Linked by Joshua Boyles on Mon 9th Jun 2003 16:45 UTC
This entire article is written as a proposal to a coprporation for a new, very unique computing system. Please offer criticism and suggestions to improve the system, and tell me whether you think it could work. What exactly is the "Edge Computing System" And more importantly, why would I want to go to the trouble of developing it? The Edge Computing System is just that, an entire system, not just a new type of computer or new software suite. The Edge is the means by which you can have your personal computer with you at all times.
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Let's start from the beginning. Your "data is the computer" model is interesting, but how does it vary from the portable hard drives available today? For one, the entire OS is on the portable for consistency's sake. But remember, the station should have local driver space, so that hardware expansion doesn't require a full OS upgrade for every OS out there. So now you are mingling userOS and stationOS, an interesting idea.
User data is stored on the hardware, and the hardware is physically carried with the user. As it sounds, you are describing a PDA, HDD MP3 player, flash drive, or any of a number of types of devices. Furthermore, you are describing a piece of hardware that can store less than 5 GB of data. I have more personal photographs than that, let alone music tracks, video files, old papers, scans of magazines, etc. This is not an acceptable amount: put it on either a portable or a microdrive, or nobody will want it. A backup station should be cheap enough to implement, and necessary for any device that is carried in the user's pocket at all times. Do you think nobody loses their cellphone?
You're making an inherintly single-user, single station OS from the ground up and you're starting with Linux / X? If you want it to be easy to use with clean programs you need to dump Linux. It's a great server OS and a decent multiuser desktop OS, but as far too overengineered to be a top-notch singleuser OS. Align with a Be group, the Amiga group, or design your own OS. But no more jimmying Linux into every corner imaginable just because it can be done.
To Summarize
What your describing is a portable storage system, that contains Data, Programs, and OS. Many current programs can already be installed on removable HDD's (and many more could be modified to, if the Programmers believed in that kind of thing). So all you are adding is a user-controlled OS. Somehow, that's just not compelling.
The problem in slinging data around OS's is compatibility. The problem with creating a radical new hardware standard is... compability. Good luck Sissyphus.
I see two better routes. Route 1: push Motherboard makers to allow booting from the USB port. Exactly what you want, achieved instantly with Knoppix and a cheap Matrox drive. Route 2: Bios and TCP/IP based remote HDD mounting, with local RAM caching. Universally accessable, and will be done about the same time the Telcos finish laying out last-mile fiber.
Your route: Lots of effort, little payoff.