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Developer News This Week: AWS re:Inforce, React Native 0.80 & More (June 20 2025)

The past five days delivered a steady stream of security fixes, framework updates, and forward-looking experiments. Below you’ll find in-depth context, upgrade advice, and links to keep handy when planning your next sprint.

AWS re:Inforce 2025 – Smarter, Simpler Cloud Security

At AWS re:Inforce 2025 in Philadelphia, AWS unveiled a wave of new security features aimed at making cloud protection easier and more resilient.

IAM Access Analyzer Gets Smarter

IAM Access Analyzer now automatically shows which principals in your AWS organization have access to sensitive resources like S3 buckets and RDS snapshots. It uses automated reasoning to scan multiple policies at once and presents the results in a single dashboard. This makes it much easier to spot and fix unintended permissions.

Read the official AWS announcement
Event roundup summary

Mandatory MFA for Root Users

AWS is now enforcing Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) for all root users. This move is designed to block over 99% of password-based attacks. You can use FIDO-certified security keys or FIDO2 passkeys, and each user can register up to eight MFA devices for extra flexibility.

Learn more about MFA enforcement

Amazon Q for Security Teams

Amazon Q now includes a security specialist mode. This AI assistant can answer questions about your AWS environment and help triage incidents using real-time knowledge of your configuration and logs. Security teams can get fast, natural language answers without digging through dashboards.

See the full re:Inforce 2025 announcement

Stronger Backups with Air-Gapped Vaults

AWS Backup now supports logically air-gapped vaults with multi-party approval. Restoring backups can require multiple trusted users to approve the action, even if an account is compromised. Cross-account restore is also supported, boosting resilience.

Details in the AWS roundup

Easier Web and Network Protection

AWS WAF now offers pre-configured protection packs that cut setup time by up to 80%. AWS Security Hub has new features for unified risk prioritization, turning alerts into clear, actionable steps. AWS Shield also previewed new tools for network security posture management, helping teams spot and fix risks before they’re exploited.

Read about these enhancements

Why It Matters:
AWS is making cloud security more automated and accessible. With stronger defaults, smarter AI tools, and easier configuration, teams can protect their environments faster—and with less hassle.

React Native 0.80: Faster, Safer, and Aligned with React 19.1

React Native 0.80 is here, and it’s all about speed and safety:

  • Aligned with React 19.1: Enjoy concurrent rendering and shiny new hooks—mobile devs, you’re now on par with the latest React web features.
  • Opt-in Strict TypeScript: TypeScript fans, rejoice! Stricter typing means fewer any leaks and more reliable codebases.
  • Pre-built iOS Dependencies: No more endless pod installs. CI jobs are now up to 30% faster, thanks to pre-built iOS deps.
  • Hermès 125: The updated JavaScript engine delivers smaller bytecode and noticeably faster cold starts.

Why it matters: Your builds are faster, your code is safer, and your apps launch quicker. That’s a win-win-win.

VS Code Python/Jupyter – June 2025 Release

Pythonistas and data scientists, this one’s for you:

  • Pylance “Ghost-Text”: Get full-line code previews right in the editor. Less guesswork, more flow.
  • Bundled Python 3.13 Stubs: Try out the latest pattern matching features before they’re mainstream.
  • Notebook Kernel Cold-Start 30% Faster: Shorter waits mean more time for data exploration and model tweaking.

Full details about the release here.

Why it matters: Less context switching and faster feedback loops = real productivity gains for ML and data teams.

VS Code Insiders 1.102: AI Gets Native

The nightly channel just got smarter:

  • Color-Coded AI Ghost Text: Instantly spot AI-suggested code vs. what you’ve typed—no more accidentally committing AI guesses.
  • Unified Authentication API: Extensions now recycle a single cloud token. Say goodbye to constant login prompts.

Try it now: Available in Insiders builds—spin up a throw-away devcontainer and take it for a test drive. General availability expected in July.

🖥️ GitHub Desktop 3.5.0: Native & Speedy

Desktop git just got an upgrade:

  • Native Apple Silicon Builds: No more Rosetta. Pure speed for Mac users.
  • Faster Fuzzy Repo Search: Perfect for those monster mono-repos.
  • At-a-Glance Branch Compare: See commits and diffs in a single view—context switching, begone!

Copilot Spaces: Context-Rich Code Discussion

AI code review just levelled up:

  • Paste an Issue or PR URL: Copilot imports the full thread—comments, code, CI status, and all.
  • AI Answers with Full Context: No more “out of context” AI replies. Get instant, accurate summaries.

Dev tip: Summarize long discussion threads for new teammates in seconds. Onboarding just got easier.

 16 Billion Credentials Dumped: Security Wake-Up Call

A record-breaking trove of infostealer logs just went public. If you’re reusing passwords, you’re at risk – immediately.

Security Checklist

  • Rotate any credential reused across personal & work.
  • Invalidate old Personal Access Tokens.
  • Enforce MFA org-wide (seriously, do it today).

Don’t wait—take action now!

Weekend Read: “ChatGPT Is My SSG”

Nick Pilkington shows off a prompt-driven static site generator. Just write a prompt, and ChatGPT spits out Markdown, HTML, and a full directory scaffold.

