Japan tried to build an operating system for the world, the US intervened • Hacker News Board

Re: Japan tried to build an operating system for the world, the US intervened

#131

Post by ben_w » Fri, Aug 21, 2026, 11:58 AM UTC

Lumich wrote: post #117

pjc50 wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "sensible" According to what idea of "sensible"? > encourage a Ukrainian surrender early on and send them some food/whatnot in a care package, then fortify the Polish border. This would still have resulted in millions of refugees, plus some unknown number of people killed by Russian forces exterminating any local pro-Europe political supporters. Remember Euromaidan. It also snuffs out a democracy, which is not a go…

« Russia can retreat into their internationally recognized borders at any time. » The US has around 900 military bases abroad. Far more than all other countries combined. These bases are a constant source of threats and bullying, deploying and projecting a GDP largely based on death and destruction. Why don't the US retreat into their internationally recognized borders?

> Why don't the US retreat into their internationally recognized borders?

Mostly they were allowed there by the government of the place.

They are criticised for the exceptions.

> GDP largely based on death and destruction

For all the flaws of the USA, this is not really what their GDP is "based on", though perhaps one could say that functionally they hide conscription by giving many unemployed men a Hobson's choice of signing up vs. going hungry.

Re: Japan tried to build an operating system for the world, the US intervened

#132

Post by bell-cot » Fri, Aug 21, 2026, 11:59 AM UTC

ColdStream wrote: post #2

I think it is like most software, especially in the OS space. The technology doesn't have to be the best, it just needs to get lucky enough to become a standard and build a moat with that. And by the mid 80's the moats were already very deep. Amiga couldn't over come the PC. IBM couldn't over come the moat of Windows with OS2. Intel couldn't overcome x86 with the i432 or Itanium. Luck and market forces from said luck…

I don't know Amiga well, but IBM's OS/2 efforts were plagued by several Big Blue Blunders. And both the i432 and Itanium were sounded-great ideas - for which Intel could not ship even expensive and mediocre-performance hardware in any reasonable time.

Re: Japan tried to build an operating system for the world, the US intervened

#133

Post by a-french-anon » Fri, Aug 21, 2026, 12:05 PM UTC

haunter wrote: post #9

TRON wasn’t just an OS but a whole integrated system, it was meant to be used with different parts working together. There was a whole TRON house tech demo built in Tokyo back in 1989 https://youtu.be/7jPKEyM44GU If you want to try here is the BTRON 4.5 media, should work in modern VMs https://archive.org/details/chokanji https://youtu.be/yYfoCe6q28A https://social.tchncs.de/@nina_kali_nina@tech.lgbt/111885034...

> You can video-conference while pooping without touching a switch

｢ＴＨＥＦＵＴＵＲＥ｣

Re: Japan tried to build an operating system for the world, the US intervened

#134

Post by ben_w » Fri, Aug 21, 2026, 12:06 PM UTC

roenxi wrote: post #101

pjc50 wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "sensible" According to what idea of "sensible"? > encourage a Ukrainian surrender early on and send them some food/whatnot in a care package, then fortify the Polish border. This would still have resulted in millions of refugees, plus some unknown number of people killed by Russian forces exterminating any local pro-Europe political supporters. Remember Euromaidan. It also snuffs out a democracy, which is not a go…

[flagged]

> Which, with 20/20 hindsight, we now know was wild paranoia. The Russians weren't even geared up to properly invade Ukraine, they were as shocked as the rest of us when the Ukrainians decided a land war in Asia was a better idea than surrender. They spent something like 2 years back in 2022-2024 retooling for a real war. They weren't preparing to take Poland, they were trying to preserve a sphere of influence in Ukraine.

Them being idiots and thinking they could take Ukraine does not preclude that they were also idiots who thought they could take Poland.

> we embarked on this poorly advised policy of war.

We, the people who are supplying Ukraine with support, and I want to emphasise this, have not embarked on this poorly advised policy of war. We are not at war, our soldiers are not fighting. We are selling (and giving) weapons to someone who wants to defend themselves, which is a standard thing for weapon-exporting nations to do.

Russia has embarked on this poorly advised policy of war.

> It isn't normal for a major to break international law and it ends up in a million-casualty war where we sponsor bombing runs on their capital.

Russia did bombing runs on the Ukrainian capital before Ukraine was able to respond.

Can you give Ukrainians a reason why they should not develop nuclear weapons? The Polish? The Lithuanians?

> We're just pushing the global centre of power towards Asia.

Only if "we" is "the Russian government".

The things which the rest of NATO is doing that can be described as "pushing the global centre of power towards Asia" are 75% Trump being a chaos monkey undermining both the USA itself and all the USA's alliances, and 25% the EU member-states bike-shedding union-wide economic-industrial policy.

