Slashdot Mirror
MIT To Release Next-Generation OS "Cesium"
snowphoton writes: "Slant-Six magazine has an article about Cesium, a fascinating (and soon public) operating system from the MIT Laboratory for Computer Science. A virtual machine, an object-oriented database-driven filesystem, and a 3D GUI mean that this isn't your father's operating system." This article doesn't address licensing, except to say that it "is due to be released by the end of the year for free," so it will be interesting to see just what "free" means here. Update: Yep, it's a hoax. Fun! Tricks are neat!
Any more details about this?
Ever heard of the MIT license....?
h tm l
It's a BSD derived license...
http://www.opensource.org/licenses/mit-license.
And that's, (imnsho) real freedom, not gpl freedom, as in "free as in speech so long as your opinion agrees with mine."
Why is it continually necessary to provide a GPL dig in every context, even where it's completely off-topic and irrelevant?
One would think the supporters of non-GPL free software licenses are a bit too defensive for their own good. RMS certainly never takes this many opportunities to berate the MIT and BSD licenses (in fact he considers them "free software").
10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
I can't wait to get my hands on this. It's going to be Uber schweet!
"Mallet Uber Alles!"
Cesium is due to be released by the end of the year for free, bundled with approximately 200 software applications including HTTP, FTP, NNTP and SMTP servers; a fully functional office application suite; graphics and audio software; and four video games including CesiumQuake.
What is this office suite? A completely new one? Will it open my MS office files (and not suck at the same time)? Last time I had an office suite that I liked that wasnt on Windows was ClarisWorks 4 on a mac with microsoft file translators... and even that was only barely tolerable
Cesium's architecture and abilities are enough to make even the most jaded computer enthusiast start frothing at the mouth. *starts frothing at the mouth* I've tried out "3D" Windows desktops to little satisfaction. Most of them are just crap, buggy, DirectX8 overlays. If this does what it says it does, I dont think I'll ever need another operating system for hobby use. Heh... should be fun when this little sucker is released... I hope it can run on plain old x86 hardware :)
Talez
TCP connection to 'www.slant-six.org' failed: No error.
I bet the system clock is always off
Cesium...get it....cesium...as in the atomic clock..
You are right that was not funny.
The elimination of the directory/file paradigm seems like a good one as well as the virtual machine... but I don't know about the HTML and XML for all human readable text... and what good is a 3D GUI?
Can anyone think of a good reason to have a 3D GUI? It seems like a waste of compute power.
There are 10 types of people in this world, those who can count in binary and those who can't.
The immediate problems that I see are
- The UI will scare people. Unfamiliar == Scary.
- Hardware support. Hopefully drivers will get out there fast.
- Very new programming model. People can't build off of years of UNIX experience as with linux.
- People like what they've got, be it windows, linux, mac, or both. Change is scary.
- Is the VM slow? Probably not, but we won't know until it's out.
That said, I really hope these hurdles can be overcome. I'm betting ideas from this will be incorporated in to the more traditional OS's in the long run, but who knows? I'm certaintly going to check it out and maybe give it a spin on a spare partition (if that's even possible yet). A 3d GUI! I can't wait."I may not have morals, but I have standards."
Cesium's architecture and abilities are enough to make even the most jaded computer enthusiast start frothing at the mouth.
:)
*starts frothing at the mouth*
I've tried out "3D" Windows desktops to little satisfaction. Most of them are just crap, buggy, DirectX8 overlays. If this does what it says it does, I dont think I'll ever need another operating system for hobby use.
Heh... should be fun when this little sucker is released... I hope it can run on plain old x86 hardware
Talez
The story has been Slashdotted already. I am posting it here for the benfit of fellow /.ers and EZ Karma points:
The Advanced Operating Systems Group, a branch of the Lab for Computer Science at MIT, has begun planning for a public release of their formerly unknown operating system known as Cesium.
Currently at version 4.2 (version 1.0 was finished in 1993), Cesium's architecture and abilities are enough to make even the most jaded computer enthusiast start frothing at the mouth. As an assistant to one of the lab's directors, I was invited to a private presentation given last week to some MIT staff members as part of the planning process for its eventual public release. I was given permission to write this sneak preview.
The primary goal of Cesium's creators was to fully abandon the "historic principles" that have shaped most contemporary operating systems. Concepts like "desktop", "folders", "files", etc., have all been thrown out the window. The results, while unusual when compared against the de facto standard of Microsoft Windows, are nevertheless fascinating and potentially very useful.
Cesium comprises five main parts, or "Overmodules". These overmodules are made up of semi-independent modules, which can be replaced or updated at will in order to add, remove or modify system functionality.
The Platform overmodule is the only platform-specific part of Cesium. It serves as a virtual machine, allowing the OS to run almost identically on a variety of platforms. The AOSG Lab has a distributed Cesium system made up of a seemingly random batch of Mac and PC machines, and Cesium has also been successfully tested on some handheld devices.
The Storage overmodule is one of the more unique ideas behind Cesium. Instead of using a traditional filesystem, all data is stored in an object-oriented database (OODBMS) that is written through the Platform overmodule directly to a hard drive. This allows for queries and operations that would not normally be possible within a traditional filesystem. In addition, it eliminates the concepts of files and folders, opting instead for child-parent relationships between any data stores.
The Program overmodule serves as interpreter, compiler, and API for Cesium software. After translating code into an intermediate language called "Cilantro" (which is cached for future use), it passes the code to the Platform overmodule, which then executes it. Cesium currently supports C, C++, Java, Perl, Fortran, Lisp, COBOL, and numerous smaller languages.
The Presentation overmodule works with the Platform overmodule to give programs access to a powerful and platform-independent visual interface that can present the output of programs as anything from terminal text to a 3-dimensional Hollywood-style GUI called "Tripwire" (which does shadows, transparencies, textures and light rendering better than most video game engines) depending on what the user chooses to see and what the hardware can handle.
Finally, the Security overmodule handles access issues, providing administrators with user maintenance and permissions functionality that rivals anything offered by mainstream operating systems.
The most interesting parts of Cesium, however, are often the little things. For example, all human-readable text is assumed to be HTML or XML, instead of Notepad-style plain text, and formatting can be customized with cascading style sheets. The default text editor that comes with Cesium, therefore, handles such things as bold, italics, tables, graphics, colors, etc., without trouble.
Another interesting little tidbit is that Cesium was intended to be well documented from the very start. Error messages are dynamically generated and context sensitive, meaning that almost any error comes with a plain English description of exactly what happened, how it probably happened, and how to fix it.