Why it’s cool: Perfect for landing pages, docs, or prototypes—no local toolchain needed. Check out the demo for a fresh take on rapid site creation.

That’s a Wrap!

Stay sharp, stay secure, and keep building amazing things. For more news and deep dives, check out our previous roundups here.

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News and Resources

Developer News This Week: The Full Roundup on WWDC ’25, A Critical Zero-Day, AI Tools & More (June 13, 2025)

Looking for a complete summary of this week in developer news? You’ve found it. The entire tech world was focused on Cupertino for Apple’s WWDC 2025, but that was far from the only story. From a critical zero-day vulnerability and major new AI platform announcements to foundational shifts in core Linux tools, it’s been a packed week.

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Here’s our comprehensive breakdown of the essential news you need to know.

The Main Event: Apple’s WWDC 2025 Overhaul

Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference set the tone for the next year, revealing sweeping changes across its entire ecosystem. The key announcements for developers include the new iOS 26 and macOS 26 naming convention, a new “Liquid Glass” design system, and, most importantly, developer access to “Apple Intelligence” foundation models to build AI-powered features directly into apps.

See the key announcements here.

What is Liquid Glass? Liquid Glass is Apple’s new design material introduced across iOS 26, iPadOS 26, macOS Tahoe, watchOS 26, and tvOS 26. Alan Dye, Apple’s VP of Human Interface Design, called it “our broadest software design update ever.” Find out how Liquid Glass works and where you’ll find it in this comprehensive blog post.

Note from our community member CacheProgrammer who attended WWDC:

“The loudest in-person response was to an announcement I have not seen in any recap. You know how, when you call Custom Service and are on hold for what seems like forever…well, Apple announced during one of the announcements that you will be able to put the phone down and when the live support person finally comes online, the phone will tell THEM that YOU will be right with them and to please wait…and then notify you that your call has gone through, and you can pick up the phone and have a conversation with a live person. And the crowd at WWDC 25 went WILD! The loudest and longest applause of any of the other announcements. And no one who wasn’t there in person is mentioning it!”

Critical Security Alerts: June’s Patch Tuesday

It was a crucial week for system security as both Microsoft and Adobe released their monthly “Patch Tuesday” updates.

  • Microsoft Patches Actively Exploited Zero-Day: The headline security news was Microsoft’s patch for an actively exploited zero-day vulnerability (CVE-2025-33053) in WebDAV that allows for remote code execution. In total, 66 vulnerabilities were addressed, including several other critical RCE flaws.
  • Adobe Fixes Over 250 Vulnerabilities: Adobe’s update was also massive, fixing over 250 CVEs. The bulk of these were for Adobe Experience Manager, highlighting the ongoing need for diligence in patching enterprise systems.

The AI Frontier: New Tools from Databricks and AMD

While Apple focused on on-device AI, the enterprise and hardware AI spaces saw major new platforms emerge.

  • Databricks Launches Enterprise AI Tools: At its Data + AI Summit, Databricks unveiled a suite of tools for building company-specific AI systems. Key announcements included Lakebase, a managed Postgres database for AI apps, and Agent Bricks, a framework for building enterprise-grade AI agents.
  • AMD Launches Developer Cloud: In a direct move to attract AI developers, AMD launched the AMD Developer Cloud. This platform provides cloud-based access to its powerful Instinct™ MI300X GPUs, giving developers an open-ecosystem alternative for building and training AI models.

Platform & Tooling Updates for Developers

It was a busy week for updates to the tools and platforms developers use every day.

GitHub, .NET, and Visual Studio

  • .NET 10 Preview 5 Released: The latest preview of .NET 10 is now available, giving developers a first look at Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC) libraries, along with runtime performance enhancements and updates for ASP.NET Core.
  • VS Code v1.101 Improves AI Chat: The ubiquitous code editor released an update focused on improving the integrated AI assistant experience, making AI-generated edits faster and streamlining the chat interface.
  • GitHub Adds New Features: GitHub rolled out Scheduled Reminders for Pull Requests to improve team workflows. For AI developers, they also launched a public preview of the Remote MCP Server, a hosted service that gives AI tools secure, live access to GitHub repository context.

Foundational Shifts: The Future of sudo in Ubuntu

In one of the most surprising pieces of developer news this week, it was reported that the upcoming Ubuntu 25.10 will replace the traditional sudo command. Its Rust-based equivalent, sudo-rs, is intended to provide a more memory-safe implementation, reducing the risk of security vulnerabilities in one of the most critical and long-standing Linux system utilities. This marks a major philosophical and technical shift for a command that has been a developer staple for decades.

From Apple’s complete platform refresh to critical security patches and the relentless march of AI tooling, this week was a powerful reminder of how quickly our landscape evolves. These updates present new opportunities, new tools to master, and new security postures to adopt.

What news will impact your work the most? Let us know in the comments below!

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News and Resources

Developer News This Week: The Full Roundup on WWDC, NPM Security, AI Agents & More (June 6, 2025)

Looking for the top developer news this week? You’ve come to the right place. While the industry holds its breath for Apple’s upcoming developer conference, major updates in AI tooling, critical security alerts, and a flood of significant platform releases made for a busy week.

