[wmf]

what if I want a Linux ... that doesn't manage a local file system or local storage at all [but] operates solely using the network, solely using a distributed file system

Linux can boot from NFS although that's kind of lost knowledge. Booting from CephFS might even be possible if you put the right parts in the initrd.

[lmz]

NFS root docs here https://www.kernel.org/doc/Documentation/filesystems/nfs/nfs...

[peter_d_sherman]

NFS is an excellent point!

NFS (now that I think about it!) -- brings up two additional software engineering considerations:

1) Distributed file system protocol.

2) Software that implements that distributed (or at least remote/network) file system -- via that file system protocol.

NFS is both.

That's not a bad thing(!) -- but ideally from a software engineering "separation of concerns" perspective, this future software layer/level would ideally be decoupled from the underlying protocol -- that is, it might have a "plug-in" protocol architecture, where various 3rd party file system protocols (somewhat analogous to drivers) could be "plugged-in"...

But NFS could definitely be used to boot/run Linux over the network, and is definitely a step in the right direction, and something worth evaluating for these purposes... its source code is definitely worth looking at...

So, an excellent point!

[wmf]

Are you familiar with the kernel virtual filesystem (VFS) layer?