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Would I be correct in saying this is kind of like Docker? I mean, I know it's not a "container" system exactly... but it seems almost like a platform for encou

Would I be correct in saying this is kind of like Docker? I mean, I know it's not a "container" system exactly... but it seems almost like a platform for encouraging developers to containerize/package their web apps and maybe help distribute (sell?) them.... and also to allow end-users to have increased control over their apps. Looks like it's going to suffer from the classic marketplace problem. I like the idea, but I'm not sure the benefits from the developer/business side are strong enough.

kentonv 13y ago
(Sandstorm author here.) It is like Docker, except more user-oriented, with a complete web-based UI for installing apps and such. It also has a more complete story for how apps talk to each other. With Docker, as I understand it, you'd arrange for the containers to open ports to each other, which is pretty clunky. Sandstorm will let one app say "I publish an API implementing Cap'n Proto interface Foo" while another app says "I want to use an API implementing interface Foo", and then the platform presents a UI to the user to select which app to connect to, and handles all the security behind the scenes. Also, the unit of containerization is each individual "file" -- e.g. an Etherpad document -- so that the platform can handle sharing and a security bug in the app doesn't allow people with access to one document to hack their way into others. I take a different perspective on the marketplace problem. There are lots of awesome open source web apps and other hobby projects out there that are currently hard for end users to use, because most of them require running your own server. The platform is aimed at bringing that whole existing ecosystem of apps to a wider audience. Yes, big companies like Google aren't going to develop for this any time soon, but that's beside the point. I want this to be the Ubuntu of the web. :) As an example, the "Hacker CMS" app at http://sandstorm.io/apps/ http://sandstorm.io/apps/ was developed in a day from existing open source components. If we could harness the creativity of lots of developers tinkering, some really useful stuff to come out of this, regardless of whether businesses decide to target the platform (though I think they will too, eventually).

kentonv 13y ago

(Sandstorm author here.) It is like Docker, except more user-oriented, with a complete web-based UI for installing apps and such. It also has a more complete story for how apps talk to each other. With Docker, as I understand it, you'd arrange for the containers to open ports to each other, which is pretty clunky. Sandstorm will let one app say "I publish an API implementing Cap'n Proto interface Foo" while another app says "I want to use an API implementing interface Foo", and then the platform presents a UI to the user to select which app to connect to, and handles all the security behind the scenes. Also, the unit of containerization is each individual "file" -- e.g. an Etherpad document -- so that the platform can handle sharing and a security bug in the app doesn't allow people with access to one document to hack their way into others. I take a different perspective on the marketplace problem. There are lots of awesome open source web apps and other hobby projects out there that are currently hard for end users to use, because most of them require running your own server. The platform is aimed at bringing that whole existing ecosystem of apps to a wider audience. Yes, big companies like Google aren't going to develop for this any time soon, but that's beside the point. I want this to be the Ubuntu of the web. :) As an example, the "Hacker CMS" app at http://sandstorm.io/apps/ http://sandstorm.io/apps/ was developed in a day from existing open source components. If we could harness the creativity of lots of developers tinkering, some really useful stuff to come out of this, regardless of whether businesses decide to target the platform (though I think they will too, eventually).