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Here’s our comprehensive breakdown of the essential news you need to know.

The Apple Ecosystem: WWDC Hype and App Store Realities

The biggest story of the week is what’s happening next week. Anticipation is at a fever pitch for Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), which kicks off on Monday, June 9th. Developers are bracing for major operating system updates, including the first look at iOS 19/26 and macOS 16. The central theme is expected to be a massive push into AI, which Apple is reportedly branding “Apple Intelligence.”

One of the most concrete rumours to emerge is a significant update for watchOS 26. For the first time, Apple is expected to allow third-party developers to create and ship their own widgets for a fully customisable Control Centre. This would be a huge shift, opening up the Apple Watch UI to a new level of developer creativity and user personalisation.

Adding context to the WWDC hype, Apple released a report stating its App Store ecosystem facilitated $1.3 trillion in developer billings and sales in 2024, emphasizing the scale of the platform. On the legal front, a US court rejected Apple’s appeal to delay implementing App Store changes mandated by its case with Epic Games, meaning rules around linking to external payment options remain in effect.

A Critical Reminder on Supply Chain Security

It was a sobering week for open-source security, with two alarming incidents on the npm registry. Security researchers uncovered a coordinated attack involving at least 60 malicious packages that were designed to map the internal networks of developers who installed them.

In a separate discovery, a package was found to have been dormant for six years, containing a “time bomb” of malicious code that could wipe a user’s project files upon receiving a remote command. These events are a stark reminder of the persistent threats within public package registries and underscore the critical need for developers to scrutinize dependencies and use security auditing tools. You can read the full report here.

The Ascent of AI Agents in Developer Tools

The evolution of AI in development took another leap forward, moving beyond passive assistance towards more active, agent-based workflows.

Postman was a prime example, introducing Agent Mode to its popular API platform, designed to let AI agents take on more complex tasks like automated testing. Similarly, GitLab announced that its v18.0 release for self-hosted instances now includes built-in AI Code Assistance.

This trend extends to more specialized tools, with companies like Factory promoting AI “Droids” for full-lifecycle development and new frameworks like Embabel emerging for advanced AI agent development in Java.

Frameworks, Platforms, and Tooling: A Week of Key Releases

It was a packed week for new versions and platform updates across cloud, gaming, web, and enterprise.

Cloud & GitOps Updates

  • AWS Opens New Taipei Region: Amazon Web Services officially launched its Asia Pacific (Taipei) Region, committing over $5 billion to give developers lower-latency cloud options across Taiwan and East Asia.
  • AWS Publishes Smithy API Models: In a gift to tool-builders, AWS is now publishing its Smithy API models daily to GitHub. This allows developers to track every service-level API change and generate custom SDKs directly from the source.
  • Flux 2.6 GA Released: The GitOps tool Flux reached a major milestone with its version 2.6 General Availability. This release finalizes its support for OCI artifacts, enabling a “Gitless GitOps” model where container registries are the source of truth.

Game Dev & Enterprise

  • Unreal Engine 5.6 Now Available: Epic Games released a major update for its game engine. Unreal Engine 5.6 is focused on delivering huge performance enhancements for creating large-scale open worlds and introduces a suite of more powerful, in-engine animation and rigging tools.
  • GitHub Enterprise Server 3.17 is GA: For teams running their own infrastructure, the GA release of GitHub Enterprise Server 3.17 arrived. The June update strengthens the platform’s security posture and provides better policy controls.

IDE & Testing Tooling

  • Visual Studio 2022 v17.14.4 Released: Microsoft shipped a point release for its flagship IDE. While primarily for stability, the June 3rd update rolls up the latest fixes and improvements for the Address Sanitizer and AI-assistant features.
  • Vitest Introduces Browser Mode: The popular testing framework Vitest has introduced a new Browser Mode, providing a significant alternative to jsdom by allowing tests to be run directly in real browser environments for more accurate results.

That’s a wrap for the developer news this week! From AI agents becoming a reality to critical security warnings and a packed slate of platform updates, it’s clear that staying informed has never been more important. What news will impact your work the most? Let us know in the comments below!

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Community Tips

Dev update 30 May: GitHub Copilot Evolves, Angular 20 & Linux 6.15 Land, Critical Security Alerts 🚀

It’s been another packed week in the software development universe! AI continues to drive innovation at a breakneck pace, core development tools are receiving significant upgrades, and as always, staying on top of security remains paramount. Let’s dive into some of the biggest headlines that caught our eye and what they mean for developers.

