Re: [DotGNU]Re: MOSIX as WOS

[Bill Lance]

--- David Nicol <address@hidden> wrote:
> Bill Lance wrote:
> > 
> > how does this translate into a useful p2p
> > environment?
> 
> define "useful"


Well,  hehe ,  that's always a good question.

Something that is of value to the people spending the
time and resources for it?


But I too have difficulting determining exactly what
is
"usefull" here.  Perhaps this is a good time to try to
find some answers.

In most of what I 've read about .net,
and other "webservices" there seems a
basic assumption that spreading our data
and programs around the internet is a
"good thing".  Then they go in one of
two directions, the technical how-to,
and business "how is this going to
increase revenues".  No where have I
read anything about how this is of value
to the users of the Internet.

The technical side is encompased by the
idea of "middleware" and the more
abstract "Web Operating System"  These
seem basically to be about increasing
the level of bandwidth between programs
and processes on seperate network nodes
by defining standard protocols and
implementations.  And by increasing the
granularity of that communication.  So,
this gives us the technical ability to
do this.  But again, to what purpose?

The vision is one of using remote
resources, both data and program
functions, to acomplish our tasks on the
our local device (what ever that may
be).  That means that we move from the
one currently used where our 'local
device' includes most of the processing
power, memory, programs, working data.
Very little is actually exchanged on the
net.  It is displayed and manipulated
locally.  In effect, we currently use
our task bandwidth locally, within our
own computers.  The Web Services idea
asks that we switch that bandwidth to
the internet.

Of what value is that to me as a user?

Is it resources that are hard to get
otherwise?  Not hardly.  Most "local
devices" are PC or workstations of some
type.  Most of these hardware resources
are unused.  Very few of us max out our
machines in daily tasks.  PC's are still
expensive, true.  But hardware costs are
droping at increadible rates.  There is
no scarcity of hardware power at the
local divice end, no scarcity of local
bandwidth.

That leaves us with data and program
function.  We currently have a level of
data and function exchange using
existing net protocols such as http,
ftp, smtp.  These are mostly data
exchange methods.  Remote functions are
actually data transports as well in a
sence, since that is their final
product.  A list of links from a search
engine or a map from Mapquest.  Even if
they are realtime, such as a stock
quote, it's still just final data.  And
most importantly, most of the data moves
in our direction, to our copious local
resources, where we use and keep it.

The WebServices model asks us to move
our personal, working, and archival data
from our local device to the Internet.

Why?

The WebSevice model also as us, as end
users, to move much, if not all, the
actual program functions off our local
device and onto remote servers.

Again, why?

What clear answeres do we have to these
questions?  From a users point of view,
what do we say?


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