Re: Japan tried to build an operating system for the world, the US intervened

#135

Post by donatj » Fri, Aug 21, 2026, 12:14 PM UTC

I think this really overplays the "US intervening" angle for clickbait. The US mentioned it in an official document. That is all.

It was a weird interesting OS that failed to take off largely because of how engrained systems already were. Did I mention it was weird and its benefits non-obvious particularly to businesses.

Re: Japan tried to build an operating system for the world, the US intervened

#136

Post by ben_w » Fri, Aug 21, 2026, 12:14 PM UTC

bulbar wrote: post #34

childintime wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The financial center of the world selects its winners nearby. As simple as that. Businesses outside of the US have never had much of a chance. China does the same now, as the engineering center of the world. And they have to because the financial center is hyping them as a threat.

A dictatorship with the explicit goal of invading Taiwan, which is not only a close ally, but also of global geostrategic importance. That's not "hype".

> A dictatorship with the explicit goal of invading Taiwan, which is not only a close ally, but also of global geostrategic importance.

I think it's a safe bet that China will invade precisely when they think this won't cause them severe negative losses.

This will likely be when Taiwan finds itself no longer a close ally of the USA, nor of global geostrategic importance.

Of course, "safe bet" doesn't mean "in all possible timelines"; they may end up echoing the Bay of Pigs, Hormuz, or stumble against the hubris that turned the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand into a world war where all belligerents had the mistaken belief they would win.

Re: Japan tried to build an operating system for the world, the US intervened

#137

Post by matheusmoreira » Fri, Aug 21, 2026, 12:15 PM UTC

tonyhart7 wrote: post #10

ColdStream wrote: post #2

I think it is like most software, especially in the OS space. The technology doesn't have to be the best, it just needs to get lucky enough to become a standard and build a moat with that. And by the mid 80's the moats were already very deep. Amiga couldn't over come the PC. IBM couldn't over come the moat of Windows with OS2. Intel couldn't overcome x86 with the i432 or Itanium. Luck and market forces from said luck…

apparently China decision to ban US tech company and build their own counterpart is seen as Genius after 20 years

I envy China's ability to not only plan but actually execute plans greater than 4 years. It makes democracies look bad.

Re: Japan tried to build an operating system for the world, the US intervened

#138

Post by ghaff » Fri, Aug 21, 2026, 12:17 PM UTC

ColdStream wrote: post #2

I think it is like most software, especially in the OS space. The technology doesn't have to be the best, it just needs to get lucky enough to become a standard and build a moat with that. And by the mid 80's the moats were already very deep. Amiga couldn't over come the PC. IBM couldn't over come the moat of Windows with OS2. Intel couldn't overcome x86 with the i432 or Itanium. Luck and market forces from said luck…

I was (and am again) an IT industry analyst for quite a few years. At the risk of stereotyping (and realizing they didn't have a corner on this approach), Japan long liked marching to their own drummer with designs that were out of the mainstream to a greater or lesser degree.western

Re: Japan tried to build an operating system for the world, the US intervened

#139

Post by pjc50 » Fri, Aug 21, 2026, 12:18 PM UTC

ben_w wrote: post #130

justsomehnguy wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> As sovereign citizens of their own country, Ukrainians have the right to decide under which flag they want to collectively pursue peace and prosperity. I believe they have made that choice clear through democratic means It's always amusing to hear this and point out what some Ukrainians are... not equal to other Ukrainians and therefore are not allowed to have the right to decide under which flag they want to colle…

Most nations do not allow regions to become independent. The USA famously had a kerfuffle over this. And that's even without statements like "it's really obvious that Russia fakes votes".

Eh, I think there's lots of valid cases for secession.

In the case of the South though, I believe they could have had a peaceful secession had they not fallen victim to their own version of the "sphere of influence" argument: they refused to tolerate a free North to which slaves could escape, resulting in opening fire on Fort Sumter.

Re: Japan tried to build an operating system for the world, the US intervened

#140

Post by fc417fc802 » Fri, Aug 21, 2026, 12:19 PM UTC

roenxi wrote: post #59

bulbar wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A dictatorship with the explicit goal of invading Taiwan, which is not only a close ally, but also of global geostrategic importance. That's not "hype".

On the other hand, we can't tell if the US has a goal or not in the middle east or if destabilising countries is the geostrategy unto itself. People really need to dial down the hype, engage with the real world where large countries get to have a sphere of influence and start talking realistically about what behaviour is tolerable. I still haven't heard anyone make a case for why we keep hitting the Russians given wh…

> I still haven't heard anyone make a case for why we keep hitting the Russians given what acceptable US foreign policy looks like.

Somewhat cynically it's entirely to do with which country they attacked. Had they moved on one farther away from mainland europe I doubt we'd have heard nearly as much about it.

That said it would still be wrong just as much of US (and yes Chinese) foreign policy is morally wrong. Such should be called out rather than engaging in whataboutism.