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AI Development Tools Get a Major Boost

The world of AI-assisted development is moving fast, and this week brought some exciting updates:

  • GitHub Copilot: Now Smarter and More Collaborative
    • What’s new? GitHub rolled out a double upgrade for Copilot. Firstly, it now leverages OpenAI’s more advanced GPT-4o model (announced around May 27th), promising more accurate and context-aware code suggestions. Secondly, GitHub unveiled “Copilot Spaces” (announced May 29th), a new environment designed for teams to collaborate using Copilot, keeping AI suggestions, code context, and discussions all in one shareable space.
    • Why it matters? The GPT-4o upgrade means potentially better and faster code generation for individual developers. Copilot Spaces aims to integrate AI assistance more deeply into team workflows, especially for tasks like pair programming, code reviews, and onboarding. This could significantly change how development teams leverage AI.
    • Learn more:
  • Anthropic’s Claude Models Shine on AWS Bedrock
    • What’s new? Amazon Web Services continues to expand its generative AI offerings. The AWS Weekly Roundup (May 26th) highlighted the availability and power of Anthropic’s Claude AI models on Amazon Bedrock, including discussions around the capabilities of models like Claude 3.5 Sonnet.
    • Why it matters? Access to powerful foundation models like Claude directly within the AWS ecosystem provides developers with more choices and robust tools for building sophisticated AI-powered applications, from chatbots to content generation and complex reasoning tasks, all integrated with other AWS services.
    • Learn more: AWS Weekly Roundup (May 26, 2025)
  • Traceloop Launches Observability for LLM Apps

Core Frameworks, Kernels, and Databases Level Up

It wasn’t all about AI; foundational technologies also saw important releases and announcements:

  • Angular 20 is Here!
    • What’s new? The Angular team announced that the brand-new major release, Angular 20, entered Active Support around May 28th.
    • Why it matters? Major framework releases like Angular 20 typically bring a host of new features, performance improvements, developer experience enhancements, and important dependency updates. For the large community of Angular developers, this means new tools to build better web applications.
    • Learn more: Angular Releases (e.g., https://angular.dev/reference/releases) or the official Angular Blog (angular.dev/blog)
  • Linux Kernel 6.15 Arrives
  • PostgreSQL 18 Promises Performance Gains
  • Visual Studio 2022 v17.14 Preview 3 Drops
    • What’s new? Microsoft released Preview 3 for Visual Studio 2022 v17.14 around May 28th. Key updates include long-requested Toolbox support for Explicit Assembly References in the Windows Forms out-of-process designer and updates to the Address Sanitizer for C++ developers.
    • Why it matters? These enhancements improve the development experience for .NET and C++ developers, particularly those working with legacy WinForms applications or focusing on memory safety.
    • Learn more: Visual Studio Blog (e.g., https://devblogs.microsoft.com/visualstudio/visual-studio-2022-17-14-preview-3-now-available/)

Platform News & Essential Security

Rounding out the week:

  • Firefox 139 Patches Critical Vulnerabilities
    • What’s new? Mozilla pushed out Firefox 139 (and Firefox ESR 128.11) around May 28th, addressing several critical security vulnerabilities (detailed in advisory mfsa2025-42).
    • Why it matters? Browser security is non-negotiable. These updates fix flaws that could be exploited by attackers. All users, especially developers who rely heavily on browsers for testing and research, should update immediately.
    • Learn more: Mozilla Security Advisories (e.g., https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/security/advisories/mfsa2025-42/)
  • Dynatrace Launches Live Debugger for Production Services
    • What’s new? Dynatrace announced its “Live Debugger” feature around May 29th, enabling engineers to debug services directly in production environments. It allows for grabbing full-state snapshots across numerous instances without needing redeployments.
    • Why it matters? Debugging in production is often challenging and risky. Tools that can simplify this process and provide deep insights without disrupting services can be invaluable for maintaining uptime and resolving complex issues quickly.
    • Learn more: SD Times (e.g., https://www.sdtimes.com/software-development/dynatrace-launches-live-debugger-for-in-production-debugging/)
  • SAP Aims to Simplify ERP Data Access for Developers
    • What’s new? SAP announced new initiatives around May 28th focused on making it easier for developers to access and utilize data from their ERP systems.
    • Why it matters? Simplifying access to enterprise data can unlock new possibilities for custom application development, analytics, and integration, fostering a more vibrant developer ecosystem around SAP solutions.
    • Learn more: The New Stack (e.g., https://thenewstack.io/sap-simplifies-erp-data-access-for-developers/)

That’s a wrap for this week’s key highlights! The pace of change shows no sign of slowing down. Stay curious, keep learning, and ensure your tools (and browsers!) are up to date.

What news caught your attention this week? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

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Community

Dev Update: Claude Powers Copilot, Google/MS AI News & Critical Node.js Fixes

Hello Developer Nation! It’s a fast-moving world in software development, and staying on top of the latest changes is key. This week, we’ve seen significant movements in AI-powered coding, major announcements from tech giants, critical security patches, and ongoing reminders about best practices. Here’s a condensed look at what you need to know:

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1. GitHub Copilot Enhanced with Anthropic’s Claude 4 Models

GitHub is leveling up its AI pair programmer. Anthropic’s Claude Sonnet 4 and Claude Opus 4 models are now in public preview within GitHub Copilot.

  • What it is: These advanced AI models are integrated into GitHub Copilot to provide more powerful and nuanced code suggestions, explanations, and chat capabilities. Opus 4 is noted as Anthropic’s most capable model.
  • Impact: Developers can expect more insightful assistance, better understanding of complex code, and potentially more accurate generation of larger code blocks. Claude Sonnet 4 is rolling out to all paid GitHub Copilot plans, while Claude Opus 4 is available for Copilot Enterprise users (admins need to enable it) and may extend to other plans.
  • Why it matters: This signifies a continuous push towards more sophisticated AI integration in development tools, aiming to improve productivity and coding quality.

