VSHN.timer #137: Take Back The Web

Welcome to another VSHN.timer! Every Monday, 5 links related to Kubernetes, OpenShift, CI / CD, and DevOps; all stuff coming out of our own chat system, making us think, laugh, or simply work better.

This week we’re going to talk about how developers are exploring new old ways to build and serve those trusty HTML websites.

1. Server-side rendering is making a comeback! Andraž Bajt reminds everyone that we can generate HTML in the server, instead of just sending JSON and manipulating the DOM on the browser. Feels like 1997 all over again; let’s watch another episode of Friends.

https://edofic.com/posts/2022-01-28-low-js/

2. What’s the absolute minimum you need to serve HTML pages to your visitors? A web server. But do you need Apache or NGINX? Not really. According to Jes, a small single binary built with the Go programming language is more than enough.

https://j3s.sh/thought/my-website-is-one-binary.html

3. How big do container images need to be to serve a static HTML website? Not a lot, actually. Instead of using NGINX, try using thttpd in your container, as shown by Florin Lipan, and enjoy your 186 KB container image. Yes, you read that right.

https://lipanski.com/posts/smallest-docker-image-static-website

4. What is faster, serving 100 files with 10 lines of PHP each, or 1 file with 1000? Well, Josh Bleecher Snyder found out that the latter is faster. And this trick not only works with PHP, but also with JavaScript and other programming languages.

https://commaok.xyz/post/perf_files/

5. If you’re bothered by AMP as much as we are, you’ll love this browser extension by Daniel Aleksandersen: it simply redirects back to the original page, far away from Google’s walled garden.

https://www.daniel.priv.no/web-extensions/amp2html.html

How do you prefer your HTML? Do you render it at the server or at the client side of the equation? Which episode of Friends is your favorite? Get in touch with us, and see you next week for another edition of VSHN.timer.

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PS³: check out our previous VSHN.timer editions about programming: #18, #30, #33, #47, #50, #60, #77, #88, #101, #103, and #122.