gVisor: One Year Later

Last year at KubeCon EU 2018, we open-sourced gVisor to help advance the container security field. Container isolation was -- and continues to be -- an important topic in containers, and we wanted to share how we’ve addressed this at Google with the broader community. Over the past year, we’ve listened to your feedback and made enhancements to the project, improving integration and support for Kubernetes, and growing our contributor community.

Extending Kubernetes Support

One of the most common requests we heard was for better Kubernetes support. When we launched, gVisor supported Docker and had only minimal (and experimental) support for Kubernetes. One year later we now support full integration with Kubernetes via containerd and MiniKube. This includes the ability to run multiple containers in a single pod, full terminal support with kubectl exec, and enforcement of pod cgroup policies. We've also tightened security by isolating our I/O proxies (known as "gofers") in seccomp sandboxes.

Our Docker support has also improved; gVisor now obeys CPU and memory limits when passed to Docker. We also support interactive terminals via docker run -it and docker exec -it, and we exposed gVisor's native save/restore functionality via the experimental docker checkpoint command.

Increasing Compatibility and Performance

Since launch, we’ve increased our compatibility with many popular workloads and released a suite of over 1,500 syscall tests. This test suite helps to prevent regressions and also makes it easier for contributors to get started developing and testing their changes to gVisor.

Along with compatibility, we've also increased our performance significantly, particularly around networking. Network-heavy workloads like webservers are an important use case for potential gVisor users, and we've made a lot of optimizations to our network stack, such as enabling Generic Segmentation Offloading (GSO). This has resulted in more than a 3x improvement in tcp_benchmark throughput. We've also implemented some RFCs in our TCP/IP stack like SACK which helps maintain throughput with lossy network connections. We've published many performance benchmarks on our website, and will update those as we continue to make progress.

Growing the gVisor Community

We’ve also made our development process more open by moving bugs to a GitHub issue tracker, holding monthly community meetings, and starting a new developer-focused mailing list. We've also published a new governance model and code of conduct for our community.

In the last year we focused on improving our documentation, including new user guides, architecture details, and contribution guides, so that it is easier for new users to learn about gVisor and start using and contributing to the project. You can view these docs on a new website we created, gvisor.dev. Both the website and documentation are open to contributions. The changes have brought in contributions from dozens of users all over the world.

We're very excited about the future of gVisor and the great community we are building. We'd love to hear more feedback and look forward to continuing working towards more open infrastructure and collaboration. To learn more and get involved, check out our new home at gvisor.dev, particularly the community page where you can join our mailing lists and find the next community meeting.

By Nicolas Lacasse and Ian Lewis, gVisor Team

Season of Docs Now Accepting Technical Writer Applications

Season of Docs is excited to announce that technical writer applications are now open!

In their applications, technical writers can submit project proposals based on the project ideas of participating organizations, or propose their own ideas. Refer to the guidelines on the website for how to create a technical writer application. The technical writer application form is located here: https://forms.gle/Fxr2nW4TCiyESHbo8.

The deadline for technical writer applications is June 28, 2019 at 18:00 UTC.

What is Season of Docs?

Documentation is essential to the adoption of open source projects as well as to the success of their communities. Season of Docs brings together technical writers and open source projects to foster collaboration and improve documentation in the open source space. You can find out more about the program on the introduction page of the website.

During the program, technical writers spend a few months working closely with an open source community. They bring their technical writing expertise to the project's documentation and, at the same time, learn about the open source project and new technologies.

Mentors from open source projects work with the technical writers to improve the project's documentation and processes. Together, they may choose to build a new documentation set, redesign the existing docs, or improve and document the project's contribution procedures and onboarding experience.

How do I take part in Season of Docs as a technical writer?

First, take a look at the technical writer guide on the website, which includes information on eligibility and the application process.

Explore the list of participating organizations and their project ideas. When you find one or more projects that interest you, you should approach the relevant open source organization directly to discuss project ideas.

Then, read create a technical writing application and submit your application using this form: https://forms.gle/Fxr2nW4TCiyESHbo8. The deadline for technical writer applications is June 28, 2019 at 18:00 UTC.

Is there a stipend for participating technical writers?

Yes. There is an optional stipend available to the accepted technical writers. The stipend amount is calculated based on the technical writer's home location. See the technical writer stipends page for more information.

What kind of mentor will I be working with?

