5 ms·
The problem is that the current state of operating systems is terrible. There's almost no isolation, tons of complexity, tons of attack surface, lock-in, etc.
by staticassertion 5y ago
The problem is that the current state of operating systems is terrible. There's almost no isolation, tons of complexity, tons of attack surface, lock-in, etc.
Browsers are a massive improvement as a platform for developing code, or at least they have the potential to be.
- andrewmcwatters 5y agoIt’s almost like operating systems should keep up or something.
- TillE 5y agoIt's really unfortunate that multiple attempts at capability-based microkernels have basically failed to come to fruition. There should be a FOSS OS with powerful OS-level security features, but it just hasn't happened.
- nnamtr 5y agoI always thought that's what Fuchsia is about?
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- TazeTSchnitzel 5y agoI think every major OS kernel (Windows NT, Linux, Darwin) actually has optional sophisticated security capabilities these days. I think the problem is that it's really hard to make these work nicely with legacy software? The whole classic UNIX-ish model sort of falls apart.
- staticassertion 5y agoI assume by capabilities they mean specifically a capabilities-based security model.
- colonwqbang 5y agoWell, doesn't Linux have that? Maybe you could go into more detail about what you feel is missing today.
- staticassertion 5y agoWhat linux calls capabilities is a misnomer that isn't particularly effective - it's sort of splitting root up into smaller pieces. This is totally different from the actual capabilities security model, which is closer to a "if you can name a resource you can access that resource". So, for example, imagine every file on your system has a path with a uuid, and there is no "ls" - you'd only be able to access files whose names had been told to you/ that you created yourself. That's a capabilities model, and Linux does not have that.
- kllrnohj 5y agoOnly if you define operating systems as "Windows, MacOS, and desktop Linux" Otherwise mobile operating systems have had isolation and a robust native platform for years. It's kinda why mobile apps absolutely exploded and browsers have been desperately trying to keep up for almost a decade now.
- staticassertion 5y agoYeah, mobile platforms are moderately better.
- pjmlp 5y agoThey also have proper graphical APIs, instead of trying to use an API that targets 2012 hardware in 2021.