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I hope for a future where we are not trapped between Windows, MacOS, and Linux. They are all very complicated, and have much state. They're great for general-pu

I hope for a future where we are not trapped between Windows, MacOS, and Linux. They are all very complicated, and have much state. They're great for general-purpose computing, but it would be cool if you could use the same hardware in these GP computers with lightweight firmware that doesn't get in the way, and can be tuned to a specific task better. Simple, responsive GUI, could run your specialty software etc with direct hardware interaction.

ikmckenz 3y ago
Do you mean something like MirageOS? https://mirage.io/ https://mirage.io/
allo37 3y ago
Sounds a bit like what UIO tries to do in Linux? https://www.kernel.org/doc/html/v4.12/driver-api/uio-howto.html https://www.kernel.org/doc/html/v4.12/driver-api/uio-howto.h...
tester756 3y ago
That's what I've been thinking about. Modern runtimes try to do a lot of OS' job(s) - memory management like gc, threads management, etc, etc. What if we stopped using OSes and their perf. penalties and run our software (with its runtimes like clr/jvm/wasmish) directly on the hardware
- KeplerBoy 3y ago
  Is there really performance to gain? I doubt a well configured OS is slowing the CPU down. The alternative could be GPU like devices: A PCI-E card with sockets for the chip and some RAM running it's own firmware. Intel tried that with it's Xeon Phi line and they opted to run Linux (called uOS) on the accelerator board, so apparently that was never an issue.
caskstrength 3y ago
> Simple, responsive GUI, could run your specialty software etc with direct hardware interaction. Are "simple and responsive" network protocols stack and file system, for example, also included in the FW? There is a reason why systems that used to work like that (game consoles) started to ship with general purpose OS to handle such things some time ago.
nektro 3y ago
> with direct hardware interaction you're not gonna see this ever again. it'd be reckless to do so with how unsafe it would be
nektro 3y ago
sounds like you wanna do work in the embedded space

ikmckenz 3y ago

Do you mean something like MirageOS? https://mirage.io/ https://mirage.io/

allo37 3y ago

Sounds a bit like what UIO tries to do in Linux? https://www.kernel.org/doc/html/v4.12/driver-api/uio-howto.html https://www.kernel.org/doc/html/v4.12/driver-api/uio-howto.h...

tester756 3y ago

That's what I've been thinking about. Modern runtimes try to do a lot of OS' job(s) - memory management like gc, threads management, etc, etc. What if we stopped using OSes and their perf. penalties and run our software (with its runtimes like clr/jvm/wasmish) directly on the hardware

KeplerBoy 3y ago
Is there really performance to gain? I doubt a well configured OS is slowing the CPU down. The alternative could be GPU like devices: A PCI-E card with sockets for the chip and some RAM running it's own firmware. Intel tried that with it's Xeon Phi line and they opted to run Linux (called uOS) on the accelerator board, so apparently that was never an issue.

caskstrength 3y ago

> Simple, responsive GUI, could run your specialty software etc with direct hardware interaction. Are "simple and responsive" network protocols stack and file system, for example, also included in the FW? There is a reason why systems that used to work like that (game consoles) started to ship with general purpose OS to handle such things some time ago.

nektro 3y ago

> with direct hardware interaction you're not gonna see this ever again. it'd be reckless to do so with how unsafe it would be

nektro 3y ago

sounds like you wanna do work in the embedded space