What Even Is an OS Now?

(sockpuppet.org)

26 points | by fratellobigio 1 hour ago

7 comments

  • chroma_zone 18 minutes ago
    > That makes a lot of sense in a world where we’re importing all our software from strangers. It makes less sense in the world we’re heading to, where most of the software we’re carving up fiefdoms for has the same provenance.

    If I'm running software written by an LLM, even if I was the one who prompted the LLM, I would still want my OS to treat it as if written by a stranger.

    I know he's not necessarily talking about relaxing security models here, but he's not being very specific about his vision otherwise.

    • cgio 2 minutes ago
      I think OP may be onto something real, while you are definitely right if we translate concepts directly. But maybe the challenge, with current platforms included, is because we try to cram identities by reference. If a phone had its own identity, with which you transact as with any party then lots of the security concerns would dissolve. To tone down crankiness, I refer to identity in the technical sense, not personality etc. This doesn’t solve the challenge but it might point to a different foundation for a security model.
    • tptacek 15 minutes ago
      Nope. There has never been a "good" post written in this genre ("I'm leaving my last team, here's my new project") and I'm not going to waste interesting bits on my pro-forma transition post.

      I didn't submit this! Happy to chat about it, but I feel like I was pretty clear in the post that I wasn't bidding for the front page.

  • pjm331 10 minutes ago
    Adult Roblox
    • tptacek 7 minutes ago
      I love the idea that normal people building software to solve real problems in their life is, necessarily, a toy; the only real software is blessed by our sacred priesthood of PLT experts.
      • pjm331 5 minutes ago
        Didn’t mean any judgement just the metaphor that came to mind

        Roblox is a game where you make the game. This sounds like an OS where you make the OS.

        Probably could have spelled it out more, being too pithy perhaps

        • tptacek 3 minutes ago
          No, you're fine, and I might be a little hair trigger; sorry about that.
  • NoDodgeQuestion 8 minutes ago
    >yet another startup nerd talking about “the future of programming” before announcing that I’ve joined, like, Sri Lanka’s answer to Uber or something.

    not just startup nerd, he also make gas town and drunken rant

  • t1234s 18 minutes ago
    Kernel + Shell + Slop
  • okdiendiendjefn 47 minutes ago
    What it has always been. Nothing has changed in this regard.
    • tptacek 12 minutes ago
      Oh, ok. I guess computer science is finished, then. I should have known. It's not like there's any evidence that it's been blown wide open recently.

      (The irony is that all the reading that's gone into our design is like, old CSAIL papers. Maybe it's true! Maybe everything we're doing is just crate-digging through old settled computer science. That would be on brand. I should find a way to work Athena into it. Maybe we'll use Zephyr for messaging.)

    • kristopolous 19 minutes ago
      I've heard very competent people claiming similar things. I think there's an abstraction I'm missing. I know they don't mean it literally
      • tptacek 11 minutes ago
        I mean it literally.
    • msla 34 minutes ago
      This is by and for people who do not distinguish between the UI and the OS, like how "MSIE" is "The Internet" for them.
      • Zee2 21 minutes ago
        There could be some interesting actual OS design innovations for new permissions, access control, and sandboxing systems that are designed from the ground up for these "conjurable" experiences (or even OS components themself).

        Finding some balance between access and safety for vibe-conjuring parts of the OS in a way that's still powerful but won't accidentally nuke or corrupt itself.

        • yjftsjthsd-h 18 minutes ago
          I do think there's some interesting space to be explored in capability-based systems, but even then I think it would mostly end up looking similar to how existing systems are, just with one more element added
  • PaulDavisThe1st 4 minutes ago
    Why does this article have this title? I could see nothing in it at all that relates to the question posed by the title.