Cesium is due to be released by the end of the year for free, bundled with approximately 200 software applications including HTTP, FTP, NNTP and SMTP servers; a fully functional office application suite; graphics and audio software; and four video games including CesiumQuake.
For further information, stay tuned to The MIT Laboratory for Computer Science website.
Why do users with IDs under 100,000 or over 700,000 usually have the most worthwhile comments?
RMS certainly never takes this many opportunities to berate the MIT and BSD licenses
RMS has written whole essays on why using anything but the GPL foolishly allows evil commercial software developers to hurt the cause. He is the King of Defensive, not to mention offensive.
Hmm, maybe because the item ends with the sentence it will be interesting to see just what "free" means here
Better to be despised for too anxious apprehensions, than ruined by too confident a security. --Edmund Burke
Also, I'm posting an open invitation to karma whores to discuss the merits of this operating system with their choice of (BEOS, AmigaOS, OS/2, AtheOS)
Ciao!
Tips and Tricks for Mozilla
Site seems slow, heres a mirror:
here
... which is fishy, because I'm sitting here in my office on the sixth floor of the Laboratory for Computer Science, and the operating systems dudes are on the fifth floor. There is also no mention of Cesium on the projects page.
I couldn't actually read the original page, slant-six being slashdotted and all, but it sure doesn't sound like an LCS initiative. In fact I don't see any mention of any such operating system on the web.
1. Release Next-Generation OS
2. ???
3. Profit!
Especially not in the area of PERFORMANCE, I'll bet!
George W. Bush
President, United States of America
slight problem, its not plain text, html or xml
look back
-- botsex is {grep;touch;strip;unzip;head;mount}
Another interesting little tidbit is that Cesium was intended to be well documented from the very start. Error messages are dynamically generated and context sensitive, meaning that almost any error comes with a plain English description of exactly what happened, how it probably happened, and how to fix it.
I have nothing else to say, that in istelf is all I ever wanted from my OS.
~ now you know
After reading that article, I feel compelled to go out and get laid.
...is unfair to some. :-) Where's the obligatory mirror?
You'll have to have a GeForce3 card to show the desktop.
But, hey, atleast you'll be able to shoot the icons with a rocket launcher or another Quake3 weapon of your choice...
could someone post a mirror please. The site seems to be completely buggahed by the /. effect. Thanks.
--
The guys at MIT have done an admirable job in merging several of these cutting-edge technologies into a seamless system. Their OS looks fascinating and I'd definitely like to take it out for a spin. But it's worth noting that most of what they offer is already available under Linux. As far as I'm concerned, they're re-inventing the wheel.
-CT
It =is= your father's operating system!
It's called OS/400. Other than the 3d GUI, those are the base features of the AS/400 software. The virtual machine and OO database file system have been there from the beginning.
Well, from the details in the article, it certainly sounds promising. I'm glad someone's finally going "very public" with ideas to replace the underpowered filing systems we're using now, for a start. It'll be interesting to see how their OODBMS system works out.
That does raise an obvious question, though. Given that we're all used to filing systems where you have a lump of data in some form and you give it a name, and beyond that, it's just a hierarchical arrangement, how does that translate to/from their world? Converting from PC <-> Mac <-> Linux is no big deal (although even then we have details that may get "lost in translation") but they all follow a similar paradigm. How do you map from such a system onto an OO set-up? Given that they mention supporting an office suite, clearly a necessity for any mainstream OS today, they must surely have considered this issue in some detail.
If you disagree, post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like.
is a heavy metal which is liquid at room temperature. Pure cesium is highly corrosive, flammable, and reacts violently with water.
Nice name for a new OS, huh?
This highlights an interesting split in the direction of modern operating systems research.
In the one corner we have MIT with Cesium that implements files and everything else in the form of an object oriented database.
In the other corner we have Bell-Labs/Lucent Plan 9 that implements databases and everything else in the form of files.
Plan 9 makes programming things easier since the file api lets you do most things. I wonder how much MIT's system makes things easier to do? I always found databases a pig to interface to (except in plan9).
Simpler IS better..
I should use this sig to advertise my book ISBN-13 : 978-1501515132.
How come there are no pictures at the slant-six story, and no mention of this project on the website at http://www.lcs.mit.edu/ ? How come a search on google reveals...nothing? Do you really think MIT could develop the most fantastical OS ever for and keep it a giant secret? They said version 1.0 came out in 1993...so where is that?
Also, why would a university bother to write an office suite for this project? How exactly does that qualify as new research, worthy of publication leading to a master's or Ph.D.? I don't think any grad student actually interested in graduating would waste his time on such a thing.
hey, timothy, next time do some fact-checking before you post this stuff...
We don't have a state-run media we have a media-run state.
i forgot to mention one thing in my previous posts...
:)
quake lives on!
only five video games, and quake one is one of them. what does that tell you?
quake rules
-- botsex is {grep;touch;strip;unzip;head;mount}
If this is a hoax, I'm crying myself to sleep tonight. This could be just what M$ and the rest of us needs. How reliable is slash-six.com? I've never been there.
In addition, it eliminates the concepts of files and folders, opting instead for child-parent relationships between any data stores.
Doesn't sound too hard to make up a traditional ftp repository.
Infuriate left and right
Oooh, COBOL support, now that is groundbreaking.
Actually the presence of COBOL and the absence of any mention of this project at LCS's actual website leads me to believe this is a hoax.
I can't find any mention of a Cesium project on MIT's LCS web site. Can anybody point out a reference that confirms the existence of this project? Preferably with screenshots?
It sounds too good to be true...
Dos ome checking on the web and you will find no other mentions of this - ring the lab and you will find no one by this name works there - someone is pulling your chains.
Surely we can start CHECKING stories before we post them.
This sounds great and all, but like someone else pointed out, there's absolutely no mention of this anywhere on the MIT website, and a quick scan of the MIT website and directory for Harvey Dunkirk (the author, and supposedly an assistant to one of the lab directors) turned up absolutely no hits. I'd love to be wrong, this sounds cool, but this sounds really fishy.
-David Ziegler
-
what "free" means.
No mention of it on LCS website, no evidence of any release in 1993 on google....
Doesn't exist.
Sure got my hopes up, though. I was looking for a cool new toy like that.
WhiteWolf666 an exBush supporter. All you new-school,compassionate,save the children Republicans can rot in hell
tell me how I'm wrong if so.
I have a feeling that this is a hoax. Even if it is, there's some hope for the proposed features.
