
Lens: Desktop application for managing Kubernetes clusters - xfiler
https://github.com/kontena/lens
======
alkonaut
There is a screenshot burired in the source.
[https://raw.githubusercontent.com/lensapp/lens/master/images...](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/lensapp/lens/master/images/screenshot.png)

A desktop app _really_ needs a screenshot in the readme.

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thejosh
Yeah, especially as it looks pretty slick!

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aliswe
Agreed!

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alias_neo
Note that a ticket asking for the ability to turn off/remove/opt-out of data
collection was closed as "wontfix".

The argument is that there will be an enterprise version to allow that, with
"enterprise licensing".

[https://github.com/lensapp/lens/issues/93](https://github.com/lensapp/lens/issues/93)

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dotdi
From the wontfix issue:

> We collect data that you submit via kontena account registration. We collect
> data about events that are happening in Lens app: application started,
> application stopped, logged in, logged out, cluster settings page open,
> cluster view open, cluster feature X installed, cluster feature X
> uninstalled, cluster feature X upgraded, terminal opened and kubernetes
> resource applied. There is no metadata related to these collected. We are
> not collecting any kind of telemetry data from Lens app: for example we
> don't know how many clusters you might have, how many nodes you have, what
> is actually running in your cluster etc.

vs.

> It's the only way for the company behind the product to see how many users
> are actively using it.

That's a lot of data for the simple task of seeing how many users are actively
using it.

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hemancuso
I’ve been playing with the beta of Infra, which serves a similar purpose. Also
with checking out

[https://www.infra.app/](https://www.infra.app/)

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atoreno
I’ve been using Infra.app for over 3 weeks. Love it. Made by the founders of
Kitematic and Docker for Mac and Windows. Their care shows in the product.

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4rt
k9s is an excellent CLI alternative.

[https://github.com/derailed/k9s](https://github.com/derailed/k9s)

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taude
I learned about this on HN a couple weeks ago. Game changer for me on the app
dev side. Makes poking into the pods to look at logging way easier, especially
since I'm not a specialized DevOps resource.

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look_lookatme
It's nice to see work in this area. I was familiar with Kontena (the company
that creates Lens) because they have a really nice k8s ruby client lib, but I
haven't given Lens a try yet. I use k9s (mentioned elsewhere) primarily and VS
Code has a nice porcelain for k8s, but it doesn't feel like anyone has really
nailed a GUI yet.

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dotdi
Despite no screenshots I gave it a try.

It actually works well, it automatically read the contexts from my local
kubectl configuration and it's got a dark theme. I'll be properly test-driving
this for the following days.

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cmckn
This is like a shot-for-shot remake of the official kubernetes-dashboard. That
isn't a bad thing, but I don't see why I'd use this over the web app -- it
doesn't feel native and will probably always lag behind dashboard

It does feel snappy, and looks good.

One cute GUI utility I've found useful is [https://kube-
forwarder.pixelpoint.io/](https://kube-forwarder.pixelpoint.io/).

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anilgulecha
Missing screenshot or video. Found this on youtube:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04v2ODsmtIs](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04v2ODsmtIs)

I've also found k9s nice to use:
[https://github.com/derailed/k9s](https://github.com/derailed/k9s)

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aliswe
No screenshots?

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masonhensley
PR for fixing that here ...
[https://github.com/lensapp/lens/pull/124](https://github.com/lensapp/lens/pull/124)

They had an image in the repo, but it wasn't referenced in the readme.

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shaabanban
Been using this for a while solely bc they show custom resources

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naikrovek
Does anyone else think this is insane? Kubernetes is there to manage Docker.
Docker is there to run software you don't have to install, which is something
operating systems should let you do anyway.

Are we going to have a kubernetes manager manager soon?

If Kubernetes management is a problem, fix Kubernetes. Ultimately, Docker
should be fixed so that kubernetes is not needed. After that, operating
systems should allow you to simply copy a binary over and run it, statically
compiled. This type of distribution should be the norm and not the exception.

We keep piling things on top of other things, and no one seems to care. There
are no adults overseeing us, and we soiled our diapers a while ago.

~~~
movedx
Tell me about it. It's laziness if you ask me (not that anyone is, and that
might be a good thing.)

I would have rather we (as an industry) focused on the developing better
languages and frameworks to write our software with. Look at Go for example...

With Go I can create a single binary, produce a DEB or RPM and deploy it using
Ansible. If I need to update the software I make a change and push it through
the CI/CD stack, resulting in another binary, then another DEB/RPM, then an
updated set of servers. I then restart a service... so hard /s

If I need to run micro services, then, you know, just run them? They're all
statically linked, singular binaries on disk. If I need to run 500 of them,
then I just run them. Each gets whatever port it can find and registers its
self with (something like) Consul and just like that, I'm DNS query or an API
call away from knowing what services I have, where they are and what port to
talk to them on.

I believe we should be focusing on making those processes better, not just
adding more complex layers on top of simple solutions.

I know K8s has its benefits, but I believe the same benefits can be realised
easily enough without the complexities that K8s brings. Obviously I can't
outline them here in a comment on HN, but I am working on providing a POC in
the near future.

EDIT: and to those down voting me: that's also lazy. Cognitive laziness. Prove
me wrong. Also, I don't care about Internet Points, I care about the truth and
finding what's true. I wish you the best of luck though.

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dilyevsky
“Kubernetes is too complex” // proceeds to macgyver half of kubernetes in her
own opinionated way...

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movedx
> proceeds to macgyver half of kubernetes in her own opinionated way...

What, by suggesting we run a process on its own instead of wrapping it
something that isn't required?

