Niche for Hurd - discussion - take my environment with me

[Arne Babenhauserheide]

Am Mittwoch 29 Oktober 2008 12:16:58 schrieb olafBuddenhagen@gmx.net:
> > If most systems just differ by the translators setup on them, people
> > could even transfer their whole environment from one computer to
> > another one without needing root access or more root interaction than
> > creating a new user account. "I want my tools" -> "no problem, just
> > setup your translators".
>
> This is an interesting option -- I actually thought in a similar
> direction already.
>
> A precondition is that the same translators are available. This could be
> incovenient, but shouldn't be a serious problem, as the user can always
> compile them himself.

And with lisp now available as language for translators, a standard Hurd 
installation just needs to provide the lisp bindings, and every user can take 
his/her lisp translators along on a USB stick and use them without compiling. 

PyHurd goes into a similar direction. 

> We also need to be relatively independent of the host system to make
> sure we really get the environment we want. This requires attaching at a
> rather low level... Certainly possible, but again we need tools and
> documentation.

Yes - it isn't in the "we can already advertise this" cathegory :) 

> > Also it would be possible to just open an account for stuff like
> > joining the "World Community Grid" allowing for easier sharing of CPU
> > time.
>
> Not sure what you mean here...

I mean: 
Currently to offer CPU time to some program, I need to install a program from 
them, and they can then do only what that proram allows them to - which leads 
to reinventing a processing environment instead of just using the existing OS. 

With the Hurd I could just create a user for them, give that user specific 
permissions (like "you're always lowest priority"), add the public ssh keys of 
the people I want to donate CPU cycles to, and they could just turn my 
computer into the environment they need for their specific computation, 
without compromising my system in any way. 

seti@home done clean :) 

It's definitely far out, though. 

Best wishes, 
Arne

PS: I'm somehow splitting the thread into subdiscussions here. 

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