Season of Docs mentors are not necessarily technical writers, and they may have little experience in technical communication. They're members of an open source organization who know the value of good documentation and who are experienced in open source processes and tools.

The relationship between you and your mentors is a collaboration. You bring documentation experience and skills to the open source organization. Your mentors contribute their knowledge of open source and code. Together, you can develop technical documentation and improve the open source project's processes.

What if I have a full time job and don't have many hours per week to devote to Season of Docs?

In the technical writer application, there is an option to apply for a long-running project, which allows technical writers to complete their project in five months instead of the standard three months. This must be agreed upon with the open source organization before work commences.

If you have any questions about the program, please email us at season-of-docs-support@googlegroups.com.

General Timeline

May 29 - June 28	Technical writers submit their proposals to Season of Docs.
July 30	Google announces the accepted technical writer projects.
August 1 - September 1	Community bonding: Technical writers get to know mentors and the open source community, and refine their projects in collaboration with their mentors.
September 2 - November 29	Technical writers work with open source mentors on the accepted projects, and submit their work at the end of the period.
December 10	Google publishes the list of successfully-completed projects.

Join Us

Explore the Season of Docs website at g.co/seasonofdocs to learn more about participating in the program. Use our logo and other promotional resources to spread the word. Examine the timeline, check out the FAQ, and apply now!

By Andrew Chen, Google Open Source and Sarah Maddox, Google Technical Writer

Google Summer of Code 2019 (Statistics Part 1)

Since 2005, Google Summer of Code (GSoC) has been bringing new developers into the open source community every year. This year, we accepted 1,276 students from 63 countries into the 2019 GSoC program to work with 201 open source organizations over the summer.

Students are currently wrapping up the Community Bonding phase where they become familiar with the open source projects they will be working with by spending time learning the codebase, the community’s best practices, and integrating into the community. Students will start their 12-week coding projects on May 27th.

Each year we like to share program statistics about the GSoC program and the accepted students and mentors involved in the program.

Accepted Students

• 89.2% are participating in their first GSoC
• 75% are first time applicants

Degrees

• 77.5% are undergraduates, 16.6% are masters students, and 5.9% are in PhD programs
• 72.8% are Computer Science majors, 3.5% are Mathematics majors, 16.8% are other Engineering majors (Electrical, Mechanical, Aerospace, etc.)
• Students are in a variety of majors including Atmospheric Science, Neuroscience, Economics, Linguistics, Geology, and Pharmacy.

Proposals

There were a record number of students submitting proposals for the program this year: 5,606 students from 103 countries submitted 7,555 proposals.

In our next GSoC statistics post we will delve deeper into the schools, gender breakdown, mentors, and registration numbers for the 2019 program.

By Stephanie Taylor, Google Open Source

Google and Binomial Partner to Open-Source Basis Universal Texture Format

Today, Google and Binomial are excited to announce that we have partnered to open source the Basis Universal texture codec to improve the performance of transmitting images on the web and within desktop and mobile applications, while maintaining GPU efficiency. This release fills an important gap in the graphics compression ecosystem and complements earlier work in Draco geometry compression.

The Basis Universal texture format is 6-8 times smaller than JPEG on the GPU, yet is a similar storage size as JPEG – making it a great alternative to current GPU compression methods that are inefficient and don’t operate cross platform – and provides a more performant alternative to JPEG/PNG. It creates compressed textures that work well in a variety of use cases - games, virtual & augmented reality, maps, photos, small-videos, and more!

Without a universal texture format, developers are left with 2 options:

• Use GPU formats and take the storage size hit.
• Use other formats that have reduced storage size but couldn't compete with the GPU performance.

Maintaining so many different GPU formats is a burden on the whole ecosystem, from GPU manufacturers to software developers to the end user who can’t get a great cross platform experience. We’re streamlining this with one solution that has built-in flexibility (like optional higher quality modes) but is much easier on everyone to improve and maintain.

How does it all work? Compress your image using the encoder, choosing the quality settings that make sense for your project (you can also submit multiple images for small videos or optimization purposes, just know they’ll share the same color palette). Insert the transcoder code before rendering, which will turn the intermediary format into the GPU format your computer can read. The image stays compressed throughout this process, even on your GPU!  Instead of needing to decode and read the whole image, the GPU will read only the parts it needs. Enjoy the performance benefits!

