From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Message-ID: <13426df10612121401s54d5b817p1f0084006cda34f6@mail.gmail.com> Date: Tue, 12 Dec 2006 15:01:22 -0700 From: "ron minnich" To: "Fans of the OS Plan 9 from Bell Labs" <9fans@cse.psu.edu> Subject: Re: Again: (self)hosted Plan9? Was: [9fans] extending xen to allow In-Reply-To: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Disposition: inline References: <818c01eca2880742b4a56e87bc863a99@terzarima.net> <775b8d190612120141g743ddbe2h667cf59d1864b3cd@mail.gmail.com> <13426df10612120655t3016de18oc79feaf62860ee8f@mail.gmail.com> Topicbox-Message-UUID: f2f3e054-ead1-11e9-9d60-3106f5b1d025 On 12/12/06, Eric Van Hensbergen wrote: > It'd be sweet to have something I could power off of USB 2.0 or > battery, with a hard drive and wireless (and maybe a serial port for > jmk). yeah, this was one of the ideas that came up before we started on Xen again, but Aki and Andrey and Lucho beat me up on this idea. It came down to the EC on one side, and me on the other, and that ended it. I suggested running linux on a little 1-5W board, and using it to run the linux apps, using a root mount from Plan 9. So Linux is this dumb little headless box you only turn on when you want, and otherwise you tell it to go away by yanking its power cord, verily. They thought the idea, uh, lacked merit. (I think they said it sucked, but am not sure). I think one reason the idea may really suck is that Firefox (the "thin client") requires a 200 MB footprint, which translates to gobs of Watts. Figures. Web 2.0! [[BTW, anybody but me enjoying the idea of taking an opteron out of socket and replacing with ... an ... XML ... accelerator?]] But I still like the 'stupid little linux CPU' idea. I want a backpack full of little computers that spin up on demand. And don't weigh much. and take no power. And have no moving parts. And generate no heat. And use a fusion reactor for power. And, to reduce weight, have antigravity pods. I guess I'll go visit Area 52 this weekend (Area 51 is always behind schedule and over budget). ron