From ca43c7b074d69b1d802090b12d4bf65fe21c3c92 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: bnewbold Date: Sat, 11 Jun 2016 17:09:32 -0400 Subject: clean up networking folder --- ideas/MOSS.page | 108 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 108 insertions(+) create mode 100644 ideas/MOSS.page (limited to 'ideas') diff --git a/ideas/MOSS.page b/ideas/MOSS.page new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c0bba84 --- /dev/null +++ b/ideas/MOSS.page @@ -0,0 +1,108 @@ +--- +format: rst +toc: no +... + +==== +MOSS +==== +-------------------------------- +Many User Operating System Stuff +-------------------------------- + +:Author: Bryan Newbold + +Moss is a vague concept I have for an operating-system-like-system that +attempts to realize some of the promises of distributed universal computing +and user management, continuation-based serializable programming, persistent +data accessibility, file and process versioning, central foreign function +management, and code/content distribution. It'll be easy! + +Implementation +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Moss would probably start as "stuff": middleware, userland applications, +utilities, and native shell and GUI interfaces. It could also be a +separate hosted virtual machine, a monolithic application, a kernel +extension, or ultimately run alone over a high performance shim host OS. + +Distribution would be self hosting and viral: users would replicate a copy +of the system from a friend instead of from a central server, patches +and applications would be distributed word-of-mouth, and trust networks +would form naturally via this distribution. Customization and feature sets +would be passed on, which makes it likely that a user would receive a +system already tweaked for their own needs and computing knowledge level. + +*Existing Projects:* Inferno, Xen, vmware, Java, GNU/* + +Universal, distributed file system +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +The core of the system would be a universally accessible identity-based +operating system. Some authoritive domain would probably be required, but +public identity brokers would allow anonymous identities. "Strong +Cryptography" is a goal, allowing a user's content to be hosted/cached +on third party machines in an encrypted form. The real challenge of course +is a flexible crypto system than can be transitioned or upgraded if a flaw +is discovered without total data loss. + +My dream path would look something like:: + + /net/user@some.domain.tld/media/ledzep/tangerine.mp3 + +From the application end there would be no concept of "local" or "remote" +files to a particular machine, though perhaps some feedback on access time. +So, for instance, once tokens/authentication is handled, user utilities +like ``mv`` or ``cat`` could be applied, instead of ``scp`` or ``rcat``. + +Versioning, write locks, etc would have to be considered. + +*Existing projects:* OpenAFS, freeNet, ssh, kerberos, git + +Serializable Programs +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +The state/continuation/environment of a running program or chain of +programs should be a "first level object": a bundle of data like any other +that can be transmitted, copied, and stored away for later. A user should +be able to drag an entire application running on a desktop computer +onto their laptop when then need to travel, or from laptop to workstation +if then need additional computing power. Distributed computing could be +implemented by bundling up applets that are shot off to a cluster or +higher performance computer for processing, and the result state of the +program would simply be bundled back to the requesting client. Such bundles +wouldn't be very large: data would be stored on the distributed filesystem, +which appears identical (*exactly?*) to every node on the network. + +Properly written, such a serializable system could also lead to performance +and power consumption savings by swapping idle programs and processes to +disk, or let low-usage nodes shift their processes off to other nodes +and power down. + +*Existing Projects:* Lisp, Stackless + +Foreign Function Management +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +It would be nice to see a move away from the library model for shared +code to a more flexible/dynamic foreign function interface that would +allow any appropriate code to announce its availability to other +applications regardless of version, platform, coding language, etc. +This would be a high-level feature, not intended to replace kernel level +operations (read/write) but to make package/library management easier +(it doesn't matter if an image conversion function is coming from a video +editing package or libpng as long as it reads a raw array and returns +a binary stream). + +There's room for dynamic optimization here: if program +realizes it's native string manipulation library sucks for 5meg+ datasets +it could look through the library and see if there's a better one. + +*And,* this too could be distributed, allowing super easy access to +distributed computing resources; underutilized nodes could make their +functions available to nearby nodes, or a machine with tons of matrix +crunching silicon (eg high end video cards) could swap work units +with a machine with a dedicated crypto chip or 64bit+ processor. + +*Existing Projects:* Script-fu from the Gimp + -- cgit v1.2.3