Not as cool as RoadToImagine.com, but I was reflecting on some personal goals to get done by Imagine. Note, I am not doing all the real work myself, but I at least wanted to raise awareness so can discuss with anyone interested at Imagine. Lots of things coming together!
For lower end merchants
- E-book for learning Magento 2 themes. PART 1 of 2 DONE (https://alankent.me/gsd)
- Easy prebuilt Docker container with Luma demo store preloaded for playing and experimenting with M2. DONE (https://alankent.me/gsd)
- Vagrant box with pre-installed developer environment (PHP, web server, etc). DONE 3/24 (https://alankent.me/2016/03/24/vagrant-box-for-m2-development-quick-note/) – keep your eyes out for a Imagine 2016 Bar Camp session on this Vagrant box.
- Zero software install Magento 2 development environment via services like codeanywhere.com. DONE 4/7 (https://alankent.me/2016/04/07/cloud-based-development-environments/)
- Guidance on recommended way to lay out project files in a GIT repo, compatible with suggested prebuilt development environments. DONE 3/31 (https://alankent.me/2016/03/31/m2-project-source-code-management-recommendation/)
- Magento Marketplace for easier install of M2 extensions in the above development environments. IN PROGRESS (blog planned)
- Easy prebuilt Docker container for devloping new M2 projects. IN PROGRESS (blog planned)
- Summary of low end hosting options for Magento 2 (1 CPU and up). Available (in alphabetical order) at least from AWS Marketplace, Digital Ocean, and GoDaddy Cloud. STRETCH GOAL (Blog post tying back to the above development environments.)
- Documentation. I will be at the Magento Dockathon the weekend before the main conference. [Added 4/3]
For higher end merchants
- Show the JSON over AMQP protocol we are using to connect Magento Digital Commerce (the original Magento web store) and Magento Commerce Order Management (which now includes RAP). DONE 4/6 (https://alankent.me/2016/04/06/magento-shared-services/)
So no driving motorbikes across the country (drive safe guys!), but still driving for more great results to talk about at Imagine with anyone interested. Another busy week I suspect. Sleeping before Imagine might be a good idea too!
Alan Kent's Blog 
Thank you for your work regarding setting up our environment. I think though there is a big gap there. I tried your docker image and the vagrant link but they both create new projects and install magento. But surely this is not what we want. We git clone an already existing magento2 project which is already live and receiving orders and want help in setting up an environment with an already existing magento installation. I maybe missing something obvious but I couldn’t find any information on how to create such an environment and ended up using mamp which is painfully slow or using my own vagrant configuration with puphpet which is also slow and not optimised.
The Docker image (alankent/gsd) is a prebuilt image – and you are right, not useful for building a site. I see it more as useful for learning the product.
I actually have another blog post coming Real Soon Now which talks more about that side of things, and some of the Engineers have a Bar Camp session at Imagine. They show starting from a GoDaddy spun up node, then pulling down the code to a dev box, making a change, and pushing the change back. There will be a blog post on that as well coming out (by the Engineers, not me) probably shortly after Imagine.
So you did not miss anything – it is a completely valid point. There are a number of parts coming together, after which a more consistent story should emerge. It’s close, but there are gaps.
Thanks for the comment!