DBMS filesystem: A filesystem is a database... there are two major things that most filesystems today lack (so far as I can think of), that more modern database systems could provide. One, is that databases can be indexed fairly easily, providing for fast searching. Unfortunatly, indexing on many columns (in RDBMS) can actually take a lot of disk space... maybe more than many people would be willing to accept. I also wish that filesystems could hold much more meta-data. What I envision, is a filesystem which provides meta-data fields dynamically, based on mime-type (stored seperately - not in filename). Imagine meta-data for image/jpeg to include compression level, height, width, or even a thumbnail version of the image, or meta-data for audio/mpeg to include the info that's now stored in ID3. This shouldn't necessarily mean slowness, or excessive disk useage - especially if you can turn extended meta-data off for particular parts of the filesystem.
Visual interface: While 3D sounds cool, I'm not convinced. A monitor (currently) is a 2D object, and merging a 3D environment into a 2D display is going to cause as much - if not more - metaphore 'clash' as the 'desktop' metaphore. I think that some of the best/most interesting display technologies can be found in things like Aqua which uses display PDF and Berlin which uses 'fresco' to provide similar features like resolution independance, good printer output, vector based stuff, etc. Until we get holographic display, or maybe even good VR stuff, I'm not betting much on 3D interfaces except for very specific applications.
Security: They didn't really go into this much, unfortunately. Unix security is nice and simple (which is a mixed blessing); sometimes you need more control. It's also nice to have things NOT run with excess privilige (this is hard in some situations - like SSHD for example). Projects like RSBAC (rsbac.org) address some of these issues.
Current projects like Linux already have lots of hardware support, and people support; any new OS, no matter how revolutionary is not likely to take over too quickly. This Cesium project, should it exist, will have had to create all drivers internally without help; the Linux community hasn't even been able to support enough hardware to make everyone happy - I don't know how Cesium would. (not that wide hw support would have been a goal necessarily)
finger hdunkirk@mit.edu
[mit.edu]
Student data loaded as of Oct 29, Staff data loaded as of Oct 27.
URL data loaded once a month.
Notify Personnel or use WebSIS as appropriate to change your information.
Our on-line help system describes
How to change data, how the directory works, where to get more info.
For a listing of help topics, enter finger help@mit.edu. Try finger
help_about@mit.edu to read about how the directory works. Please see
help_url@mit.edu for questions about the new URL field.
No matches to your query.
carsonr@arsenal:~/notes$
The penultimate line says it all. The email address for the author is bogus, as is the article. Additionally, the LCS folks I know haven't heard about this. Smells like BS to me.
No mention of this on any MIT website I've looked at...
Cesium? Come on...
Uses "Tripwire" as a name for a GUI?
"Hollywood style"?
Looks like someone took some computer terms, sprinkled heavily with jargon and made something up.
Have you ever heard of the Ray Bradbury story "The Toynbee Convector"? It's about this guy who fakes a trip in to the future to get people motivated to innovate to achieve that future.
Yeah, that's what I said.
this page lists the half life of cesium isotopes. Apparently they need a new entry for the half life of Cesium OS when slashdotted...
The Program module sounds like an excellent strategy - and very similar to Microsoft's CLR (aka .Net).
Should be interesting to see how their approaches to this problem will differ.
its how it all works together that counts.
got drum'n'bass?
http://mp3.com/vitriolix
Just did a Google Groups search and Mr. Harvery Dunkirk is nowhere to be found in their archives, which I think we all will agree are pretty extensive (although not complete).
I don't know of too many technically-able people who have never posted to Usenet....
A CD from iTunes: $10 A Song from iTunes: $0.99 Not paying a cent to Microsoft: Priceless
I'm a grad student in the PDOS group; I certainly haven't heard of this project, nor have my colleagues with whom I've checked. This story could use a bit more background checking; I strongly suspect that it's completely bogus. If you want to see the real research going on in operating systems at MIT, check out the PDOS web page, the Networks and Mobile Systems page, and the Advanced Network Architectures sites.
Harvey M Dunkirk...
HARVEY DRUNK KIM
HEAVY DRINK MURK
MY VERA HURD KINK
HA DRUNK VERY KIM
Sorry, but since this one is sounding more and more of a hoax, someone had to do it.
and the Irishman took the fly in his hands and yelled, "spit it out!"
A filesystem is a database...
Which makes me wonder, what filesystem does the database reside on? Inquiring minds want to know.
Unfortunatly, indexing on many columns (in RDBMS) can actually take a lot of disk space...
So there actually IS a traditional filesytem underneath it all? Or are all the index files stored in the same database they index?
A Government Is a Body of People, Usually Notably Ungoverned
I can see this being a scare, an april fools joke in reverse, just in time to give certain Microsoft execs a heart attack.
sort of like a halloween scare. Trick or treat, like earlier memos from earlier years.
"It is a greater offense to steal men's labor, than their clothes"
The Advanced Operating Systems Group, a branch of the Lab for Computer Science at MIT, has begun planning for a public release of their formerly unknown operating system known as Cesium.
Currently at version 4.2 (version 1.0 was finished in 1993), Cesium's architecture and abilities are enough to make even the most jaded computer enthusiast start frothing at the mouth. As an assistant to one of the lab's directors, I was invited to a private presentation given last week to some MIT staff members as part of the planning process for its eventual public release. I was given permission to write this sneak preview.
The primary goal of Cesium's creators was to fully abandon the "historic principles" that have shaped most contemporary operating systems. Concepts like "desktop", "folders", "files", etc., have all been thrown out the window. The results, while unusual when compared against the de facto standard of Microsoft Windows, are nevertheless fascinating and potentially very useful.
Cesium comprises five main parts, or "Overmodules". These overmodules are made up of semi-independent modules, which can be replaced or updated at will in order to add, remove or modify system functionality.
The Platform overmodule is the only platform-specific part of Cesium. It serves as a virtual machine, allowing the OS to run almost identically on a variety of platforms. The AOSG Lab has a distributed Cesium system made up of a seemingly random batch of Mac and PC machines, and Cesium has also been successfully tested on some handheld devices.
The Storage overmodule is one of the more unique ideas behind Cesium. Instead of using a traditional filesystem, all data is stored in an object-oriented database (OODBMS) that is written through the Platform overmodule directly to a hard drive. This allows for queries and operations that would not normally be possible within a traditional filesystem. In addition, it eliminates the concepts of files and folders, opting instead for child-parent relationships between any data stores.
