Welcome to GigaElixir Gazette, your 5-minute digest of Elixir ecosystem news that actually matters 👋.

At Gigalixir, we're the only platform built specifically for Elixir/Phoenix apps – giving you distributed clustering, remote console, and production observer without the DevOps nightmare.

Deploy now and unlock capabilities that other platforms simply can't provide.

. WEEKLY PICKS .

🎨 Mishka Chelekom: Now With Accessibility Baked In:

After a month of intensive work, the Mishka Chelekom team has released v0.0.5 with accessibility support for over 90 Phoenix components.

Five brand-new components join the lineup, turning this open-source UI library into a serious contender for your next Phoenix project.

If you're tired of reinventing wheels for every new project, this toolkit could dramatically speed up your development cycle while keeping things accessible.

Check out the library

🏢 Elixir's Secret Weapon: No Big Tech Overlords:

Lars Wikman's analysis reveals why Elixir thrives outside the influence of tech giants like Google, Microsoft, and Meta.

While languages like Rust, Go, and TypeScript are vulnerable to corporate priorities, Elixir's community-driven approach creates what he calls "a steady-going concern and an awesome ecosystem."

This independence might be Elixir's greatest strength in an increasingly volatile tech landscape.

Read the full article

👨‍💻 Mid-Career Pivot to Elixir at 40+: Actually Doable?:

A 20-year tech veteran with deep .NET and AWS experience is eyeing a complete career shift to Elixir development.

His forum post sparked massive discussion on whether it's ever too late to pivot to Elixir, and how to leverage existing expertise when making the jump.

The consensus? Age means nothing – it's all about how you position your transferable skills and demonstrate enthusiasm for the ecosystem.

Join the discussion

. PRO TIPS .

Understanding Patterns for Secure Elixir Code

A lot of Elixir developers think their code is automatically secure just because it's functional. The reality is more nuanced.

Smart teams are adding static analysis tools like Sobelow to their CI/CD pipelines to catch security issues before they reach production. This single step catches the vast majority of common vulnerabilities with minimal effort.

One pattern that keeps tripping up even experienced developers is improper validation before using functions like :erlang.binary_to_term/2. Even with the :safe option, you still need validation, as the Erlang docs clearly state: "The safe option ensures the data is safely processed by the Erlang runtime but it does not guarantee the data is safe to your application."

While everyone's rushing to add complex security scanning to their deployments, forward-thinking teams are taking a simpler approach with SAFE for Elixir. This framework, developed with Erlang Solutions, integrates seamlessly into existing workflows while providing comprehensive vulnerability detection.

Remember, for secure Elixir applications:

1. Trust, but verify – even with "safe" functions

2. Add static analysis to your CI/CD pipeline

3. Validate all user inputs, especially before deserialization

4. Treat security as a continuous process, not a one-time audit

These four practices prevent most security incidents before they happen, saving you from the pain of emergency patching or worse – data breaches.

. NO OPS. JUST ELIXIR .

Deploy your next Elixir app hassle-free with Gigalixir and focus more on coding, less on ops.

We're specifically designed to support all the features that make Elixir special, so you can keep building amazing things without becoming a DevOps expert.

See you next week,

Michael

P.S. Forward this to a friend who loves Elixir as much as you do 💜