17 Dec
2011
17 Dec
'11
3:49 a.m.
On Sat, Dec 17, 2011 at 04:01:58AM -0500, Mouse wrote:
Did you look at the single level store as implemented in the AS/400?
Hmm, care to elaborate? Because so far I've seen two basic approached to
encrypted storage: block level (like dm-crypt) and file level (like encfs,
where you can use any sane filesystem, including NFS, as backing store).
IIRC it is the old meaning of Open from commercial vendors: "Open" as
in "Open your wallet".
But there seems to be this mindset that what Unix
has is perfect and
cannot be improved upon.
Har! The closest you'll find _me_ getting to that is "Unix is the
worst OS in the world except for all the others peopl ehave tried", and
even that is putting it way too strongly. I much prefer VMS's
privilege model, for example, and, while I don't recall it being done
this way back when I worked on Lisp Machines, I really think
filesystems could be eliminated in favour of other ways of addressing
the needs filesystems satisfy. [...], I doubt
anything will change much, things are too ingrained in
terms of backwards compatibility (both of software and of wetware.)
Yes, I suspect it will take revolution, not evolution.
In recent years, I've come to the conclusion that POSIX, for all the
good it's done, is not an unmixed blessing; anything that can't be
twisted and bent into a POSIX framework sort of "can't be done". For
example, in 2002 I worked with an experimental encrypted storage
paradigm that really fit the POSIX model very poorly, something I was
very aware of because what I was doing was building a glue layer to
make it mountable as a Unix filesystem. If you do find
[Genera] "stunningly inconvenient" I'd like to hear
from you :).
Heh. I don't. At least not as of the most recent version I used; I
expect it to have gotten worse (in my opinion, of course), but it's
highly unlikely to have got to the point of "stunningly inconvenient".
Honestly, i find Genera an amazing programming
environment,
Indeed. Me too.
You mentioned OpenGenera; is this an open-source version or something?
My (rudimentary) web-search skillz end up at pages that give the
impression the "Open" part is a misnomer, so I don't know whether
they're giving me an incorrect impression or whether someone mislabeled
a non-open product as open (presumably in an attempt to - fradulently,
I would tend to say, if so - ride the "Open" bandwagon). If there really is an open Lisp Machine OS, I think
I'd just _have_ to
build a Lisp Machine emulator....
You are not the first, there are IIRC a few projects that aim to do that
and at least one of them got pretty far.
Kind regards,
Alex.
--
"Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and
looks like work." -- Thomas A. Edison