The Program overmodule serves as interpreter, compiler, and API for Cesium software. After translating code into an intermediate language called "Cilantro" (which is cached for future use), it passes the code to the Platform overmodule, which then executes it. Cesium currently supports C, C++, Java, Perl, Fortran, Lisp, COBOL, and numerous smaller languages.
The Presentation overmodule works with the Platform overmodule to give programs access to a powerful and platform-independent visual interface that can present the output of programs as anything from terminal text to a 3-dimensional Hollywood-style GUI called "Tripwire" (which does shadows, transparencies, textures and light rendering better than most video game engines) depending on what the user chooses to see and what the hardware can handle.
Finally, the Security overmodule handles access issues, providing administrators with user maintenance and permissions functionality that rivals anything offered by mainstream operating systems.
The most interesting parts of Cesium, however, are often the little things. For example, all human-readable text is assumed to be HTML or XML, instead of Notepad-style plain text, and formatting can be customized with cascading style sheets. The default text editor that comes with Cesium, therefore, handles such things as bold, italics, tables, graphics, colors, etc., without trouble.
Another interesting little tidbit is that Cesium was intended to be well documented from the very start. Error messages are dynamically generated and context sensitive, meaning that almost any error comes with a plain English description of exactly what happened, how it probably happened, and how to fix it.
Cesium is due to be released by the end of the year for free, bundled with approximately 200 software applications including HTTP, FTP, NNTP and SMTP servers; a fully functional office application suite; graphics and audio software; and four video games including CesiumQuake.
For further information, stay tuned to The MIT Laboratory for Computer Science website.
This article has been read 1584 times.
Carpe Deez
Why do you think the database would require an underlying filesystem? Many DBMSs use raw disk access in order to maximize speed. I know, because I've inadvertantly crushed a few partitions because they appeared to have no underlying filesystem on them.
Oh, one other nice thing for filesystems would be transaction logging for consistency.
We could call it the sex license (SL). You can do whatever you want, as long as you play by the rules. Of course, you don't know the rules are, and you'll probably get screwed over in court anyway (as opposed to where you would prefer to get screwed over).
F-bacher
James Tiberius Kirk: "Spock, the women on your planet are logical. No other planet in the galaxy can make that claim."
"cess-ium" -- what a load
This has been long over due. I'm sick of NTFS, Linux was close but not quite there, and don't get me started on Fat32. Anyway, I guy has to wonder if it will include and API to allow us to query it directly using SQL.
How come MIT's web site says NOTHING about Cesium?!? If it's supposed to be SO secret (and how can it be if there up to version 4) how come they don't have any info on the OS ?!?
I don't know for sure and I hope I'm wrong but this is likely a hoax. Remember the light emmitting diode CPU thing? This is one of those concept articles of the ideal operating system. Sounds great and it's good for inspiration but I doubt such a Utopian OS exists. I wish it did but we would have heard about it already. I just hope MIT doesn't get pissed off at these guys.
Throwing out everything from the file/folder/desktop heirarchy
Is it just me? I really can't see a distinction between the folder/file relatoinship and the parent/child data relationship.
I'll be honest I have not got a lot of respect for the 'academic' types at MIT so I'm not holding my breath for this one. They all seem to think about 'can I do it', but never what is really important and should it be done adn what are the benifits. OODBMS file system. Uh most databases are slower than filesystem access, unless it is a palm style set up. Now that could be neat, a paln type desktop where there is no 'desktop' just icons to do stuff with.
Well see.. go ahead and moderate this down, may your penis fall off or your uterus fill up with yeast and drop out..... ewe that is so gross!!
Only 'flamers' flame!
Why would RMS berate a license that he judged to be free? Many people do not consider the GPL to be "free software", which is why they berate it. Good for them.
cough...bullshit...cough...
"i was saying gnu-rd"
when looking on their about page, they claim:
/. to verify that it's a hoax? I mean, MIT CS Labs has done some cool things, but a complete OS lightyears ahead of its time compatible across multiple hardware platforms and taking into account real world concerns like an office suite??? And in secret! And did I mention real world concerns in an academic lab? Like my subject says, I assumed it was a humor site, but now I'm just not sure. I'll be curious for a follow up from the slant-six people explaining what's up.
"Slant-Six magazine is a valiant attempt to revive the principles that guided the magazines of old: thoughtful writing, original content and high standards."
Which makes me wonder why they're posting a story that is so obviously a hoax. Really, how many people needed the MIT readers of
Why is it continually necessary to provide a GPL dig in every context, even where it's completely off-topic and irrelevant?
The same thing that makes it "necessary" for a moderator to call his post "redundant" when it is only (at worst) annoying (for the reasons you state).
That is, both moderators and posters are free to abuse their priviledges.
I survived the Dick Cheney Presidency 7 to 9 AM 7-21-07
It appears that timothy got hoaxed again. Would you like to:
* see him fired (finally)
* finally see him fired
* post an apology on the main page
* laugh in his face
* close this window
I searched google for "Advanced Operating Systems Group" and got 5 hits, none appearing to do with MIT. I also did a search for "Cesium OS" and found absolutely no relavent hits. I also searched deja.com (newsgroups). Nothing found.
Total Vaporware++
Well, if the hoax comments are true, it'll have to use the stable, third-party-developer friendly, fully documented interface from Microsoft.
You know, vaporware.
Website:MIT Laboratory for Computer Science
E-Mail:hdunkirk@mit.edu
Member since:10/29/2001 3:09:40 PM
void theoremProver(){
print "this product is correct"
}
who the hell at MIT would use a word like "overmodule"? That was enough evidence to suggest that this is a ridiculous and untimely hoax which will hopefully spell the end for Slant-Six (whatever the hell that is).
OK, what kind of academic research institute does research in *secret*? I think I have to go with others here in thinking that this is a hoax...
Why is it continually necessary to provide a GPL dig in every context, even where it's completely off-topic and irrelevant?
Because Richard Stallman believes in forced labor, which is slavery, and it is a positive duty to denounce slavers whenever possible.
No, RMS is not just opposed to copyrights. If copyrights were repealed, in fact, he'd have no way at all of promoting his agenda -- because the copyleft of the GPL would cease to force source code releases.
No, what RMS wants is not merely copyright-free software, but one where programmmers are compelled, by threat of government action, to take the extra effort to provide source code.
No, RMS is not in favor of choice. The Open Source advocates are in favor of choice, which is exactly why RMS disassociates himself from them. "Free Software" means you are "free" to conform to RMS's personal vision of how software should be distributed.