Basis Universal can efficiently target the most common GPU formats

Google and Binomial will be working together to continue to support, maintain and add features, so check back frequently for the latest. This initial release of Basis Universal transcodes into the following GPU formats: PVRTC1 opaque, ETC1, ETC2 basic alpha, BC1-5, and BC7 opaque. Over the coming months more functionality will be added including BC7 transparent, ASTC opaque and alpha, PVRTC1 transparent, and higher quality BC7/ASTC.

Basis Universal reduces transmission size for texture while maintaining similar image quality.
See full benchmarking results

Basis Universal improves GPU memory usage over .jpeg and .png

With this partnership, we hope to see adoption of the transcoder in all major browsers to make performant cross-platform compressed textures accessible to everyone via the WebGL API, and the forthcoming WebGPU API. In addition to opening up the possibility of seamless integration into pipelines, everyone now has access to the state of the art compressor, which will also be open sourced.

We look forward to seeing what people do with Basis Universal now that it's open sourced. Check out the code and demo on GitHub, let us know what you think, and how you plan to use it! Currently, Basis Universal transcoders are available in C++ and WebAssembly.

By Stephanie Hurlburt, Binomial and Jamieson Brettle, Chrome Media

OpenTelemetry: The Merger of OpenCensus and OpenTracing

We’ve talked about OpenCensus a lot over the past few years, from the project’s initial announcement, roots at Google and partners (Microsoft, Dynatrace) joining the project, to new functionality that we’re continually adding. The project has grown beyond our expectations and now sports a mature ecosystem with Google, Microsoft, Omnition, Postmates, and Dynatrace making major investments, and a broad base of community contributors.

We recently announced that OpenCensus and OpenTracing are merging into a single project, now called OpenTelemetry, which brings together the best of both projects and has a frictionless migration experience. We’ve made a lot of progress so far: we’ve established a governance committee, a Java prototype API + implementation, workgroups for each language, and an aggressive implementation schedule.

Today we’re highlighting the combined project at the keynote of Kubecon and announcing that OpenTelemetry is now officially part of the Cloud Native Computing Foundation! Full details are available in the CNCF’s official blog post, which we’ve copied below:

---

A Brief History of OpenTelemetry (So Far)

After many months of planning, discussion, prototyping, more discussion, and more planning, OpenTracing and OpenCensus are merging to form OpenTelemetry, which is now a CNCF sandbox project. The seed governance committee is composed of representatives from Google, Lightstep, Microsoft, and Uber, and more organizations are getting involved every day.

And we couldn't be happier about it – here’s why.

Observability, Outputs, and High-Quality Telemetry

Observability is a fashionable word with some admirably nerdy and academic origins. In control theory, “observability” measures how well we can understand the internals of a given system using only its external outputs. If you’ve ever deployed or operated a modern, microservice-based software application, you have no doubt struggled to understand its performance and behavior, and that’s because those “outputs” are usually meager at best. We can’t understand a complex system if it’s a black box. And the only way to light up those black boxes is with high-quality telemetry: distributed traces, metrics, logs, and more.

So how can we get our hands – and our tools – on precise, low-overhead telemetry from the entirety of a modern software stack? One way would be to carefully instrument every microservice, piece by piece, and layer by layer. This would literally work, it’s also a complete non-starter – we’d spend as much time on the measurement as we would on the software itself! We need telemetry as a built-in feature of our services.

The OpenTelemetry project is designed to make this vision a reality for our industry, but before we describe it in more detail, we should first cover the history and context around OpenTracing and OpenCensus.

OpenTracing and OpenCensus

In practice, there are several flavors (or “verticals” in the diagram) of telemetry data, and then several integration points (or “layers” in the diagram) available for each. Broadly, the cloud-native telemetry landscape is dominated by distributed traces, timeseries metrics, and logs; and end-users typically integrate with a thin instrumentation API or via straightforward structured data formats that describe those traces, metrics, or logs.



For several years now, there has been a well-recognized need for industry-wide collaboration in order to amortize the shared cost of software instrumentation. OpenTracing and OpenCensus have led the way in that effort, and while each project made different architectural choices, the biggest problem with either project has been the fact that there were two of them. And, further, that the two projects weren’t working together and striving for mutual compatibility.

Having two similar-yet-not-identical projects out in the world created confusion and uncertainty for developers, and that made it harder for both efforts to realize their shared mission: built-in, high-quality telemetry for all.

