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I'm mostly interested in this post because the contrast he draws between AWS and z/OS deeply resonates with me. What if someone built an OS to deal with cloud-

I'm mostly interested in this post because the contrast he draws between AWS and z/OS deeply resonates with me. What if someone built an OS to deal with cloud-scale problems at the ground level - in the kernel? This isn't to say the likes of S3 or DynamoDB should be implemented in kernel space (far from it). But the mishmash of services AWS does offer seems to be more about solving cloud-scale problems without implementing an OS, while creating a lot of DevOps jobs and a ton of vendor lock-in. At this point, AWS reminds me a lot of Windows Server: lots of UI, object-heavy scripting, a huge suite of expensive vendor-specific products, and a sheer inelegance about how the whole thing is built. I also see a lot of personality similarities between Windows admins in corporate IT of the 2000s and today's AWS DevOps professionals. Linux finally took down Windows Server because it had superior qualities as a development OS and was cheaper to run on server hardware. It also had a long history of people just building cool stuff on it... I have no idea what innovation will finally take down AWS, but perhaps mainframe OS's are a promising trail to go down (if infrastructure-as-code could be applied).

theamk 5y ago
AWS does not have to be "lots of UI" and "Windows admins" -- Terraform, CloudFormation, and other infra-as-code solution are totally a thing, and bring modern, UI-less practices to to infrastructure services. If you are in the company which has corporate culture of "let's use AWS todaly like we used Windows 20 years ago" it may seem that the whole world is like that.. but it is not, there are plenty of other companies with different cultures! Re "OS to deal with cloud-scale problems at the ground level - in the kernel" -- I cannot make sense of that. Why on earth would it matter which OS do services use? For all that I care, Amazon could rewrite DynamoDB using AmigaOS and I would not even notice. It is all the same HTTP calls -- and this is one of the good things about the system. People can use AWS services from windows, linux, mac, mobile, even things like FreeRTOS, using any programming language they like. I guess you can create one more OS which is designed with AWS use in mind, but I doubt it will be a big game changer.
bawolff 5y ago
Well that might be an interesting research project, AWS (especially at the beginning) is not the right party to do that. AWS's success was because it was a drop-in replacement for existing linux servers with easier management. I do agree this is one of the more interesting ideas in the post. But its also the least satisfying because its so vauge. "Imagine AWS but less shitty and more mainfrane like" is beyond vauge.

theamk 5y ago

AWS does not have to be "lots of UI" and "Windows admins" -- Terraform, CloudFormation, and other infra-as-code solution are totally a thing, and bring modern, UI-less practices to to infrastructure services. If you are in the company which has corporate culture of "let's use AWS todaly like we used Windows 20 years ago" it may seem that the whole world is like that.. but it is not, there are plenty of other companies with different cultures! Re "OS to deal with cloud-scale problems at the ground level - in the kernel" -- I cannot make sense of that. Why on earth would it matter which OS do services use? For all that I care, Amazon could rewrite DynamoDB using AmigaOS and I would not even notice. It is all the same HTTP calls -- and this is one of the good things about the system. People can use AWS services from windows, linux, mac, mobile, even things like FreeRTOS, using any programming language they like. I guess you can create one more OS which is designed with AWS use in mind, but I doubt it will be a big game changer.

bawolff 5y ago

Well that might be an interesting research project, AWS (especially at the beginning) is not the right party to do that. AWS's success was because it was a drop-in replacement for existing linux servers with easier management. I do agree this is one of the more interesting ideas in the post. But its also the least satisfying because its so vauge. "Imagine AWS but less shitty and more mainfrane like" is beyond vauge.