It may be a hoax, but somebody out there knows what your average person wants in an operating system...like documentation that's actually relevant to what you're having problems with?! Personally, I say if "cesium" ever sees the light of day, then it's goodbye linux!
Slashdot Editor in Chief Rob Malda announced that VA Linux was filing for bankruptcy. Apparently VA attempted to diversify into real estate to boost their financial outlook with little success. Little did they realize that there is no beachfront property in Wyoming, and the Brooklyn Bridge was not up for sale.
Editor Timothy Lord was not available for comment. He reported that he was still waiting for the wallet inspector to return his wallet.
THIS IS A COMPLETE CROCK.
The man doesn't exist
The department doesn't exist
The project doesn't exist
It's pretty sad that there are still new comments appearing talking about this system as a reality. In the last few days, we've had the completely wrong iPod slashback, now this. Come on editors AND readers, do a little research before posting. More readers should have caught the fake, and it shouldn't have been here in the first place.
My Karma is so good, I'm the Dalai Lama...or something.
Does this sound like the OS from Lain to anybody?
Don't Bogart the fish sticks
Look, as someone who likes slashdot and comes here several times a day i dont like to be seem as critical, but this story is an indication of whats happening on /.
A few minutes web work would have shown that this group doesnt exist, the person mentioned doesnt exist and the email address doesnt exist, thus this is a hoax which worked very well i would think.
The most depressing part of this is that is see posts with people arguing authoritatively about what is wrong with this OS etc etc when discussing an OS that doesnt exist ?
All im asking is that the editors actually check out stories they post before they do so - its a matter of respect for the people who come here.
NOTE - im posting this under my user name in the full awerness that someone brave and wise (enter sarcasm mode)will likely mark me down for being offtopic etc etc - but as this topic is a load of bull how can anything be off topic ?
I refuse to argue with Anonymous Cowards - if you want a discussion get an account....
Fact-checking? On slashdot? Surely, you jest! And timmy seems to be the best at just posting before he even looks at the link!
Working toward a usable PDA environment in the spirit of Newton OS: Dynapad
LOL - A posting member < 24 hours old - ROFLMAO!
HOAX
Top Most Bizarre/Disturbing Error Messages
For an OS to become mainstream (as the author of the article implies), it needs two things:
...).
1. Good support for x86 hardware (large variety of peripherals)
2. Applications (desktop, server), satisfying the needs of a large number of the users.
Without these - it's nothing but a niche OS.
It took Linux a good number of years to get passing grades for #1 and #2. It's true that the development for Cessium started a while ago, however nothing indicates that they've reached a critical mass
More than that, there is very little room in the market for a revolutionary OS. As a matter of fact revolutionary OSes were one of the easiest ways of wasting money in the last decade (e.g: OS/2, Plan9, BeOS
I do think it's a great research OS. Acceptance, however, is a totally different story
Raven
The Raven
I can just imagine the people at MIT 50 years into the invention of the book: Let's throw all our preconceptions out the window. Why does the writing have to be readable? How about a book made of water? This left to right restriction is a complete waste of time, text should be able to go any which way. Think about how much more information we provide if we get rid of spaces! This sounds like the typical mental masturbation fostered in galapagos-esque academic institutions. Usability is about creating simple rules that work and then sticking to them. Forcing every user to start from scratch may be interesting in the same way that the cultural revolution was of interest to Mao, but it has no place in real world computing.
No artist tolerates reality. -- Nietzsche
I can't wait....At the OS group that I work with (at an unnamed company), we are working on some of the same features. We in fact have the 3D down pat, so we are cool there, and we have a database file system in place too.
These advances in OS technology are going to be huge for the average computer user. No more fiddling with partitions and that sort of thing.
Bravo MIT....Bravo
PS. Timothy, you actually bought this shit, man you are one dumb fuck. And you wonder why slashpot has no credibility. All the hoaxes, all the time.
Even thought this is most likely a hoax, this OS should be built.
Either that or Linux should come to resemble it as close as possible.
Especially because of this tidbit at the bottom of the article:
"Editor's Note
Felix Abraham Truman, 10/29/2001 8:54:42 PM
Some of the comments posted about this article have led me to believe that it may be either inaccurate or blatantly false. If any of our readers from MIT can cast some light on this issue, I'd appreciate it. Thanks!"
What I find most interesting is that most of the hoax busters refer to the research they did by scouring the Net. Granted, it's a computer related project, but has the eye of the Net become so omnicient that we believe nothing exists outside the Wire?
"Hello, Navi"
Take a look at the Reiserfs white paper. It's anything but traditional.
Well, I agree with most people here that the lack of information directly from MIT is fishy. The author's invalid email address, no mention of the Advanced Operating Systems Group on the LCS site, or any mention of Cesium.... Strong hints of a possible hoax.
L CS-TR-626.pdf (warning- 95 page thesis in PDF)
But a closer look at LCS is rather interesting-
1. Work on exokernels. Doesn't seem groundbreaking giving Java's history, but fits the description for Cesium's platform module. Nice slide show in the documentation. http://www.pdos.lcs.mit.edu/exo/
2. Work on OODBMS. Applicable to Cesium's storage module. Apparently named Thor, which is mentioned as a module in the exokernel work noted above. http://www.lcs.mit.edu/publications/pubs/pdf/MIT-
This is just what I managed to turn up quickly that could be applied to Cesium in the manner the article described. Is Cesium real? I don't know, maybe some student got wild ideas after hearing snatches of project reports in a meeting or something, but it looks more real after searching the site. Take a look before you judge.
I think the hackers at MIT have just perpetrated a new hack... but this time it is on the slashdot community! Funny nonetheless...
Cesium... must be an OS that locks up all the time.
-S
--- What parts of "shall make no law", "shall not be infringed", and "shall not be violated" don't you understand?
It's just like Apple to kill a good idea and I dare say, if they had ever had any brains, our web browsers would today all be using NewtonScript instead of JavaScript.
Newton: another product killed by corporate incompetence.
"The Presentation overmodule works with the Platform overmodule to give programs access to a powerful and platform-independent visual interface that can present the output of programs as anything from terminal text to a 3-dimensional Hollywood-style GUI called "Tripwire" (which does shadows, transparencies, textures and light rendering better than most video game engines) depending on what the user chooses to see and what the hardware can handle."
Tripwire!? It was so revolutionary and new that they had to name it after an existing, well known security tool?
This has got to be completely made up.
120 characters isn't enough to explain it.
I think we can all be sure that this is a hoax. But so what. This cesium actually sounds like a good operating system idea. I think it's the responsibility of MIT to start developing it. :)
.
