OpenLampTech - Developer Interview with Kyle Galbraith
Veteran .NET software engineer and Depot co-founder Kyle Galbraith shares his experience and insight in this OpenLampTech developer interview.
Welcome to this OpenLampTech text-based developer interview.
Kyle Galbraith has worked with companies ranging from small startups to non-profits (that have admirable missions like eliminating harmful material from the internet).
Having solved the pain of slow Docker builds, with the help of his co-founder, Depot was born.
Kyle and co-founder Jacob successfully used Depot to reduce a monolith Laravel project that had 12+ minute Docker image build times to less than a minute.
Needless to say, I am very excited Kyle provided the OpenLampTech newsletter readers with this fantastic developer interview.
And now without any further ado, on to the interview.
Q: Please introduce yourself and tell us what you currently do for a living.
My name is Kyle Galbraith. I’m a Software Engineer turned Founder of a new dev tool startup, Depot. I’m an expat living in Montpellier, France, but I’m originally from Portland, Oregon.
I’ve been writing code for 10+ years now and cut my teeth while working full-time as a Software Engineer in .NET while wrapping up my Computer Science degree in Portland. I’ve worked at various companies, from small startups that have been acquired to non-profits that have missions like eliminating harmful material from the internet.I’ve always wanted to build something from the ground up. When my co-founder, Jacob, and I continuously battled slow Docker builds and built a solution that made that exponentially faster, the opportunity to go full-time on Depot wasn’t something to pass on.
Q: What PHP framework(s) and/or CMS(s) are you interested in the most or currently using (if any) and why?
My PHP experience is limited, but one of the first projects we sped up with Depot was a big Laravel monolith with 12+ minute build times in Google Cloud Build. With Depot, we managed to get their Docker image builds down to less than a minute.
It was my first exposure to Laravel in a production environment, and I was impressed with the syntax and features that exist right out of the box.
Q: Do you think it is important for developers to know some SQL and not rely solely on an ORM? Why or why not?
In my opinion, ORMs can hide a lot of detail from a developer. That’s not always bad, but it’s important to understand what an ORM is doing behind the scenes. Things like how it interprets types or casts from one type to another in a query are subtleties that can cause query times to balloon unexpectedly.
I think there is a fine balance here. But in general, knowing SQL is just a handy career skill to have as it makes interfacing with different tools or debugging problems a lot easier.
Q: What is one piece of software that you just cannot live without and why?
This is a tough one! I’m going to say VS Code + Copilot for me. It’s just been such an awesome addition to my daily development. Even for more marketing-focused things, like writing blog posts in Markdown, Copilot is great at helping me get an outline of my thoughts that I can fill in.
Q: You type all of your code in which IDE/Text Editor/Software?
VS Code nowadays. Back in my Java/C++ days, I’d be in good ole emacs for a lot of development as we weren’t allowed to use other tools.
Q: How has working as a web developer/designer/professional benefited you other than the obvious paycheck and monetary value?
I would say it’s molded me into a person who is naturally curious and always hungry to solve a problem put in front of me. I think a growth mindset is also in play, as I’m always looking for ways to improve. But, working as an engineer and now a founder has unlocked a wealth of knowledge, skills, and connections that I don’t think I would have ever achieved without it.
Q: Do you have a book, newsletter, blog, podcast, or other resource you would recommend to other developers?
Far too many to list them all off. There are a lot of great resources out there today, so much so that I’d say it can be daunting to know where to start. For DevOps, containers, Kubernetes focused things, I’d say:
- Docker containers, Docker builds, etc. – we have some great articles up on our blog https://depot.dev/blog- DevOps, AWS, Kubernetes newsletters – Last Week in AWS, Devops Weekly, Unzip.dev
Q: What hobbies or activities do you do for fun?
I’ve been learning French for over six years now. I only speak French nowadays with my family, but I’m always hungry to learn more about the culture/language, so this is probably my biggest hobby.
Outside of language learning, I’m a big Formula 1 fan, Ligue 1 football fan, and I also grew up racing Motocross, so I dabble in that occasionally.
Q: Where can readers go to learn more about you and any projects you may have going?
Depot is where I spend most of my time these days, so if you need help with Docker image builds or faster builds in general, drop me an email over there.
I’m also pretty active on Twitter (or whatever it’s called now ;)); you can find me chatting about building a startup, tech, and living in France: twitter.com/kylegalbraith
Q: Anything else you'd like to add or share with the OpenLampTech readers?
Never stop learning, and always believe in what you can accomplish. No matter what tech stack or language you focus on, you can build incredible solutions to problems that are still unsolved. If you don’t do it, nobody else will.
Thank you, Kyle Galbraith, for sharing your knowledge and insights with the OpenLampTech newsletter readers and community!
Thank you for reading. I hope you have a great rest of your week.
Take care.
Josh Otwell