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EasyOS: An experimental Linux distribution designed from scratch for containers

easyos.org

31–40 of 94 posts

Re: EasyOS: An experimental Linux distribution designed from scratch for containers

#31
post #17

If EasyOS is specifically for containers, I do not see a container image at the LXC/LXD repository at https://us.images.linuxcontainers.org/ Even Kali Linux has a container image at https://us.images.linuxcontainers.org/ edit: If anyone at EasyOS wants to add a container image, see as an example the PR for Kali, https://github.com/lxc/distrobuilder/pull/179

it's because EasyOS runs containers, it's the host. Did you read the post ?

Asking if the person read the post adds nothing to your comment and is against HN guidelines.

Re: EasyOS: An experimental Linux distribution designed from scratch for containers

#33
post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The project is running at least since 2017. Maybe it was less « yet another containerization system » at that time?

Yet the design of the website reminds me of the 90's

They had me after 90s web design

Re: EasyOS: An experimental Linux distribution designed from scratch for containers

#34
post #21

> Run as root. This is controversial, however, it is just a different philosophy. The user runs as administrator (root), apps may optionally run as user 'spot' or in containers as a "crippled root" or user 'zeus'. The practical outcome is that you never have to type "sudo" or "su" to run anything, nor get hung up with file permissions. Yeah, no thanks.

Quite, it's ridiculous. You have individual account for individual people. Use sudo if you need to elevate permissions - that gets fired over to your syslog server, so if you screw up you know what you did. If someone else screws up, you can see who it was and either fix it, or contact them to find out what they were trying to do (likely both)

Based on the language ("the user") and the focus on the GUI, I think this OS is designed more for single-user workstations, rather than multi-user servers. This philosophy of "root by default" is also implemented by Puppy Linux, which was created by the same person.

Re: EasyOS: An experimental Linux distribution designed from scratch for containers

#35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But also more lightweight, since it doesn't have to run a kernel for each application.

Running regular processes is even "more lightweight".

A containerized process is a regular process, which just happens to be in a different namespace from the init process.

Re: EasyOS: An experimental Linux distribution designed from scratch for containers

#36

TBH, it doesn't look "easy" at all. Plus, why re-inventing the wheel and create yet another containerization system?

I could be misunderstanding, but isn't this actually just a new OS for use in any containerization system, rather than a containerization system itself? This seems more in line with Alpine Linux or Google's Distroless images than something like a new docker

Re: EasyOS: An experimental Linux distribution designed from scratch for containers

#37
post #14
post #7

If everything is a container, does that mean processes have failed?

I’d personally say that the concept of users and user groups have failed, at least on systems that have only one user.

This is what I'd agree with. The concept of user and group are hand-me-downs from systems built for sharing networked resources and pretty much requires some kind of centralized AAA to make any sense. They're a model designed for protecting the system from users and users from eachother, but that doesn't make any sense on a personal computer where the more pressing need is to protect the user from malicious applications.

Re: EasyOS: An experimental Linux distribution designed from scratch for containers

#38
post #14
post #7

If everything is a container, does that mean processes have failed?

I’d personally say that the concept of users and user groups have failed, at least on systems that have only one user.

And resource sharing these days for SaaS and PaaS either occurs on the hypervisor level or the application level — the (usually Linux) OS is seen as a liability and necessary dependency for the application rather than a secure environment.

Also, current isolation technologies on desktop tend to be a lot less secure than mobile. If you assume Fuchsia, Android, iOS to be the next generation of OSes, then the trend is definitely to "secure by default". Whitelisting permissions instead of everything being allowed out of the box. Even the current generation of Linux containers is more of a bunch of resource management hacks, compared to e.g. hypervisor sandboxing or to a lesser extent, BSD jails.

Re: EasyOS: An experimental Linux distribution designed from scratch for containers

#39
After spending a scant few minutes looking at it, here are the things I like about this project so far:

- It has a "How and why are we different" page. In the age of "I made a meta package on top of Ubuntu and called it a new OS", it's refreshing to see a Linux distribution come right out and say "here's what we do that separates us from the other 700".

- It actually is different. Recognizing the nigh-uselessness of separate user accounts (for personal computers), embracing of simple GUI tools over terminal wankery, eschewing of the legacy UNIX file hierarchy.

- They use the ROX filer, the only file manager for Linux with AppDir support and the centerpiece of the unfortunately long-defunct ROX Desktop.

I'm anxious to find out more.

Re: EasyOS: An experimental Linux distribution designed from scratch for containers

#40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Quite, it's ridiculous. You have individual account for individual people. Use sudo if you need to elevate permissions - that gets fired over to your syslog server, so if you screw up you know what you did. If someone else screws up, you can see who it was and either fix it, or contact them to find out what they were trying to do (likely both)

Based on the language ("the user") and the focus on the GUI, I think this OS is designed more for single-user workstations, rather than multi-user servers. This philosophy of "root by default" is also implemented by Puppy Linux, which was created by the same person.

But what would be the benefit of containers on a single-user workstation?
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