A rabbit in the hand is worth 4 in the cage
"This article doesn't address licensing, except to say that it "is due to be released by the end of the year for free," so it will be interesting to see just what "free" means here."
Hopefully MIT learned from Microsoft's "embrace and extend proprietarily" approach to kerberos, and will release it under a license that keeps Microsoft from doing so again. On that note, anyone who is involved in the politics that play on MIT's dean and directors should keep an eye out for the handiwork of the devil, ie Microsoft sending in the clowns to stop them from releasing software under a "proprietary" license.
Maybe the first clue that this story is a hoax is that the only reference is some sort of campy obscure web page? Like, MIT releases cutting edge OS and gives these guys the scoop? Yeah, I'm sure that many advanced CS researchers seek the academic prestige of being mentioned on slant six.
Looks false,
Ed. note added at the end of the article, plus his user profile was created today. Unlikely.
Anyway, never heard of it b4. You guys?
One of the things I am most looking forward to in using Cesium, is the 3D GUI Tripwire. Just think of the things you could do with that! No more being restricted to a 2D desktop, it can be just like my RL desk, where It has surfaces at a dozen or so levels, so my pen, pad, monitor, mouse mat and mouse can all be on a different plane. It makes working so much easier.
Does anyone have the download address for CesiumOS>
Here is the screenshot you all are looking for:
Cesium 2.12 Screenshot
pronoblem
1. This operating system really is so ground breaking that MIT has been keeping it secret for 8 years?
2. MIT made the writer change the name of the operating system in his article? Change his own name? Change the name of the components?
peace
It's still a fascinating, damn good idea. I'm being honest when I've been thinking of a similar OS design, though I haven't ironed out particulars. Anyone care to make it a reality?
This is a "hack".
I read recently that ms coders are now working on the next version of windows, which is supposed to have a 3d gui. upon reading this, i was curious as to who had produced a 3d gui for them to steal. haha only serious, this article pops up. given ms's track record for stealing ideas, this seems likly to be next. =(
or, maybe, there are lots of 3d gui's around, and i am not up with the times *shrugs*
...then this will be a truly free and open OS, but it will also be obscure enough to draw off the "holier than thou" morons from the Linux camp, now that Linux is going commercial.
For those who are interested, the only hit for "Harvey Dunkirk" on google is at a Civil War veteran website
the first hit on "Cesium" in Google is: Songs of Cesium
on this page is a mention of Cesium Chloride... which (correct me if I'm wrong, I never did chemistry) I think is salt...
maybe we should take this article with a pinch of it...
the only software called Cesium that I could find is: clock and timing software for the Palm
Nice try. :)
look how long harvey's been with the site:
This page lists the current staff members of Slant-Six, ranked by how many articles they have published. (he's last #19)
Website: MIT Laboratory for Computer Science
E-Mail: hdunkirk@mit.edu
Member since: 10/29/2001 3:09:40 PM
i smell a troll
Microsoft hasn't tried to put MIT out of business.
Fact is, for people like me who read the score 4/5 comments, /. remains a pretty reliable news source, if you take those comments into account. This, as I've said, probably contributes to editor slacking, since they feel that fact-checking isn't necessary. However, there is a significant portion (majority?) of /.'s audience that does not read the comments. You can say, "This is their own fault," all you want, but some people just choose not to spend more time than is necessary to get a brief glimpse of the news. For these people, /. is spreading uncorrected misinformation, and it is doing a disservice to its readership.
I think that, if the editors don't want to spend the time to fact-check, they should at least post immediate update/corrections to the article, visible on the front page, when a glaring error has been made as in this case. That way, the people who don't read comments can at least be informed of mistakes.
The filesystem used in BeOS does much (all?) of what you propose. Each type of file (yes, mime-type, stored as an attribute) can have extra metadata added that can be indexed, searched, etc. Some (ie. size) are always there, others depend on the type of file (mail messages have From, subject, etc). The user can also add their own. People have already written programs to pull out info from MP3s etc. It does slow some operations down (creating and deleting for example) but you'd only notice when affecting the metadata for a lot of files at once. Deleting a big directory will take longer than, say, with Windows, but you don't need to wait for it to finish before you move on to other things.
Look at "Practical File System Design with the Be File System" by Dominic Giampaolo for the details and http://free.be.com/ to try it.
all human-readable text is assumed to be HTML or XML, instead of Notepad-style plain text, and formatting can be customized with cascading style sheets.
Chicken and egg problem that no real MIT OS guru would allow himself to be caught in. If every document is considered to already be HTML or XML by the OS, how do you create HTML or XML above the OS layer? Use a text editor? Ah, but all text is considered to be HTML or XML at the OS level.
Sorry guys. There are some really great ideas here, but the article is really just a troll. It's just an interesting wishlist of OS feature desires.
The next Slashdot story will be ready soon, but subscribers can beat the rush and slashdot the links early!
So these two Cesium atoms are walking down the street. Says the first Cesium atom, "oh my god! I think I'm missing an electron". Says the second, "are you sure?" Says the first, "I'm positive". HAHAHAHAHAHA :]
Unconfirmed rumors? Immature editors? Man, I thought I had accidently clicked my bookmark for The Register for a second there...
Well, it was a hoax. However, it seems quite a few of us saw features we like in this 'utopian operating system,' albiet features that would take ages to implement. Beyond being bullshit, this could be conceptual thinking in the right direction. Innovate. Conceptualize. Fool. Good times.
...or is it meant to succeed it? :)
Why all these comments about it being a hoax....is it so difficult to design an (futuristic) operating system whose specifications are known by all...the article..describe the specs of the the OS..not in details..but to gave an idea..i'm sure..MIT.or any university for that matter..if they were working on it for 8 years...should def be able to design such an OS...
you stupid FUCKHOLES@#@%$@!#$!
BITCH. You are a fucking copycat motherfucker. Goddamn moron.
When Mike Hock speaks...I stroke it till it spits.
So what time did you momos figure it out that it was a hoax? And why didn't you post your normal time with the update?
"UPDATE 11:00pm - yes it is a hoax"
Probably because you don't won't to look as stupid at the others that also swallowed it hook line and sinker.
(the subject explains it all)
What shit! This is supposed to be news and stuff that matters. A hoax is not what I come here for. I'm deleting /. from my bookmarks. Commander Taco: Cut off my account! I'm not coming back.
The 'editor' of S6 questions the validity.
Happy Halloween hoax?
Reiserfs does not use an RDBMS based filesystem.
