Apparently, the Linux boot is slow, but the 'possibilities are endless.'

Ersei, the developer behind this so-called Cloud Native Computer, says the project was primarily a “silly” pursuit. There is also a problem with booting from Google Drive currently being very slow. However, the dev also boasts that “the possibilities are endless” and would welcome any companies or individuals who wish to get in contact and discuss commercializing this project or something related to it.

  • seaQueue@lemmy.worldEnglish
    1072·
    6 months ago

    So it’s a thin client remote booting extremely slowly over a really high latency connection. Cool, the 1980s called and they want their tech back.

    • R00bot@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
      281·
      6 months ago

      This is different (and far less practical than Apple’s approach). This one doesn’t download the OS and store it, it pulls the files from Google drive every time they’re accessed, so it’s incredibly slow by comparison, but is technically running from the cloud. The Apple one downloads everything it needs and stores it, then pulls from that local copy.

      • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        81·
        6 months ago

        So it’s like PXE booting without a permanent local disk. If you have enough RAM, that’s probably fine.

        Or is it only downloading the kernel and loading literally everything else over the net with no RAM cache? If so, that’s terrifying.

        • cley_faye@lemmy.worldEnglish
          5·
          6 months ago

          I’d argue it’s a bit worse than PXE booting, since they talk about having the actual bootloader on a USB stick, whereas the same thing could have been done by having the boot process remote too.

        • R00bot@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
          2·
          6 months ago

          Yeah I believe it’s loading everything over the net. I haven’t looked super closely into it. I’m not sure what, if any, practical applications there are for this. Seems like it’s just a fun impractical project. I’m here for it. But you’re right about it being terrifying lol.

        • R00bot@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
          32·
          6 months ago

          I was also adding to the discussion. You commented something it reminded you of, I commented the difference between the two. This may be an important point for those who are not familiar with either of these technologies.

        • SchmidtGenetics@lemmy.worldEnglish
          16·
          6 months ago

          Yeah apparently adding to the discussion is frowned upon here, my comment chain got derailed by a “joke” because I tried to differentiate between the cloud and a PC to have a discussion….

    • Kairos@lemmy.todayEnglish
      24·
      6 months ago

      That’s not booting from the net that’s downloading an image and keeping it in RAM without sending any changed data back to the cloud, or needing to fetch anything once the image is downloaded.

  • regrub@lemmy.worldEnglish
    302·
    6 months ago

    Interesting experiment, but I’d rather have a personal machine that isnt completely useless when/if the internet goes out. Also would be nice not to depend on a centralized service that could easily revoke access.

    Seems like it’s better suited for company work computers.

    • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      4·
      6 months ago

      I set up a PXE image for the Arch installer and scripted the whole installation. The idea was to switch the boot order and have it auto-reimage, such as for a IOT device deploy.

      Once I built it, I never used it again. But it was a fun afternoon.

        • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
          2·
          6 months ago

          Maybe in larger orgs. I’m guessing it’s also used in public computers like in city and university libraries, as well as quick imaging of corporate computers at larger companies.

          • catloaf@lemm.eeEnglish
            3·
            6 months ago

            Yup. At work, we have a contractual requirement to replace certain PCs within a certain time frame. (Don’t ask, it’s stupid.) And we’ve got a lot of them. So we’ve got the Windows imaging process scripted to be very low-touch. (It also makes it much easier when someone leaves or has a really fucked up PC. Give them a new one, restore their data, reimage the old.)

      • Glowstick@lemmy.worldEnglish
        133·
        6 months ago

        Yeah, but it then goes on saying

        “However, the dev also boasts that “the possibilities are endless” and would welcome any companies or individuals who wish to get in contact and discuss commercializing this project or something related to it.”

        And that’s what I’m saying “y tho” to.

        • deranger@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
          10·
          6 months ago

          I mean, shit. If I did something stupid for fun and some idiot business major wants to pay me for an implementation, regardless of how useful It actually is, I’m not turning it down.

  • argh_another_username@lemmy.caEnglish
    1·
    6 months ago

    One of my duties in my first job was to build diskless computers. I’d record an EPROM in the station and boot from a Novell server.