data is important for open source success and how it can offer insights and guidance for open source projects to reach their goals and make better decisions.
Matt Yonkovit
July 24, 2023
State of Open Source Usage Q2 2023: The Scarf Report
Open source software continues to be a vital part of enterprise operations in Q2 2023, as more and more companies adopt open source solutions for their business needs. In this blog post, we will examine the state of open source usage in Q2 2023 and the trends that are shaping the future of open source.
Matt Yonkovit
July 21, 2023
Developer Relations (DevRel): Where Should It Reside in Your Organization
DevRel is a vital function for any organization that wants to engage with the developer community and grow its user base. However, there is no one-size-fits-all solution for where to place DevRel within the organizational structure. In this blog post, we explore three common strategies for DevRel placement: marketing, product, and hybrid. We discuss the advantages and challenges of each strategy, and provide some tips on how to decide which one is best for your organization and goals.
Matt Yonkovit
July 10, 2023
The Gating Debate: Striking a Balance Between Open Source and Marketing Insights
In the open source industry, identifying and engaging users is a major challenge. Many users download software from third-party platforms that do not share user data with the software company. Gating content behind a login or an email form can help, but it can also alienate potential users who value their privacy and convenience. In this blog post, we explore the pros and cons of gating content in the open source industry, and we offer an alternative solution that can help you identify and connect with your users without compromising your content.
Matt Yonkovit
July 4, 2023
Podcast Recaps
How to Use Metrics to Track and Evaluate Your Open Source Community’s Success
Open source software depends on the power of its community. But how do you know if your community is healthy and thriving? In this blog, you will learn how to use metrics to track and evaluate your community’s activity, engagement, growth, diversity, quality, and impact. You will hear from founders, DevRel experts, and investors who share their best practices and tips on how to measure and improve your community’s performance and value.
Daniela Villegas
June 27, 2023
Guidebooks
How to: Using anonymous downloads, website traffic, and documentation views to generate leads
Learn how to overcome the challenges of open source software marketing and turn anonymous data into qualified leads. In this blog post, we’ll show you how to use download data, web traffic, and documentation views to identify potential customers and grow your sales pipeline. Discover how to track downloads, website traffic and documentation views with Scarf Gateway and the Scarf Tracking Pixel.
Matt Yonkovit
June 23, 2023
Why Your Open Source Startup Is Going To Fail (And What You Can Do About It)
This blog post outlines ten common mistakes made by founders of open source startups, from failing to ask the right questions to neglecting the standardization of key metrics. By offering guidance on how to avoid these pitfalls, it provides a roadmap to successfully commercializing open source projects.
Matt Yonkovit
June 16, 2023
Open Source Monetization 101: A Step-by-Step Guide
Many people believe that making money from open source projects is an arduous or even impossible task. However, with the right strategies it is possible to build a sustainable business while keeping the spirit of open source intact. By evaluating the market fit and commercial viability of an open source project before considering funding and monetization, one can realistically begin to explore the financial potential of an open source project. Here's how to do it.
Daniela Villegas
June 9, 2023
The Open Source Sales & Marketing Funnel: Navigating the Challenges of Anonymous Downloads and Activity Tracking
This blog emphasizes the importance of a comprehensive approach to lead generation in the open source software space. Amid the challenges of anonymous usage and privacy regulations, strategies focusing on download activity, community engagement, and web traffic can maximize lead identification. Employing lead scoring and maintaining a list of active software users can further enhance sales outcomes in this unique market.
Matt Yonkovit
May 30, 2023
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Scarf Newsletter
Scarf Newsletter - May 2023
Stay up to date with the latest updates from Scarf. Discover upcoming features, industry news, partnerships, and events.
May 2023 Newsletter.
Scarf Team
May 22, 2023
Guidebooks
Harnessing Software Download Patterns: Using Open Source Download Metrics to Uncover New Users and Potential Customers
Here at Scarf, we've developed a solution to help open source projects and businesses gain more insight into their users and their download traffic - Scarf Gateway. Here's how it works.
Matt Yonkovit
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News
Unlocking Growth Potential: Scarf Users Benefit from Clearbit Integration for Improved User Intelligence
We are thrilled to announce our latest partnership with Clearbit (https://clearbit.com/). This collaboration will offer Scarf users and customers an enriched array of data about their user base, significantly enhancing the quality of information you already value from Scarf.
