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!
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?
... 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.
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.
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'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.
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.
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....
Actually, I think a 3D GUI is a great idea. Consider your existing desktop as it is, but it is being rendered on a flat 3d, plane, exactly in front of you. If the 3d engine is written intelligently, this won't take a whole lot more resouces than you existing desktop does, because it is outputting the same thing to your monitor...the BEAUTY of this system however, is that a programmer has the ability to do incredible things with the GUI, because that 3d functionality is there, at such a low level...things like taking a window and zooming out to infinity on minimalize, or renering it partially transparent when it loses focus...the possibilities are limitless.
OF COURSE things like this would take resources, but you can bet that the MIT guys will think of this, and give you options to balance your GUI kewlness factor against your system resources, like any OS from Windows to Linux does.
-The art of programming is the pursuit of absolute simplicity.
What I really hate is when I'm writing some software, and working with something I've never used before, and the error message I get is "contact the software developer."
I'm left sitting there staring at the screen at 3 AM blankly thinking, "Heck, I *am* the software developer, and I have absolutely no idea what to do myself, much less if some helpless user contacted me..."
Oh well, at least I can't be in much closer contact with the developer...we're sitting in the same chair...:)