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Urbit

urbit.org

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Re: Urbit

#61

Post by melloclello »

SrslyJosh wrote: post #32
ShamelessC wrote: post #24

I found the descriptions to be far too abstract and mysterious. I guess it gives the project a sort of cool hacker vibe, but I really just want a few screenshots of the interface of the actual OS. As it stands, I have no clue whether it's an actual operating system like Windows/Linux/MacOS or if it just vaguely fits the definition of an OS. I've seen in other comments here that it's both an "Overlay OS" and a VM that…

The project is exclusionary by design--instead of using an existing programming language or even keywords/terminology from an existing human language, the creator decided to make everything up, right down to new names for existing symbols. F'r example: gar > hax # hep - kel { sel [ ser ] sig ~ soq ' Have to agree about the screenshots--if there's something useful here, why not show it off?

Ted Blackman (one of the Urbit developers) recently posted a puzzle on Twitter, asking people to describe what a piece of code (written in this phonetic representation) does. [1]

I was delighted to find that I still remembered the phonetic names after first reading of them back in 2013, though I got the exact result wrong.

[1] https://twitter.com/rovnys/status/1199958608483684352

Re: Urbit

#62

Post by p1esk »

belisarius222 wrote: post #36
zamadatix wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Operating function" is just more abstract woo. My description says what it was made to do not how it is supposed to make you feel or the fancy terms people have come up with to describe how it goes about making you feel that way. Is it not "peer to peer network via blockchain focused on social communication."? If so feel free to explain why and what the website means when it talked about each of those things. If it'…

Urbit only uses a blockchain as a ledger of who owns which addresses within the network and root DNS for peer discovery. The OS itself runs as a VM on your machine (either a Linux or MacOS host, for now), and that is the only place your data lives. Urbit does implement a peer-to-peer encrypted, authenticated network among these VMs. It's not solely socially focused, though. It's also intended to be your personal arch…

The best way to describe it is to tell us why we would want to use it. Also, don't say "it's a computer". It's not. A computer is what I'm typing this on - a piece of hardware.

So - why would I want to use Urbit? Which problems does it solve? How will it make my life easier? Does it have any features that will make me say "wow, this is so cool!"

Re: Urbit

#63

Post by Rainymood »

Is this some kind of over-the-top joke that I'm not in on? I've browsed and read but honestly still can't understand what Urbit is. When I saw the picture of the stone with the thing on top I thought I was finally "in" on the joke, but they seem to continue on.

Re: Urbit

#64

Post by _rkz1 »

I heard of Urbit a while back and still cannot for the life of me figure out what it does or what it's for.

The comments here are helping me figure out how it works, but it still leaves me with the question of what can I do with it that I can't accomplish with my good ol' OS or internet or (whatever the closest conventional analogue for Urbit is).

Re: Urbit

#65

Post by Apocryphon »

ttul wrote: post #60
mushufasa wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

yes, wikipedia says he left. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urbit seems like the whole project has been mired in controversy because of the alt-right / anti-egalitarian political views of the founder https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curtis_Yarvin if urbit got $1.2m seed from thiel in 2013 (listed on wikipedia), they should be out of that money by now even if they had stretched it.

Yarvin sounds like a loon.

Or, at least, a hoon.

Re: Urbit

#66

Post by _rkz1 »

pjior wrote: post #27

There are users in this thread that aren't fully disclosing that they work for Urbit, despite commenting about the software from a third-party perspective. Just a heads up.

It would be a great opportunity for them to explain what it is, at least.

Re: Urbit

#67

Post by Thorrez »

tptacek wrote: post #56
icebraining wrote: post #39

This post is still the best thing I read about Urbit: https://www.popehat.com/2013/12/06/nock-hoon-etc-for-non-vul... (note: I haven't actually that much on Urbit)

I don’t know whether this matters, and I guess it probably doesn’t, but he was kicked off the Popehat blog not long after writing this, for virulent (and, since then, increasingly theatrical) racism.

Was the racism on Popehat or elsewhere?

The departure announcement post[1] seems at least somewhat amicable, since it contains an advertisement for Clark's new website.

[1] https://www.popehat.com/2015/12/30/i-cant-see-what-my-future...

Re: Urbit

#68

Post by belisarius222 »

sneak wrote: post #12
bronzejaguar wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Founder isn’t associated with project anymore. Worth taking another look

It says he quit; it does not say he doesn’t still have equity.

from the FAQ: "In early 2019, Curtis left the Urbit project and gave all of his voting interest (both as address space and voting shares in the company) back to Tlon. He retains a non-voting, minority interest in both the address space and the company — but is not involved in the day-to-day development or operations."

Re: Urbit

#69

Post by cjbprime »

tptacek wrote: post #56
icebraining wrote: post #39

This post is still the best thing I read about Urbit: https://www.popehat.com/2013/12/06/nock-hoon-etc-for-non-vul... (note: I haven't actually that much on Urbit)

I don’t know whether this matters, and I guess it probably doesn’t, but he was kicked off the Popehat blog not long after writing this, for virulent (and, since then, increasingly theatrical) racism.

> he was kicked off

At first I thought you were talking about Yarvin himself. It's a bad sign when someone left a project due to their virulent racism and you have to be like "wait, which one of the two people related to this story who did that are we talking about?".

Re: Urbit

#70

Post by sdan »

weare138 wrote: post #50
bronzejaguar wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s an overlay OS, a VM made to allow anyone to run their own server easily

Well that begs the obvious question, what the hell is an "overlay OS"? It's not an industry standard term and doesn't explain anything.

+1

Is it like a visual VM?

Or is it like some docker container I can open up a shell for?

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