May 8, 2023
Reports
State of Open Source Usage Q1 2023: The Scarf Report
The popularity of open source software is not in doubt, but little concrete public data exists beyond human-generated surveys on adoption usage. In this blog post, we will explore the state of open source usage in Q1 2023 and the data illustrating how open source is becoming an increasingly important part of enterprise operations.
Scarf Team
May 4, 2023
Connecting Community Efforts in Open Source to Business Success
The success of DevRel (Developer Relations) and community efforts in open source can be challenging to measure, as there is often a disconnect between the goals and expectations of the community and the business. This blog post discusses the challenges of measuring the success of DevRel and community efforts in open source.
Matt Yonkovit
April 27, 2023
Guidebooks
3 Keys to Growing the Adoption of an Open Source Project
Successful open source projects don't always translate into successful open source businesses. However, by focusing on building a kick-ass product, raising awareness, making the product easier to use, and fostering a strong open source community, you can set the stage for converting users into paying customers.
Matt Yonkovit
April 19, 2023
The Most Neglected and Overlooked Open Source Metric: Production Users
Everyone wants a larger open source user base, but very few people effectively measure its growth. Let’s discuss why.
Matt Yonkovit
March 21, 2023
Guidebooks
Switching Container Registries With Zero Downtime
You can use the open source Scarf Gateway to switch hosting providers, container registries, or repositories without impacting end users in the future.
Scarf Team
March 16, 2023
Understanding Tech Layoffs and the Economy’s Impact on Open Source
What is driving all this tech layoffs? , What is their impact on the open source software industry? We will walk through all the potential reasons from an economic downturn, herd mentality, excessive borrowing and spending due to low interest rates, and growth at all costs as the main reasons behind the layoffs. Companies can continue to grow in this tight economic market if they are focused on optimizing efficiency and sustaining the right growth.
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March 13, 2023
Why Downloads are an Essential Metric for Open Source Software Projects
If you're only going to track one thing for your OSS project, track your downloads.
Avi Press
February 3, 2023
Guidebooks
The Open Source Business Metrics Guide
How to Build, Grow, and Measure the Success of an Open Source Business
Matt Yonkovit
January 4, 2023
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Podcast Recaps
Messaging and Positioning Considerations for Introducing an Open Source Product
At the All Things Open conference, Emily Omier, a seasoned positioning consultant, sat down with Avi Press (Founder and CEO, Scarf) and Matt Yonkovit (The HOSS, Scarf) to discuss how to message, position, and validate your open source product on The Hacking Open Source Business Podcast. You can watch the full episode below or continue reading for a recap.
Scarf Team
December 9, 2022
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Podcast Recaps
How to Get the Attention of an Open Source Software Investor
On the Hacking Open Source Business podcast, Joseph Jacks aka JJ (Founder, OSS Capital) joins Avi Press (Founder and CEO, Scarf) and Matt Yonkovit (The HOSS, Scarf) to share what you need to know before starting a commercial open source software (COSS) company and how you can set yourself and your project apart in a way that attracts investor funding. As an investor who exclusively focuses on open source startups, JJ provides a VC perspective on what he looks for when evaluating investment opportunities.
Scarf Team
November 28, 2022
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Podcast Recaps
Heroic Labs' Journey to Open Source and 5.3M Docker Downloads
On The Hacking Open Source Business podcast, CEO Chris Molozian and Head of Developer Relations Gabriel Pene at Heroic Labs elaborate on their usage and shift to open source and how it accelerated their adoption.
Scarf Team
November 21, 2022
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Podcast Recaps
How to Keep Open Source Projects Open Source
In this recap of the first episode of the Hacking Open Source Business Podcast, co-hosts Matt Yonkovit and Avi Press, Scarf Founder and CEO, dig into a recent controversy that highlights the challenges open source projects face trying to create sustainable revenue streams to support a business or a non-profit that funds the project’s growth.
Scarf Team
November 14, 2022
Case Study
How Buoyant Drives Open-Source-Led Growth with Linkerd
Building a business around an open-source project is hard. Learn more about how Buoyant drives product-led growth with Linkerd.
Avi Press
August 31, 2022
Alex Biehl: Open Sourcing a Tool to Generate Haskell Server Stubs
Alex is a software engineer at Scarf who recently open sourced a tool to generate Haskell server stubs called Tie.
Christina Gorton
July 20, 2022
Tanner Linsley: Building Sustainable Open Source Projects
Tanner Linsley joined us to explain how he got started in open source and how he has made working in open source sustainable.
