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I don't want a "brand new operating system based on Linux". I just want it to be Linux. When companies say stuff like this it usually just means their gonna he

I don't want a "brand new operating system based on Linux". I just want it to be Linux. When companies say stuff like this it usually just means their gonna help themselves to all of the great free stuff everyone contributed and then make their machine a thorn in the community's side with all kinds of binary blob drivers that only work with one kernel/release.

noedig 12y ago
I think HP has a bigger vision here. They aren't looking to build a new car, only this car has electric batteries, they want to build a plane. They announced two OS projects: a modified version of Linux that runs on this new machine, and an entirely new operating system based on fundamentally different assumptions. They only care about Linux as a stopgap, because it allows people to start using this machine while they come up with something better.
shirro 12y ago
From a familiarity point of view so do I but progress in operating systems and languages hasn't moved on much for decades. Linux is the pragmatic solution for now and for some time to come but if my kids' kids are still using vim on a unix-like system to create software in a c-like language for an Intel compatible CPU architecture I am happy to entertain the possibility that we may have fucked up somewhere. We badly need a Xerox Parc again doing stuff because they can and not because they must. So much technology came out of places like that and Bell Labs and we seem to have lost that.
rbanffy 12y ago
> I just want it to be Linux. You shouldn't. Linux is a member of a long lineage of operating systems that assume centralized processors connected by a slow bus to volatile memory that only temporarily holds information that needs to be backed up by other devices connected to buses much slower than memory. Every OS in current use is based on these ideas that haven't changed much since the 60's. If you want, you may imagine Smalltalk running directly on metal with no OS underneath it, with all your data being just part of the image you work with. This is the kind of machine that this makes possible. This was, of course, done in the 80's with technology that was barely sufficient.

noedig 12y ago

I think HP has a bigger vision here. They aren't looking to build a new car, only this car has electric batteries, they want to build a plane. They announced two OS projects: a modified version of Linux that runs on this new machine, and an entirely new operating system based on fundamentally different assumptions. They only care about Linux as a stopgap, because it allows people to start using this machine while they come up with something better.

shirro 12y ago

From a familiarity point of view so do I but progress in operating systems and languages hasn't moved on much for decades. Linux is the pragmatic solution for now and for some time to come but if my kids' kids are still using vim on a unix-like system to create software in a c-like language for an Intel compatible CPU architecture I am happy to entertain the possibility that we may have fucked up somewhere. We badly need a Xerox Parc again doing stuff because they can and not because they must. So much technology came out of places like that and Bell Labs and we seem to have lost that.

rbanffy 12y ago

> I just want it to be Linux. You shouldn't. Linux is a member of a long lineage of operating systems that assume centralized processors connected by a slow bus to volatile memory that only temporarily holds information that needs to be backed up by other devices connected to buses much slower than memory. Every OS in current use is based on these ideas that haven't changed much since the 60's. If you want, you may imagine Smalltalk running directly on metal with no OS underneath it, with all your data being just part of the image you work with. This is the kind of machine that this makes possible. This was, of course, done in the 80's with technology that was barely sufficient.