Stay updated via the GitHub Blog.

2. Google I/O 2025: Over 100 Launches, AI at the Forefront

Google’s annual developer conference, Google I/O, delivered a massive wave of announcements, with AI integrated across the board.

  • Key Highlights for Developers:
    • Gemini Advanced: Updates to the Gemini family, including Gemini 2.5 Pro, offer improved reasoning, coding, and creative capabilities.
    • Firebase AI Logic (Genkit): A new open-source TypeScript/JavaScript framework (Genkit) was announced, enabling developers to build, deploy, and manage AI-powered features and integrate models like Gemini into their applications more easily.
    • Android Updates: The Android XR SDK Developer Preview 2 signals ongoing development in extended reality. Material 3 Expressive offers richer UI possibilities.
    • Web AI: Google is bringing more on-device AI capabilities to the web with Gemini Nano.
  • Why it matters: Google is deeply embedding AI into its developer tools and platforms, providing new avenues for building intelligent applications across mobile, web, and cloud.

Explore all announcements here.

3. Microsoft Build 2025: “Copilot Everywhere” Deepens

Microsoft’s Build conference heavily emphasized the expansion of AI, particularly its Copilot technology, across its entire ecosystem.

  • Key Highlights for Developers:
    • Evolving GitHub Copilot: Microsoft envisions GitHub Copilot transitioning from a “pair programmer” to an “agent” capable of more complex tasks.
    • Copilot Studio for Pro Devs: Enhancements to Copilot Studio are aimed at professional developers for building more sophisticated AI agents and multi-agent systems.
    • Windows AI Foundry: This platform (formerly Windows 11 Copilot Runtime) is designed for model selection, optimization, and deployment across client and cloud, including local versions for Mac.
    • SQL Server 2025 Public Preview: The next version of SQL Server will feature integrated AI capabilities, including built-in vector search.
  • Why it matters: Microsoft is aggressively integrating AI assistance into all facets of the development lifecycle and application infrastructure, pushing towards a future of AI-augmented software creation and operation.

Catch up on Build highlights (and official Microsoft sources).

4. Critical Node.js Security Releases: Patch Now!

The Node.js project issued important security releases on May 14th, addressing vulnerabilities in the 20.x, 22.x, and 24.x release lines.

  • Vulnerabilities Addressed:
    • CVE-2025-23166 (High): Improper error handling in async cryptographic operations can lead to a process crash.
    • CVE-2025-23167 (Medium): Improper HTTP header block termination in llhttp can enable request smuggling (Node.js 20.x prior to llhttp v9 upgrade).
    • CVE-2025-23165 (Low): Corrupted pointer in node::fs::ReadFileUtf8 can cause an unrecoverable memory leak (Node.js v20, v22).
  • Action Required: Users are urged to update to the latest patched versions (e.g., v20.19.2, v22.15.1, v24.0.2) immediately to mitigate these risks.
  • Why it matters: These vulnerabilities can lead to denial of service, information leakage, or request hijacking. Prompt patching is crucial for maintaining application security and stability.

Details at the Node.js blog which you can find here.

Stay tuned to Developer Nation for more updates and insights to keep you informed and ahead in the ever-evolving world of software development! Okay, Developer Nation, time for a quick rundown of the key updates you should have on your radar from the past week. We know it’s a lot to keep up with, so here’s a concise brief to keep you in the know.

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Community

What Developers Need to Know About Manus AI and Autonomous Coding

The AI landscape is evolving rapidly, and one of the most exciting yet controversial innovations to emerge is Manus AI. Developed by the Chinese startup Monica, Manus AI is a fully autonomous agent capable of executing complex tasks without constant human oversight. While its potential to revolutionise software development is immense, early reports have raised concerns about system instability, security risks, and functionality limitations.

So what does this mean for software developers? Let’s explore how Manus AI could transform the way code is written, optimised, and maintained—while also addressing some of the challenges it currently faces.

Shape the Future of Tech! Join the Developer Nation Panel to share your insights, drive tech innovation, and win exciting prizes. Sign up, take surveys, and connect with a global community shaping tomorrow’s technology.

What is Manus AI?

Unlike traditional AI-powered tools that assist developers by providing suggestions or autocompleting code, Manus AI takes a leap forward by independently executing tasks. Whether it’s debugging, optimising algorithms, or generating entire scripts, Manus AI functions as an intelligent assistant that works alongside developers, allowing them to focus on strategic problem-solving rather than repetitive coding tasks.

Key Features for Software Developers

  1. Automated Debugging – Manus AI can identify and resolve coding errors autonomously, reducing the time spent on troubleshooting.
  2. Code Optimisation – The AI analyses code efficiency and suggests or implements improvements, leading to better-performing software.
  3. Script and Module Generation – Instead of manually writing boilerplate code, developers can rely on Manus AI to generate functional modules based on given requirements.
  4. Contextual Understanding – Manus AI dynamically plans, analyses, and executes tasks, ensuring it adapts to the specific needs of a project.
  5. Seamless Integration – Recently, Manus AI partnered with Alibaba’s Qwen team, enhancing its capabilities and opening new possibilities for AI-assisted software development.

