
Renraku OS: Initial Release - daeken
http://daeken.com/renraku-os-initial-release
======
sgrove
It's always cool to see various OS-projects and new kernel designs. It serves
to remind me that even the most basic parts of the stack we take for granted
can still be shaken up. So congrats to Daeken for getting this far.

That said, what are the big points that drove you spend so much effort on this
project? What did you think would be unique in your offering?

~~~
daeken
Thanks for the kind words, it's greatly appreciated.

Renraku is really motivated by two things: 1) I believe that by going to pure
managed code and getting rid of address space separation, we'll see great
increases in performance, and compiler technology is getting better by the
day. 2) Existing OSes simply aren't built for the world we're in now. With
everything interconnected, OSes that make it hard for computers to interact
are simply holding back progress.

Renraku aims to change the landscape by leaving unmanaged code completely
behind, making everything in the OS an object, and making all objects network
transparent. The goal is to make it easy to develop for, easy to use, and
incredibly fast. I believe we can do it, even if it does take us years (and it
will).

~~~
jules
How does managed code & one address space improve performance? I can see that
system calls will get cheaper, but is that a performance bottleneck? Or are
there other improvements?

~~~
eggnet
Take a look at this
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Translation_lookaside_buffer>

Basically when you switch between processes you have to update this. In 64 bit
and some 32 bit operating systems you don't need to update the TLB to make
system calls, the kernel shares address space with whatever process is
running.

With a single process running I don't think the overhead is anything to
concern yourself with, but if you have a lot of processes running I think it
can measurably affect performance.

------
nihilocrat
Since the link gives you no clue what Renraku is, here is a helpful article:
<http://daeken-eulogy.livejournal.com/23173.html>

As an aside, the whole "everything is an object" model makes me think of Zope.
It's apples and oranges (web framework vs. OS) but I don't think the object
model really helps Zope, and in my experience had made things needlessly
confusing, and I've never used any of the extra power of the OO model.

------
ghempton
Any particular reason that you chose the CDDL instead of a more compatible
license like the GPL or, even better, MIT?

~~~
daeken
Not going to get into a big license debate while on my Kindle,but simply put I
beleive the CDDL preserves the rights I want better than any other license.

------
Raphael_Amiard
Funny nobody mentionned Singularity :
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singularity_%28operating_system...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singularity_%28operating_system%29)

A microsoft research project that reminds me a lot of yours

Kudos for all the hard work by the way. Your project is highly interresting

------
steveklabnik
Congratulations! It's always good to see that other people's OSes are going
well.

------
NonEUCitizen
how is this similar to / different from:

<http://www.gocosmos.org/index.en.aspx>

?

~~~
daeken
Cosmos has focused more on building little pieces of an OS than on trying to
build a real OS with a solid set of goals. This approach isn't better or
worse, but very different than ours. In addition, Cosmos is built using C#,
which I find far slower to work with than Boo.

~~~
utku_karatas
And any particular reason choosing Boo over IronPython?

~~~
daeken
I like IPy, but it uses too much reflection for it to be used for this. In
addition, Boo's macros make life easier.

~~~
omouse
How do those macros make life easier? From a look at the example code, it
looks like they're hell to write! :(