Christina Gorton
July 17, 2022
Stefano Maffulli: An Exploration on Standards for Open Source Packaging and Distribution
Scarf Sessions is a new stream where we have conversations with people shaping the landscape in open source and open source sustainability. This post will give a recap of the conversation Scarf CEO, Avi Press and I had with our guest Stefano Maffulli.
Christina Gorton
June 28, 2022
Case Study
Using OSS Usage Data to Sell your Company
Learn how Nestybox used Scarf to gather better project insights and provide accurate data during their recent acquisition.
Christina Gorton
June 13, 2022
A Different Approach to Measuring Open Source Community Health
Community is important to the success of open source software. To understand and grow a community, project founders and maintainers need visibility into various technical, social, and even financial metrics. But what metrics should we be using?
Christina Gorton
May 30, 2022
Scarf Tech Stack: Relude
This blog post will talk about Relude, a project we use in the majority of our Scarf tech stack
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May 25, 2022
Python Wheels vs Eggs (And How Data-Driven Decisions Must Become The Norm in Open-Source)
Should Python eggs be deprecated in favor of wheels? What does the data show? This post explores how the right data can make decisions like this easier for maintainers and Open Source organizations.
Avi Press
May 9, 2022
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April 3, 2022
Announcing Python Support
Advanced registry analytics are now available for Python package maintainers
Avi Press
April 3, 2022
Project Spotlight: Scarf Gateway Stats
This Project Spotlight will focus on another exciting open source project, Scarf Gateway Stats.
Christina Gorton
March 2, 2022
Scarf Will Block Package Downloads from the Russian Government
In solidarity with Ukraine, Scarf Gateway will no longer service package downloads from Russian Government sources.
Avi Press
March 1, 2022
Christina Gorton
February 15, 2022
Community Spotlight: nix-community
This is the second post in a new series from Scarf: Spotlights where we highlight awesome projects and communities.
Christina Gorton
February 2, 2022
Changelog: Registry Validation for Auto-package Creation
A summary of the new registry validation feature for auto-package creation.
Christina Gorton
January 30, 2022
Three Ways to Build Better Products Through Analytics
A special guest post from open-source analytics company PostHog
Joe Martin
January 18, 2022
New Year, New Scarf Features
Today, we're launching some of the most frequently asked for features since we launched Scarf Gateway back in March.
Avi Press
January 6, 2022
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Tim Dysinger
October 28, 2021
OSS Project Spotlight: IHP
In a new blog post series, we'll highlight great OSS projects that are using Scarf. Today, we are featuring IHP, a modern batteries-included Haskell web framework
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Measuring Downloads of Anything You Distribute
Scarf's core registry infrastructure has leveled up to support any kind of direct file download
Avi Press
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Announcing Nomia and the Scarf Environment Manager
Our mission here at Scarf centers around enhancing the connections between open source software maintainers and end users. Learn how Scarf + Nomia can reduce the complexity and increase the efficiency of the end-user open source integration experience.
Shea Levy
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Announcing The Scarf Gateway
Understand how your containers are downloaded and decouple your project from your registry
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Shea Levy
February 1, 2021
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December 21, 2020
Are Package Registries Holding Open-Source Hostage?
Package registries are a central piece of infrastructure for software development. How aligned are they with the developers who make all of the packages being hosted?
Avi Press
November 10, 2020
Analytics and Open Source Sustainability
Analytics will be an important part of improving sustainability for open-source maintainers
Avi Press
July 8, 2020
Measuring the Commercial ROI of DEVREL
In today's fast-paced tech world, the Developer Relations (DevRel) role has moved from the periphery to the center stage. Companies, irrespective of their size, are now seriously considering the worth of having a dedicated DevRel team. But, how do you quantify the success or failure of such an effort? What metrics should companies use? This post dives deep into understanding the commercial Return on Investment (ROI) of DevRel.
Scarf Team
Selling Open Source: 101 - Guide for Sales and Marketing Teams
Monetizing open source software is a challenging task, but it can also be highly rewarding. Unlike traditional software, you're essentially competing against a free version of your product. So, how do you sell something that is inherently free?
Beyond the Surface: How to Engage with the Quiet Members of your Open Source Community
In the dynamic realm of community management, marketing, and developer relations, success depends upon more than just attracting attention. It's about fostering meaningful relationships, nurturing engagement, and amplifying your community's impact.
Daniela Villegas
