Re: [9fans] novel userspace paradigms introduced by plan 9

[dexen deVries <dexen.devries@gmail.com>]

On Saturday 02 July 2011 20:23:02 Eli Cohen wrote:
> I have used gentoo extensively and plan9 for a few years now as well, and
> this concept of "namespaces" for processes is a confusing but interesting
> concept.

linux'c `clone()' syscall (the underpinnings of fork()) actually do accept
CLONE_NEWNS, CLONE_NEWNET, CLONE_VM and other flags, pretty close to p9's.
there's also chroot() that moves an inch into the right direction.

however, due to security reasons (the SUID bit comes to mind, but must be
other ones too), all that -- and mount() and mount(MS_BIND, ...) -- are
restricted to superuser only; what a shame


maybe it is be possible to create a SUID-less Linux distro, based on factotum
perhaps, that'd allow everybody access to those syscalls and options.



> One major difference is X11.  In plan9, the system handles the graphics
> more directly.

afaik, x11 is considered an afterthought, bolted onto POSIX systems, and thus
not integrated all that well. you can take a `screenshot' of textual console
with the `cat' command, FWIW.



--
dexen deVries

> (...) I never use more than 800Mb of RAM. I am running Linux,
> a browser and a terminal.
rjbond3rd in http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2692529