K8Studio Review: New Kubernetes IDE

@t3hbeowulf curious if you have tried this one out yet?

Not yet but this is fascinating. I'm going to give this a try today. I used OpenLens extensively at work but it's always good to have options, especially if one of several similar tools rises above the rest. 

If this solves some of the quirks I encounter in OpenLens, I'll reply here.

Thank you for your write-up! 

@t3hbeowulf that would be awesome, very curious on your thoughts with the tool, compared to other solutions like Lens 👍

First impressions of v0.2.2-ALPHA:  

Pros:

• Once connected to a cluster, it is FAST. Data pulls in quickly and navigation is quick and smooth. 
• Resizable columns!
  • K8 Studio lets you resize columns in Grid view. This is a massive improvement over OpenLens.
  • Contrast: OpenLens / Lens "automagically" adjusts column widths based on screen resolution and they have always done this poorly.
• Navigating from an item in the grid --> YAML config --> Events is smooth and instant. YAML editor isn't bound to your terminal window area as it is bound in OpenLens.

Cons:

• It does not appear to natively support authentication to AWS so I was unable to test it on 80% of our infrastructure. Connecting to AWS requires manual configuration of the cluster every time your session token expires. I would have expected K8 Studio to allow ingesting pre-authenticated role-based session tokens from your .aws configuration.
• It does pick up clusters in your kubeconfig automatically but does not recognize clusters configured as extensions to your kubeconfig. (meaning it does not scope and merge all configs in your kube path automatically. kubectl and other IDEs like OpenLens and k9s silently merge all configs in your kubeconfig path.)
• K8 Studio does not let you configure the terminal it opens at all. You get your default OS configured terminal and that is it. 
  • Contrast: OpenLens allows you to specify your terminal executable w/arguments. 

@t3hbeowulf excellent insights here! I think the tool definitely holds promise for the alpha version, things are looking very positive. I will see if I can ping the developer on some of the feedback and potential for improvements that you have brought up here  👍

Shortly after my post, they released v0.2.3-ALPHA and I was able to use an authenticated AWS config to briefly access one of the clusters. 

After checking out their Issues section, I see they are working on a feature to support multiple kubeconfig files and that there is still a known issue around accessing clusters not added through their form. A lot of promising work is going into this and I'm looking forward to evaluating it again soon.

@t3hbeowulf Awesome! I had reached out to the developer yesterday and he had given me some really positive feedback and mentioned they had some features coming. I was hoping he might post some updates here, but glad to know they released the new version of the app. I think this has a lot of promise to be one of the best K8s IDEs once it goes GA 👍

Hello, @t3hbeowulf, I appreciate your efforts in testing our application and sharing your valuable feedback.

We are diligently working on a forthcoming release that aims to address various issues and enhance user experience. Here's an overview of the ongoing tasks:

1. Resolved bugs related to AWS, Azure, and Gcloud Clusters, including connectivity to AWS using STS.

2. Implemented support for clusters utilizing proxy connections.

3. Streamlined the process by extracting and consolidating all configurations from the kube path. We're also introducing a more user-friendly interface for managing multiple clusters, enhancing visibility, and incorporating Hotbar functionality. Additionally, users will be able to provide Yaml or a file for cluster addition, simplifying the onboarding process.

4. Introduced terminal arguments settings.

5. Eliminated the need for repeated application login, replacing it with a more convenient activation code workflow.

6. Introduced a free Personal License, allowing everyone to easily try or utilize the application.

7. Implemented an airtight activation workflow.

8. Introduced a company account feature, enabling efficient management of multiple seats within a company.

@guiqui Welcome to the forums. It's great to have you here! I really appreciate your detailed list of improvements coming forth with the new release of K8Studio as well as the personal license. This will be a great addition for home labs and others trying out the tool. Please do keep us posted 👍