Getting to One Project

If there’s a single thing to understand about OpenTelemetry, it’s that the leadership from OpenTracing and OpenCensus are co-committed to migrating their respective communities to this single and unified initiative. Although all of us have numerous ideas about how we could boil the ocean and start from scratch, we are resisting those impulses and focusing instead on preparing our communities for a successful transition; our priorities for the merger are clear:

• Straightforward backwards compatibility with both OpenTracing and OpenCensus (via software bridges)
• Minimizing the time where OpenTelemetry, OpenTracing, and OpenCensus are being co-developed: we plan to put OpenTracing and OpenCensus into “readonly mode” before the end of 2019.
• And, again, to simplify and standardize the telemetry solutions available to developers.

In many ways, it’s most accurate to think of OpenTelemetry as the next major version of both OpenTracing and OpenCensus. Like any version upgrade, we will try to make it easy for both new and existing end-users, but we recognize that the main benefit to the ecosystem is the consolidation itself – not some specific and shiny new feature – and we are prioritizing our own efforts accordingly.

How you can help

OpenTelemetry’s timeline is an aggressive one. While we have many open-source and vendor-licensed observability solutions providing guidance, we will always want as many end-users involved as possible. The single most valuable thing any end-user can do is also one of the easiest: check out the actual work we’re doing and provide feedback. Via GitHub, Gitter, email, or whatever feels easiest.

Of course we also welcome code contributions to OpenTelemetry itself, code contributions that add OpenTelemetry support to existing software projects, documentation, blog posts, and the rest of it. If you’re interested, you can sign up to join the integration effort by filling in this form.

By Ben Sigelman, co-creator of OpenTracing and member of the OpenTelemetry governing committee, and Morgan McLean, Product Manager for OpenCensus at Google since the project’s inception

Google fosters the open source hardware community

Open source silicon promises new challenges and opportunities for both industry and the open source community. To take full advantage of open silicon we will need new design methodologies, new governance models, and increased collaborations between industry, academia, and not for profits. A vibrant free and open source software community has been vital to both Google and our customer’s success. We look forward to supporting the new domain of open source silicon to similarly benefit all participants.

Working through its Open Source Programs Office (OSPO), Google is actively engaged in helping seed the open silicon space. Specifically by providing funding, strategic, and legal support to key open hardware efforts including lowRISC and CHIPS alliance.

lowRISC

lowRISC is a leader in open silicon community outreach, technical documentation, and advancing the goal of a truly open source system on a chip. We have long supported lowRISC’s mission of transparently implemented silicon and robust engagement of the open source silicon community, providing funding, advice, and recognizing their open source community leadership by selecting them as a Google Summer of Code mentoring organization.

Similar to the benefits of open source software, we believe our users will derive great outcomes from open source silicon. Besides enabling and encouraging innovation, chip designs derived from a common, open baseline will provide the benefit of implementation choice while still guaranteeing software compatibility and a set of common interfaces. With regards to security, the transparency of an open source approach is critical to both bugfinding and establishing implementation trustworthiness.

"Google has encouraged and supported lowRISC since the very start. They clearly share our optimism for what open source hardware can offer and our community-driven vision of the future. We are excited by the expanding open source RISC-V ecosystem and look forward to lowRISC community IP being deployed in the real world,” said Alex Bradbury, Co-founder and Director. “We believe lowRISC can act as an important catalyst for open source silicon, providing a shared engineering resource to ensure quality, provide support and help to maintain IP from a range of partners.”

lowRISC board members (L to R): Dominic Rizzo (Google), Alex Bradbury (lowRISC), Gavin Ferris (lowRISC), Dr Robert Mullins (University of Cambridge), Prof. Luca Benini (ETH Zürich), and Ron Minnich (Google, not pictured).

A first example of Google’s ongoing collaboration with ETH Zürich and lowRISC is the recently released “Ibex” RISC-V core. ETH Zürich donated their Zero-riscy core as a starting point and technical work to extend the core was done across all three organizations. You can learn more about Google’s collaboration with lowRISC on the RISC-V core here.

Furthermore, Google is excited to announce that it is joining the board of lowRISC, with the appointment of Dominic Rizzo and Ronald Minnich as corporate directors.

CHIPS Alliance 

Along with our increased funding, support and collaboration with lowRISC, we are also happy to announce our status as a founding member of the Linux Foundation’s CHIPS Alliance project. CHIPS Alliance features an industry-driven, collaborative model to release high-quality silicon IP and supporting technical collateral. Most recently, in collaboration with CHIPS Alliance, we released a Universal Verification Methodology (UVM) instruction stream generator to aid in the verification of RISC-V cores. We believe such open sourcing of verification tools will prove critical to the long-term success of the open source silicon community.