Reported Issues and Challenges

While Manus AI is an exciting innovation, early users have reported several issues that need to be addressed:

  • System Instability – Some users have experienced system crashes and server overloads when Manus AI attempts to handle highly complex tasks. This suggests scalability and performance issues in its current state. (Source)
  • Functionality Loops – Manus AI occasionally gets stuck in repetitive cycles, particularly when faced with ambiguous or open-ended tasks. This can hinder efficiency and require manual intervention.
  • Over-Reliance on Existing Models – Investigations suggest that Manus AI integrates existing models like Claude Sonnet and Qwen fine-tunes rather than being entirely novel in its execution. Some critics argue that this limits its innovation. (Source)
  • Security Concerns – There have been concerns about potential prompt leaks and vulnerabilities, raising questions about how well Manus AI protects user data.

These challenges highlight that while Manus AI has significant potential, it is still in its early stages and requires further refinement before widespread adoption.

Self-Correction and Learning Capabilities

One of the more promising aspects of Manus AI is its self-correction ability. Unlike traditional AI tools that require explicit user input for debugging, Manus AI can:

  • Detect errors in its own execution and attempt to fix them without human intervention.
  • Refine its problem-solving strategies based on past mistakes.
  • Optimise its approach dynamically when it encounters unexpected issues.

While this self-correction feature is a major step forward, it is not flawless. In some cases, Manus AI struggles to determine the best corrective action, leading to inefficiencies. Developers should still monitor its outputs to ensure accuracy.

Limited Access and Future Availability

Currently, Manus AI is in an invite-only beta phase, and there has been no official announcement regarding its public release date. Developers can apply for access through the official website: https://manus.im/invitation. Due to high demand, it’s advisable to obtain invitations only through official channels.

Open-Source Alternatives

For those looking for more control over their AI assistants, OpenManus offers an open-source alternative. This initiative allows developers to explore and customise autonomous AI capabilities for their own projects, fostering greater innovation and accessibility.

Additionally, other open-source AI models and frameworks provide valuable alternatives:

  • DeepSeek-R1 – A cost-efficient open-source AI model with strong reasoning and coding capabilities.
  • Alibaba’s Qwen 2.5 – A powerful model family supporting mathematics, coding, and multiple languages.
  • OpenAssistant – An open-source chatbot AI designed for interactive and retrieval-based tasks.
  • OpenCog – A framework aiming to achieve artificial general intelligence (AGI) through interconnected AI components.

However, while these tools provide robust AI capabilities, they do not fully replicate the autonomous agent-based functionality of Manus AI. Unlike Manus AI, which can independently execute development tasks without direct user input, these open-source models require structured prompts and interactions. OpenManus remains the closest open-source initiative focused specifically on creating a self-operating AI agent akin to Manus AI.

The Future of AI in Software Development

Manus AI represents a shift towards AI-powered autonomy in software engineering. While tools like GitHub Copilot and ChatGPT provide assistance, Manus AI takes it a step further by acting independently to handle various development tasks. As AI agents become more sophisticated, we can expect an era where AI collaborates with human developers more seamlessly, improving efficiency and innovation in the software industry.

How to Get Started

For developers interested in Manus AI, you can learn more and explore its capabilities at https://manus.im. Whether you’re looking to integrate AI into your workflow or simply stay ahead of the latest AI advancements, now is the time to pay attention to this groundbreaking technology.

What are your thoughts on AI agents like Manus? Would you integrate one into your development process? Let’s discuss!

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Community Enterprise Developers Interviews

Meet the Enterprise Developers – Interview Series #4: Cloud Infrastructure DBaaS domain

Enterprise developers play a critical role in driving innovation, maintaining security, and ensuring the smooth operation of large-scale IT systems within organisations. Despite their importance, we have seen a noticeable decline in the number of enterprise developers across various domains. Particularly within the data analytics and business intelligence sectors, this drop is significant, decreasing from approximately 20% last year to around 14% this year (source: Q1 2024 Pulse Report).

In our ongoing Enterprise Developer Series, we’re striving to provide insights from professionals in the field. Our latest interviewee, who wishes to remain anonymous, will be referred to as Dev C. Dev C. shares their experiences and perspectives on working as an enterprise software developer at Oracle, offering valuable insights into the benefits, challenges, and evolving landscape of the industry.

Q. Can you briefly describe your Job as an Enterprise Software Developer?

Dev C. I work in Oracle Cloud Infrastructure – Database as a Service team where we get to work in developing many cloud related services and platforms that help customers.

Q. What are some of the challenges and benefits of working at a large company compared to a start-up?

Dev C. I would say there are no such benefits now, earlier my answer would have been job security but recent trends have proven this wrong, one benefit could be the culture and flexibility you get at least in Oracle. 

Challenges come in the form of financial increments and growth potential in some teams.

Transparency is needed

Q. If you could change one thing about how your organisation operates, what would it be?

Dev C. I would like a more transparent view about the growth of an individual rather than just be dependent on the manager and I think I would like to hire more people.