.sun is new.
3D desktops are a novelty still. There have been projects long before 3dwm.org
An virtual machines were done a LONG time ago by IBM..
And the guys at MIT have done nothing; this is a hoax.
So this bogus article wasted 5 minutes of you dull day huh? Who cares! It was an INTERSTING read that made me want to know more. Who knows, maybe somebody will make the OS in spite...
Enough "content control" bitching! Move on.
Life is like pants... fit in or you don't fit in.
Step One: :P)
:P)
We wet out pants over it (I know I did
Step Two:
We realised it was a hoax
Step Three:
Are we going to do something about it?
This sounds very cool, the OODBMS for starters is cool, it saves so much wasted space; the practicalities of the 3dGUI are a bit suspect but
all the other details are good.
Personally, I think it would be good to wipe the slate clean and start from scratch every so often. It is about time that somebody created a new OS FROM SCRATCH. It would be a mammoth undertaking but in the end we would have something beautiful, the next generation of OS.
(If I don't stop in a minute I'll cream my pants again
Yep, it's a hoax. Fun! Tricks are neat!
Slashdot the bastards.
The beauty of slashdot, however, remains uncompromised. While it was a hoax, with so many /. eyes everywhere watching everything, it certainly was revealed to be so very quickly.
So, does it explode if you try to give the GUI an Aqua theme?
Nathan
NOTE - im posting this under my user name in the full awerness that someone brave and wise (enter sarcasm mode)will likely mark me down for being offtopic etc etc - but as this topic is a load of bull how can anything be off topic ?
I'm really tired of people talking about how they are taking a stand and will get moderated down by some coward. You aren't opposing the Slashdot majority view at all. People have wished for the editors to do basic journalism since Slashdot was created, and it's never happened. Your post is fairly redundant.
If I had mod points right now, though, I wouldn't moderate you down for being redundant. I rarely actually mod people down for that, though I tend to vote "unfair" in metamod when Insightful/Interesting/Informative are given to posts which state common views without adding anything new or relating very closely to the story (for example, most RIAA-related posts).
I would, however, moderate you down as "Troll" solely because of that damn moderation comment.. Get over your crusader dreams.
you just described BeFS, whch can have arbitary new metadata tagged on to any file/directory (like artist name, song name, song length, and stuff that doesnt exist normally on BeFS filesystem entities (node, date stuff, etc., are all the base/required file metadata)
a 3D GUI ala seen in Lain sitting on BeOS, with a fast VM (java, or whatever) would be a good catharsis for the ppl disappointed by this hoax =\
"I would say that 99 per cent of what my father has written about his own life is false." - L. Ron Hubbard Jr.
Isn't this a manifestation of that 'infocalypse' thing people have been going on about for so long? Y'know, where the only thing you do all day is read email, or story submissions. Everything comes so thick and fast that you can't devote the time required to do a perfect job, so you end up pissing off a larger and larger percentage of your readership and let more and more errors creep through...
/....
Just as the early mod system had to be extensively reworked and eventually dumped in the laps of the people causing the problems in the first place (to the chagrin of democracy fans everywhere), maybe this is less a lesson than a wake up call?
Or maybe just a bad week on
Anyone remember the movie Hackers? Just a quick ref...
Anyhow it seems as tho if one had a 3-D layout of their computer navigating would be similar to traversing the "real" world. Truely this might be the answer to right-brained computer users. A Left brainer can take the 'standard' gui and use it to the fullest extent as if they were given writen instructions to a new location... Where as a right-brainer type would fair much better off by having a map drawn, or being able to 'walk' around in a city.
Me thinks that the use of a non-traditional navigation device would be in order, something along the lines of a joystick (ideas anyone?), also this would be a great time to switch over to a new keyboard (I loved that pyramid shaped one).. You know, if you're gonna have to re-think the way a computer is used, might as well do it all at once. I'm interested to see how this turns out.
New acronym?: GIDBOS
Graphically Integrated Data Base Operating System
"It's the Law of the Universe, and I'm the sheriff." Slash-cott 2/10-2/17
Damn, this is the best damn story I have read on /. in a long time! One hell of an excellent troll, this guy should stand up and take full credit for this one. /. deserves it, this site is going to hell and everyone knows it. But the true beauty of the whole thing is watching the linux hordes cream their fucking pants over an imaginary OS that they know would kick the shit out of their own. The only thing that could have made this better is if somehow M$ could have been credited with developing the OS! Then upon learning that this was just a troll I bet the collective sigh of relief from the linux faithful could be heard around the world. Fucking beautiful, you troll mastah (whoever you are) have my gratitude and admiration for now and ever for showing this crowd what a bunch of fucks they really are...
This was also a very efficient hoax. "Harvey M. Dunkirk" has been a member of Slant-Six since "10/29/2001 3:09:40 PM." See: Slant-Six Information for Harvey M. Dunkirk. The Slashdot story was posted by Timothy on October 29, @06:58PM. Four hours from start to successful completion.
Only Women Bleed (Sex, Sharia remix)
If these bozos^H^H^H^H^H intellectuals were as smart as they claim to be they'd realize this is the 21st century and that the world needs better applications, not obscure OSs.
They ought to work on writing a decent text editor for linux.
Please mod me down as flamebait. I would like that a lot.
We may be seeing the rise of a giant.
Yeah, and we may also be seeing the rise of my dick up your ass.
wuttaretard....
Clearly that wasn't intended to be a pro-GPL and anti-MIT-license dig, but a comment wondering out loud whether this would be free in the free software way (regardless of which particular free software license) or "free" in the "source is available free of charge, but it's not free software" way that is becoming so common lately. Presumably the author was not aware of MIT's habit of using the MIT license for their software.
Which is what I mean when I say that the supporters of non-GPL free software licenses are a bit too defensive for their own good.
10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
I don't see how RMS has ever advocated forced labor. There is no forcing anywhere - you have a choice to labor or not. If you choose in your labors to use my code which I chose to license under the GPL, then you must follow my conditions. If these conditions are onerous or otherwise unacceptable to you, you are free to not use my code at all in your labors. There is no forcing, merely a quid pro quo offer of code in return for modifications.
10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
..doesn't it? think about it: db-style os, 3d or text gui, such and such....
:)
..time to rewrite linux from scratch?
cheers
-- There are two kind of sysadmins: Paranoids and Losers. (adapted from D. Bach)
The 'Cesium' idea contains a lot of buzzwords, but I can't see anything new and revolutionizing. It sounds like a number of ideas from AS/400 plus something from the world of web browsers. And I am sure that the entire thing could be built on top of any UNIX - a database filesystem etc etc. Yeah, why not?
