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Maybe this paper was accurate in 2000, but does not capture the work of systems research since then. Some examples: - DHT protocols as used in bittorrent - SMR

Maybe this paper was accurate in 2000, but does not capture the work of systems research since then. Some examples: - DHT protocols as used in bittorrent - SMR protocols, used in all kinds of distributed systems, from blockchains to cloud computing systems - Cloud computing systems, such as Spark, Mesos, MapReduce This doesn't even cover work on networks, databases, systems, security, etc.

angelzen 5y ago
Indeed. A few more examples of fundamental systems advances since 2000: iOS, Android (intents), Chrome (multiprocess), Kubernetes, Cloudflare Durable Objects (collaboration), WASM, Rust, Typescript, Golang, Pytorch, JAX, Bitcoin, Ethereum.
Ericson2314 5y ago
That is all cool, but the issue here is, "the de facto standard technology stack is ossifying upward", as nicely put in http://dtrace.org/blogs/wesolows/2014/12/29/fin/ http://dtrace.org/blogs/wesolows/2014/12/29/fin/ I think person is now, in fact, getting paid to redo the firmware as desired, but while commonplace firmware might be uniquely disgusting, the bigger monoliths with even less competition are still the operating systems. Something still needs to be done there.
- Ar-Curunir 5y ago
  Idk, we have a bunch of VM optimizations and innovations, unikernels. I also think PL innovations are going to usher in a new revolution at the bottom of the stack, just by making systems programming more accessible. I mean, Rust has already made inroads into existing OSes, and the increased accessibility will inevitably lead to more exciting experiments soon.
  - Ericson2314 5y ago
    Yes PL, my home field, I am proud to say has been leading the way. I am certainly more optomistic than I would have been 20 years ago when Rob Pike wrote this, but the war is not yet won. I fear some of the accidental complexity is more indicative than economic problems than CS ones. E.g. it feels like 1000s of bad abstraction dependencies is mirroring https://homesignalblog.wordpress.com/2020/12/25/industrial-sprawl/ https://homesignalblog.wordpress.com/2020/12/25/industrial-s... in the real world. (I am not against larger numbers of dependencies, just the bloat that comes from a gazillion square pegs in round holes, and conway's law preventing anyone from trying to do anything about it.)

angelzen 5y ago

Indeed. A few more examples of fundamental systems advances since 2000: iOS, Android (intents), Chrome (multiprocess), Kubernetes, Cloudflare Durable Objects (collaboration), WASM, Rust, Typescript, Golang, Pytorch, JAX, Bitcoin, Ethereum.

Ericson2314 5y ago

That is all cool, but the issue here is, "the de facto standard technology stack is ossifying upward", as nicely put in http://dtrace.org/blogs/wesolows/2014/12/29/fin/ http://dtrace.org/blogs/wesolows/2014/12/29/fin/ I think person is now, in fact, getting paid to redo the firmware as desired, but while commonplace firmware might be uniquely disgusting, the bigger monoliths with even less competition are still the operating systems. Something still needs to be done there.

Ar-Curunir 5y ago
Idk, we have a bunch of VM optimizations and innovations, unikernels. I also think PL innovations are going to usher in a new revolution at the bottom of the stack, just by making systems programming more accessible. I mean, Rust has already made inroads into existing OSes, and the increased accessibility will inevitably lead to more exciting experiments soon.
- Ericson2314 5y ago
  Yes PL, my home field, I am proud to say has been leading the way. I am certainly more optomistic than I would have been 20 years ago when Rob Pike wrote this, but the war is not yet won. I fear some of the accidental complexity is more indicative than economic problems than CS ones. E.g. it feels like 1000s of bad abstraction dependencies is mirroring https://homesignalblog.wordpress.com/2020/12/25/industrial-sprawl/ https://homesignalblog.wordpress.com/2020/12/25/industrial-s... in the real world. (I am not against larger numbers of dependencies, just the bloat that comes from a gazillion square pegs in round holes, and conway's law preventing anyone from trying to do anything about it.)