Using AI for education

Our latest Pulse Report shows that almost 55% of developers have used AI-assisted development tools for code generation tasks in the past 12 months, however, how does a company like Oracle view AI? Here is what Dev C has to say about Oracle’s policies.

Q. How is AI impacting your day-to-day life? Is there a policy regarding the use of AI tools in your company?

Dev C. Yes there is. But it’s related to not using it to generate code and use company proprietary code there, we can use it to educate ourselves or learn about different services.

Dependency on tools

Q. How much of your work depends on specific tools, frameworks, programming languages or cloud providers?

Dev C. A lot of it is using different frameworks.

Skill Development

Q: How do you keep your skills and knowledge up-to-date?

Dev C. Mostly by working on different projects, but sometimes if I find something interesting out of the scope of my work, I use youtube and other learning tools to update myself.

Mutual decision making

Q: How much influence do you’ve when it comes to procuring a new tool or service to support the projects at work?

Dev C. It’s a mutual team-wide discussion.

Through our conversation with Dev C., we’ve gained a good understanding of the dynamic role enterprise developers play within large organizations like Oracle. From navigating the challenges of growth and financial increments to leveraging AI for educational purposes, their insights highlight the evolving landscape of enterprise development. 

Do you want to shape the future and influence decisions of the largest tech companies? Get in our NEW Developer Nation survey! Everyone completing the survey gets instant access to our cool, virtual goody bag!

As we continue our Enterprise Developer Series, we aim to shed light on the experiences and perspectives of professionals who are shaping the future of enterprise technology. Stay tuned for more interviews and insights from the world of enterprise development.

Categories
Community

State of Developer Wellness report: 83% of developers report feeling burnout at least occasionally

Listening to developers feedback in recent years, it became clear that our community members face anxiety, burnout and are trying to find ways to improve their overall health and wellbeing. 

We wanted to learn more about their experiences and with this week being Mental Health Awareness Week in the UK (15th – 21st May) it seems fitting to announce the launch of our State of Developer Wellness report. The report provides insights from our Developer Nation community including workplace experiences, burnout, mental wellbeing, happiness and lifestyles.

We hope that report will raise awareness around the importance of work well-being for developers and creators, and encourage more discussions within developer communities.

Our State of Developer Wellness Survey reached 870 respondents from 91 countries around the world. 

The report covers:

Distribution of Developers based on their Workplace Setup 

Remote work, how it affects their mental wellbeing, do developers feel their employers care about their wellbeing

Developer burnout

How often developers have felt burnout in the last three months, how they decompress and relieve stress, are they successfully managing their workplace stress?

Developer Happiness and Health Lifestyles

We encourage everyone to read the report and share it with your colleagues and peers. Let’s build on a culture of wellness that promotes the mental, physical and emotional wellbeing of the developer industry! 

Categories
Community

Let’s Talk About Developer Wellness

Twice per year we run our global surveys with developers like you including professional developers, hobbyists, students, no-code software creators and as always we invite you to leave feedback, which we love to read!

For a long time we have been focusing on developer research aiming to shape the developer ecosystem, and improve the tools and platforms you are using everyday.  Listening to your feedback, we realised that there are a lot of you out there facing anxiety, feeling burned out and trying to find ways to improve your overall health and wellbeing. 

You asked, we listened! The State of Developer Wellness Survey is our first 5-min survey dedicated to your wellbeing.

For each completed response, we’ll be donating $1 USD with an aim to donate up to $1,000 to the Turkey / Syria Earthquake Appeal. What’s more, we’ll be running a prize draw for swag and sharing our inaugural State of Developer Wellness Report in Q2 with you. 

We are confident that the report will help raise awareness around the importance of work well-being for software developers. It is also expected to contribute to our understanding of the Developer Nation community and the challenges that our members are facing so that we can better support them with our content and community offerings.

If you’ve taken the survey and want to be notified when the report is published, sign up here. If you’ve not yet taken the survey, you can participate now!

Categories
Analysis

Are Low/No-Code tools living up to their disruptive promise?

You may be wondering why software development is a slow and expensive exercise. Its complexity and the need for technical resources may be hard to find or very expensive to hire. Due to this, low/no-code tools have become increasingly popular among developers today. In this article, we explore low/no-code development, the advantages/disadvantages, and try to understand if it is disrupting the software industry today with data-driven facts.

What is low/no-code tools software?

Low/no-code tools are visual software development platforms. Unlike traditional software development, which involves programmers writing lines of code, the low-code/no-code platforms encapsulate all this behind the tool.

As per the State of the Developer Nation 22nd Edition – Q1 2022 report,  46% of professional developers use low/no-code tools for some portion of their development work.

The difference between Low-code and No-code development platforms

Before we proceed further, hope you know the difference between low-code and no-code software.

Low-code platforms require technical knowledge and it helps the developers to code faster. The main benefit is that these platforms have powerful tools that speed up technical software development activities and are built for coders. 

No-code platforms are built for standard business users. There are no options for manually editing code and rather focus on the user experience aspect in creating functionality and abstracting the technical details away from the user. 

