The Elixir Wizards welcome Jim Freeze, organizer of ElixirConf and creator of the Horizon library. Jim shares his journey from organizing Ruby conferences to founding and growing ElixirConf into the community cornerstone it is today. He reflects on the challenges of running a major conference, how COVID-19 shaped the event, and why the talks remain an evergreen resource for the Elixir ecosystem.

We discuss Horizon, Jim’s deployment library for Elixir and Phoenix applications with Postgres on FreeBSD. Driven by a need for simplicity and cost-effectiveness, Jim explains how Horizon minimizes external dependencies while delivering fault-tolerant and streamlined setups. He compares it to tools like Fly, Terraform, and Ansible, highlighting its low cognitive load and flexibility—key benefits for developers seeking more control over their deployment environments.

Jim also unpacks the broader value of understanding and customizing your deployment stack rather than relying solely on managed services. He discusses the benefits of using FreeBSD, including its stability, security, and performance advantages, as well as its robust ZFS file system.

Jim emphasizes the importance of coherent deployment workflows, community collaboration, and contributions to open-source projects like Horizon. He invites listeners to explore Horizon, share feedback, and own their deployments.

Nine Minutes of Elixir

Special Guest: Jim Freeze.