Google has been an early, strong supporter of the open silicon community. We believe deeply in a future where transparent, trustworthy open source chip designs are commonplace. To get there, we are committed to establishing a collaborative, community-focused, open source basis for free and open silicon design.

By Parthasarathy Ranganathan, Distinguished Engineer, Google and Dominic Rizzo, Open Silicon Tech Lead, Google 

Summer is here! Welcome to our 2019 GSoC Students!

After reviewing 7,555 student proposals, our 206 mentoring organizations have chosen the 1,276 students they will be working with during the 15th Google Summer of Code (GSoC). Congratulations to our 2019 GSoC students and a big thank you to everyone who applied. This year’s students come from 64 countries!

The next step for participating students is the Community Bonding period which runs from May 6 through May 27. During this time, students will get up to speed on the culture and code base of their new community. They’ll also get acquainted with their mentor(s) and learn more about the languages or tools that they will need to complete their projects. Coding begins May 27 and will continue throughout the summer until August 26.

If you were not selected for this year’s Summer of Code - don’t be discouraged! Many students apply more than once to GSoC before being accepted. You can improve your odds for next time by contributing to the open source project of your choice directly now; organizations are always eager for new contributors! Look around for a project that interests you and get started.

Happy coding, everyone!

By Stephanie Taylor, GSoC Program Lead

Season of Docs announces participating organizations

Season of Docs has announced the 50 participating open source organizations! You can view the list of participating organizations on the website.

Technical writer applications open on May 29, 2019 at 18:00 UTC. 

During the technical writer exploration phase, which runs from now until May 28, 2019, technical writers can explore the list of participating organizations and their project ideas. They should reach out to the organizations to gain a better understanding of the organizations and discuss project ideas before applying to Season of Docs.

For more information about the technical writer exploration phase, visit the technical writer guide on the website.

What is Season of Docs?

Documentation is essential to the adoption of open source projects as well as to the success of their communities. Season of Docs brings together technical writers and open source projects to foster collaboration and improve documentation in the open source space. You can find out more about the program on the introduction page of the website.

During the program, technical writers spend a few months working closely with an open source community. They bring their technical writing expertise to the project's documentation and, at the same time, learn about the open source project and new technologies.

The open source projects work with the technical writers to improve the project's documentation and processes. Together, they may choose to build a new documentation set, redesign the existing docs, or improve and document the project's contribution procedures and onboarding experience.

How do I take part in Season of Docs as a technical writer?

First, take a look at the technical writer guide on the website. The guide includes information on eligibility and the application process.

The technical writer exploration phase runs from April 30 - May 28, 2019. During this period, you can explore the list of participating organizations and their project ideas. When you find one or more projects that interest you, you should approach the relevant open source organization directly to discuss project ideas.

Then, read create a technical writing application and prepare your application materials. On May 29, 2019 at 18:00 UTC, Season of Docs will begin accepting technical writer applications and publish a link to the application form on the website. The deadline for technical writer applications is June 28, 2019 at 18:00 UTC.

Is there a stipend for participating technical writers?

Yes. There is an optional stipend that technical writers can request as part of their application. The stipend amount is calculated based on the technical writer's home location. See the technical writer stipends page for more information.

If you have any questions about the program, please email us at season-of-docs-support@googlegroups.com.

General timeline

• April 30 - May 28: Technical writers explore the list of participating organizations and project ideas.
• May 29 - June 28: Technical writers submit their proposals to Season of Docs. 
• July 30: Google announces the accepted technical writer projects
• August 1 - September 1: Community bonding: Technical writers get to know mentors and the open source community, and refine their projects in collaboration with their mentors.
• September 2 - November 29: Technical writers work with open source mentors on the accepted projects, and submit their work at the end of the period.
• December 10: Google publishes the list of successfully-completed projects.

See the full timeline for details, including the provision for projects that run longer than three months.

Care to join us?

Explore the Season of Docs website at g.co/seasonofdocs to learn more about participating in the program. Use our logo and other promotional resources to spread the word. Examine the timeline, check out the FAQ, and apply now!

By Andrew Chen, Google Open Source and Sarah Maddox, Google Technical Writer