Despite some level of automation in low-code platforms, coding is still core to the development process. Openness is a key difference between low-code platforms and no-code ones. As a developer, you can modify existing code or add new ones to change the application. The ability to add code provides flexibility with more use cases and customization possibilities. However, it limits backward compatibility.

Any new version changes to the low-code platform may affect custom code developed and may need a proper review before an upgrade. That means whenever there is a launch of a new version of the low-code platform, customers will need to test if their customized code functionality works well after the upgrade. 

In the case of no-code versions, customers do not have to worry about any functionality or breaking changes due to the platform being a closed system.

Low-code platforms offer easy integration capabilities. Unlike No-code which can lead to users creating programs without proper scrutiny with risks like security concerns, integration, and regulatory challenges besides increasing technical debt.

How do you use low/no-code tools and software?

As a user, you visually select and connect reusable components representing the steps in a process. You then link them to create the desired workflow. The code is very much present behind the steps, which drives the functionality.

Low-code/no-code tools enable non-technical staff at workplaces or anyone to develop business workflow applications. Moreover, low-code/no-code platforms allow easy integration with other business applications. For example, a sales staff could use a low-code/no-code application to develop qualified leads or opportunities into a database. They could then set triggers to send out targeted communications based on the occurrence of specified events.

Advantages and disadvantages of low code/no-code software.

Low-code/no-code platforms have both advantages and disadvantages. Here are some of them.

Lower costs & faster development: Time is money, and you can reduce your costs when you create more applications faster that automate and help improve productivity. You save costs on recruiting additional developers as applications that took a few months can be completed in a few days leading to faster availability of business applications.

Integration feasibility & challenges: Today’s application programming interfaces, or APIs, enable a high level of integration between applications. Integration works seamlessly in many cases. However, when we look at scalability and speed, custom integration is preferred for critical enterprise business applications.

Creating APIs is not easy and requires a better understanding of the IT landscape and related applications. Hence creating significant and sizeable applications will require experienced developers rather than non-technical hands-on low code/no-code software.

Time to market gains: As low code/no-code software replaces conventional hard coding with drag and drop functionality, reusable components, ready-to-use templates, and minimal coding, organizations can deliver applications faster to the market. It, therefore, helps organizations gain a competitive edge and improve productivity.

Performance: The standard view on low code/no-code software is that it focuses on saving time and is effective and successful. However, low code/no-code software platforms are not designed for performance and limit the number of functions one can implement. Moreover, adding new features to an application built using low code/no-code software can get challenging.

Privacy and Security Issues: With low-code/no-code software, there are limitations to configuring data protection and privacy aspects. You do not have access to all the source code, making it challenging to detect any security gaps.

The future of software development

Low-code/no-code software platforms offer many advantages in creating business applications faster. There are some disadvantages to its limitations in coding functions and features. What is the ground situation today with low-code/no-code software platforms?

The State of the Developer Nation 22nd Edition – Q1 2022 report has some interesting insights on the actual usage of low-code/no-code software platforms. Here are some findings:

Who is using low-code/no-code tools?

  • 46% of professional developers use low-code/no-code (LCNC) tools for some portion of their development work.
  • Experienced developers, particularly those with more than ten years of experience, are the least likely to use LCNC tools.
  • Most developers that use LCNC tools do so for less than a quarter of their development work.
  • The Greater China area has the highest LCNC tool adoption rate. 69% of developers in this region report using LCNC tools, compared to the global average of 46%.
  • 19% of developers in North America use LCNC products for more than half of their coding work – almost twice the global average of 10%. This provides strong evidence that these tools can supplant traditional development approaches

Wrapping up

Low-code/No-code tools have great potential and disrupt the traditional software industry but at a slower rate. State of the Developer Nation 22nd Edition – Q1 2022 report shows us fascinating insights.

Experienced developers with ten or more years of experience are less likely to use low-code/no-code tools. It could probably be due to the flexibility that coding offers the experienced developers and their comfort with it. It may also have an angle related to the job security of software developers and the risks of automated LCNC tools taking away significant parts of programming activity. Experienced developers work on complex tasks and the low-code tools are more suited for simple programming tasks, which the experienced hands may find easy to do.

On the other hand, North American developers seem to be progressive in using LCNC products for half of their coding (twice the global average of 10%), showing massive potential for LCNC tools to supplement software development activities. A lot of initiative in using LCNC tools also rests with the software organizations leading initiatives and implementing these solutions. Younger developers may find it easier to automate some parts of coding using LCNC tools and speed up their development activities. 

The adapted LCNC approach each programmer takes to code and develop a feature can come from their learning experience. A younger developer may prefer to use LCNC for about 25% of their development work as they are familiar with using the tools and it is a way of working. An experienced developer may shun the tools as he has always been building applications from scratch by coding and no LCNC tools. 

As technology advances, and pressure to have business solutions quicker build up, organizations will need to use the latest LCNC tools. Developing robust functional and secure software solutions faster to get competitive gains will be a mandate amid the rapid pace of digital transformation. Today LCNC tools are progressing successfully in that direction and programmers irrespective of their experience need to adapt LCNC tools where an opportunity to improve productivity exists.