Apple's container vs Docker Desktop on the Mac[Engineering]
Apple's native container runtime hit v1.0 in June 2026. An honest look at where it beats Docker Desktop, where it doesn't, and how painful the switch actually is.→
Kristof Kowalski
I'm a Staff Engineer. I like to build interesting things: products, open-source tools, and writing about the work. I work on platform infrastructure, distributed systems, and the tooling that makes engineering teams faster. Currently based in Melbourne.
You'll find longer pieces in the blog, smaller things in notes, and the projects I've been building on projects. The /now page has a more current snapshot of what I'm working on.
- Creating a new agentic browser with features not yet seen in the industry. Very exciting.
- Reading Designing Data-Intensive Applications for the third time, slowly.
- Building a second brain in Obsidian — local vault and an enterprise layer for the team.
- Helping a friend ship their first Go service to production.
- Trying to learn one new thing a week and write about it.
How we cut p99 latency by 80% with one trace[Engineering]
A single OpenTelemetry trace showed us where to look. The fix was a five-line config change.→
Notes on maintainer burnout[Open Source]
Three years running a popular Go library taught me that the work isn't the code — it's the inbox.→
Find me on GitHub, LinkedIn, or X — or send me a message via the contact form. I read everything and reply to most of it.
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