This is a funny operating system.
1. NO directories or files, everything is hierarchical. So
how do you refer to a file? By listing the nodes from
the root?
2. All text files entered is either XML or HTML.
*LOL* Now they have to invent a way to make HTML
a procedural language so you can write programs with it.
3. Every file is automatically executed. *LOL* Shades
of MS Outlook express
4. You get detailed error messages. After getting the
same error twice it might just as well say Yadda yadda yadda.
All in all, a very funny article, but a tad too early for
April fool's Day.
Several years ago, a couple of people from SGI created a 3D "File System Navigator" for the IRIX O/S. It was used in the movie "Jurassic Park". Slightly dated appearance, but cool nonetheless.
You can find it at http://www.sgi.com/fun/freeware/3d_navigator.html
--Rupert.
....I guess that answers any question as to it's stability!
sigs are a waste of space
by Harvey M. Dunkirk
The guy who wrote it.
I made it up! Harvey M. Dunkirk, 10/30/2001 2:07:27 AM Thats right, I can't believe anyone fell for it. Muhahaha
his reply.
--- No, english is not my mother tongue.
Maybe I'm missing something here(*), but this hoax has only made it as far as Slashdot, and we all know how easy it is to fool them, so this is just lame.
Funny would be fooling an authoritative source like MSN or CNet ( OK, OK, jes kidding ).
(*) "But WHY is it funny?": Margot in "The Good Life", an old BBC sitcom.
At the bottom of the story on Slant Six there is a hit counter. When I first read the story it stated:
/.
This story has been read 71 times.
After the Slashdotting, I went back and just a few hours later the counter read:
This story has been read 20416 times.
Behold the power of
Why do users with IDs under 100,000 or over 700,000 usually have the most worthwhile comments?
As long as I can dual-boot it with FreeBSD on my x86 hardware, I'm ready to rock 'n roll.
Has anyone thought of the security problems not having files or folders has...
*oh this app is run by root let's check it out...reboots.....LI*
exploit root vunrebilties every where!
Save it for 4/1. And if you're going to waste people's time, at least make it funny.
"Be thankful you are not my student. You would not get a high grade for such a design
HTML for all text? 3d built into the subsystem? Virtual Machines and OODMBS?
Sounds to me like a beefy version of Java3d, which while not an OS, I've always thought should be the basis for one. Who doesn't want a natively multi threaded high security OS with the "metal" LaF and true object oriented design? Plus, by devoting all system reources to the VM, we might actually get Java that could respond on an older system...
Hey freaks: now you're ju
Lots of projects, grand in scope, have been kept secret for months, years, decades and then released.
Some of these things were truely fantastic. Some of them were also just things that helped out NASA and found commercial application.
Hell, there's an uber-secret project going down at CalTech that I've only heard rumors about for years. And only one article written about it.
Oh yea. Just because somethings has been released at version 1.0 doesn't mean that people should have access to it. It's simply stable enough to "use". I don't even want to see the operating system until its fully-functional or able to be dealt with.
Give them time. Has MIT ever given you a project that has disappointed?
--donabal
Safety First Day?
MIT LCS other "big" operating system? OS by committee that did everything and nothing well. Used by Honeywell. Was a negative inspiration for the bare-bones OS from Bell labs wil parody name UNIX.
Everything is false. Thanks for getting me excited, you just wasted a couple of minutes of my time.
It's the Taliban hoax.
It would be so awsome to get out of the RMS/FSF/(fanatic asshole of choice) GPL screaming bullshit and use a truly free OS without those bastards.
I just love Linux but the communism link is an unholy one I think.
In the original post from timothy you will see these words " Yep, it's a hoax. Fun! Tricks are neat!"
Seems like a lot of people do not read things to the end.
Someone on these groups made a posting about a "new" OS that blew Win95 out of the water - it was called Hamilton 95 (Ham95). The feature list was very interesting. The best part is that we told people they could ftp the whole thing from warez.dsnet.com, which was mapped to 127.0.0.1 back then. :)
--WH--
Ok, I get the joke. Now how soon before you developers at MIT whip up a real version? From the posts, everyone is just drooling for it.
WileECoyote (from ARS)
Yeppers, and they got a nifty pimp hat to go with it.
From slant-six:
"Yes, the Cesium thing turned out to be a hoax. Worse yet, it was a Slashdotted hoax, which means that 30,000 people watched us get pimped."
HA!
I have only one thing to say! Well actually I don't, I have several things to say, but, think Final Fantasy the Movie! The Trip Wire GUI could resemble the interfaces found in Final Fantasy the movie. With design like that to look forward to... hrm what can I say! Bring it on! Beyond the look of the interface, consider how flexible a 3D environment could be. We will no longer be restricted to windows that only resize, minimize, and close. We will no longer scroll just up and down, left and right! Imagine being able to scroll in and out, eliminating the need for multiple desktops! The ultimate concept behind a truly 3D interface will allow programers to do whatever they can imagine, and not be limited to what the OS has available in its limited API selection of windows, and boring mouse clickers. Essentially, if you want windows, you can have them. If you want text, you can have it too, and you can have the ability to dip your hand into the ocean, reach in for a sea shell, and pull a file out, only to open the file from an application that is in a glass bottle, all in the same environment, all at the same time. Crazy, but possible! 3D GUI's will allow for infinite interface abilities and could truly revolutionize the way we inter face with computers. The only thing that stinks is that I am hearing reports that the OS is a hoax and that MIT has no plans to release such an OS. So if they don't, maybe some one else will read these articles and save us with a similar concept!
So What? Wasn't Parrot (the Python / Perl merger)a hoax last year? IIRC, it went into alpha or beta recently.
How long before someone thinks this is cool and starts implementation?
Even Slant-Six has acknowledged it. Check their front page.
http://www.slant-six.org/default.asp
We're on the road to Tycho.
Where would such a groundbreaking project come from? Well uhhhhh MIT of course! Mit is just a no brainer choice. Had he said something random like Oklahoma U or Wisconsin or something, it may have sounded more believeable. MIT is just TOO obvious it sounds fake.
is cesium one of those metals that spontaneously burns in hot air ?
Or is the one you need in you bones so that your buns don t break when someone pulls the chair ?
Now, who wants to work on this OS for real? I suck at OS coding (as I haven't done ANY coding in 5 years), but I'll gladly be a beta-test space-monkey for you!