From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Date: Thu, 27 Jul 2000 11:05:30 -0700 Message-Id: <200007271805.LAA08110@ohio.river.org> From: Richard Uhtenwoldt To: 9fans@cse.psu.edu Subject: [9fans] Progeny Linux's Linux NOW Topicbox-Message-UUID: ebdba490-eac8-11e9-9e20-41e7f4b1d025 a startup called ProgenyLinux.com plans to add to Linux per-process namespaces and a network filesystem partially inspired by Plan 9, resulting in a product tentatively called Linux NOW where "NOW" stands for "network or workstations". I attach an abridged version of Ian Murdoch's description of the plans followed by some hints on how well financed ProgenyLinux.com is. on a related note, on June 12 Scott Schwartz wrote, "I don't know the precise status of this, but linux developers are working on adding 9p to their system." is Linux NOW what Scott was thinking of? if not, I'd appreciate more info. this next comes from http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/07/27/1526236 Linux NOW makes a network look like a single system to simplify the task of managing the network, sharing resources on the network, making the network secure, providing a consistent environment to users. Linux NOW is about building a good abstraction, about simplifying, about reducing big problems to smaller, more approachable problems. We are writing a new file system. Many of the features that we need have been implemented in one file system or another, but there is no one file system that does all we need in one package. The file system that we're writing is largely influenced by the Sprite file system (http://HTTP.CS.Berkeley.EDU/Research/Projects/sprite/sprite.html), but we're integrating in various bits and pieces from other file systems where that makes sense. For example, Sprite was written ten years ago, and these days, networks are no longer static things, they contain laptops and mobile devices that come and go, and those mobile devices should be equal members of the network of workstations. So, we're looking very closely at projects like Coda and InterMezzo that provide support for mobile computing and disconnected operation, and borrowing ideas and code from those where that makes sense. We are also looking at cluster file systems, like GFS, and other network operating systems, particularly Plan 9. If you could take 2 features from two other operating systems and add them to *nix what would they be? Ian: The first feature I would add to Unix is a good distributed file system. Unix has been lacking in this department for a long time. This is really unfortunate, because the file system is such a central abstraction in Unix, arguably *the* central abstraction in Unix. In Unix, if you can get the file system right, solutions to a remarkable number of very difficult problems just fall out, so the lack of a good distributed file system has really been the central thing that has made networks of workstations so hard to manage and use. The most important thing that a file system does is provide a name space, a high-level view of data storage. In spite of this, this is exactly where most network file systems for Unix fall short. Network file systems for Unix tend to be designed to share private name spaces, rather than to build common, network-oriented, network-wide name spaces. Look at the current state of affairs in Unix. Each machine on the network has its own disk and its own private name space built above it. Unix gives us NFS and AFS and other file systems to share name spaces, but the end result is that all these machines still have their own disks and their own name spaces built above them. Resources are scattered all over the network, and you end up with this crazy quilt of name spaces stitched together in haphazard ways. Some of the name spaces are shared, some aren't, and some parts of the private name spaces need to be shared but can't be shared easily. So, you end up with all sorts of problems, like how do you keep configuration consistent, how do you provide a consistent environment to users, how do you keep software up to date, and things get very complicated in a hurry. In terms of what other operating systems have done with file systems, Sprite got the name space issue right. Sprite provided a single system image across a cluster of machines, including a single file system image; so, although there may be many computers and thus many disks in the network, there is one file system shared by all of them. Unix needs a file system that builds a network-wide name space, and provides high performance, high availability, good security, support for mobile computing, and other things too. The second feature I would add to Unix are the per-process name spaces of Plan 9. That is just an incredibly good idea. Although they are different in many ways, Plan 9 is like Sprite in that it builds a single system image across a network of machines, and there is one file system providing access to a global set of resources, just as there is in Sprite. The difference is that, in Plan 9, machines, users, and even processes can build their own local view of this global name space, rather than sharing one common view. This is a very powerful mechanism because you don't always want to see the same name space. For example, how do you deal with heterogeneity in a network of workstations? How do you deal with different classes of machines or users with varying access rights to the network's resources? Plan 9's per-process name spaces address these kinds of issues in a very elegant way. from a Progeny Linux press release: Indianapolis: July 10, 2000 - Progeny Linux Systems announces that it has completed its first round of financing. The new company has received seed capital through a private placement. Both Ian Murdock, president and CEO of Progeny, and Bruce Perens, Chairman of the Board of Directors, have served as Debian Project Leader and are involved in the Linux community. Other members of Progeny's staff are active Debian developers. Dr John H. Hartman, Chief Technical Officer, is an expert on computer operating and storage systems, and an Assistant Professor at the University of Arizona. Bern Galvin, Chief Financial Officer, has over twenty years of corporate financial experience, with expertise in viability analysis, organizational restructuring, due diligence, acquisitions, and corporate startups. Financing for Progeny was obtained with the help of the Linux Capital Group (www.linuxvc.com). Investors include a mixture of venture capitalists, investment bankers, angels, and the officers of several large publicly traded companies. Despite the volatility in the public markets, the financing was heavily oversubscribed. More details about Progeny's plans will be released in the next few months. For more information, contact info@progenylinux.com, or phone 1-317-833-0313. Progeny Linux System is an Open Source company. We are firmly committed to Open Source, open development, and the community of developers and users that makes our business possible.