[sbazerque]

In the 2000s we spoke about distributed operating systems (Inferno, etc.). That's where systems research seemed to be headed, yet that never really took off. But maybe we're revisiting the concept now, just coming down from the layer above (e.g. application data types) instead of trying to rethink the OS.

I work on this [1], it kinda looks like systems software, and it doesn't feel stagnant. But then, nobody uses it (yet - I hope).

And there's a plethora of similar ideas (DAT, OrbitDB, etc.).

[1] https://www.hyperhyperspace.org

[kragen]

The Web is our distributed operating system. You say the name of an application, and the latest version of its code gets loaded into your computer over an encrypted and authenticated connection, compiled for your platform, and run in a sandbox that isolates it from all the other applications you're running. You can use any device interchangeably to run it, and all your data is just there.

It's not a very good distributed OS (our data belongs to the applications, and integration between them is very limited) but we've definitely realized the mobile code and portable executable dreams of the 90s.

[tannhaeuser]

> we've definitely realized the mobile code and portable executable dreams of the 90s

Fine, now how to get rid of it, along with the lack of innovation and the entangled group or naive nerds and salesmen taking advantage of them who think or pretend the web is about their fscking apps when it was always about content.

[kragen]

Build a better alternative and pack them off to it?