[mycroftiv]

It's free form clustering software. Standard Plan 9 tends to have a pretty rigid structure for how all the services on the grid are organized. This is an attempt to make things much more free-form, so the system can be set up more easily by home users, and everything is more reliable.

[msutherl]

One thing you could explain for the benefit of this thread is what "clustering" software is and what it's used for. Is it the same thing as a "distributed system"?

[mycroftiv]

Well "clustering" is a little loosely used here, ANTS isnt really mathematical cluster computation software at all, but it goes beyond the 'distributed os' of the basic Plan 9 design. It boils down to making multiple machines work together to create a good environment for the user that uses all of the resources of all the connected machines in a way where the user doesn't need to worry about which machine is which.