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The Cloud Computer

oxide.computer

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Re: The Cloud Computer

#701

Post by Fnoord »

vhodges wrote: post #691
fiddlerwoaroof wrote: post #618

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wish they’d sell a tabletop version for hobbyists, but realize this is probably a distraction. But… the problem with a lot of these systems (including the old Sun boxes and things like ibm mainframes and the AS/400) is that they sound cool but there’s no real way for the typical new developer to “get into them” for fun and, as a result, you lose the chance for some developer selling it to their company based on his…

Not the same in any meaningful way but https://turingpi.com/product/turing-pi-2/ might interest you. Also https://artemis.sh/2022/03/14/propolis-oxide-at-home-pt1.htm... Does illumos run on ARM?

I own a Turing Pi 2 but the hardware it is running on is proprietary. The switch isn't managed. The manament software is very archaic. Yes, it is modular and stackable and probably thousands of times more hobbyist friendly than Oxide but so is edge computing in general.

Re: The Cloud Computer

#702

Post by fiddlerwoaroof »

Xymist wrote: post #696
fiddlerwoaroof wrote: post #618

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wish they’d sell a tabletop version for hobbyists, but realize this is probably a distraction. But… the problem with a lot of these systems (including the old Sun boxes and things like ibm mainframes and the AS/400) is that they sound cool but there’s no real way for the typical new developer to “get into them” for fun and, as a result, you lose the chance for some developer selling it to their company based on his…

They won't even tell you how much a rack will cost. Infuriating typically B2B "talk to Sales so we can decide exactly how much we can get out of you and segment the market on the fly" approach persists even here, it seems.

I wouldn’t expect anything else for a full rack in this segment: it’s going to be tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars, and big enough that there will be some inevitable negotiation about prices.

Re: The Cloud Computer

#703

Post by Aurornis »

exposition wrote: post #609
Aurornis wrote: post #545

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Some say that you can end up using unsafe a lot and so it’s better to stick with C or even use Zig Using unsafe in Rust isn't inherently bad. If you're doing embedded work, using unsafe is mandatory once you get to the level of interacting with the hardware. That doesn't mean the code is literally unsafe, just that the interactions are happening in a way that the compiler can't guarantee. That's completely expected…

Yep I get that- it's just that using unsafe reduces the benefits you get from Rust's model. And so I was wondering whether using it is still worth it. Obviously, it probably still has many benefits over C but something like Zig might be simpler and better suited.

> it's just that using unsafe reduces the benefits you get from Rust's model.

No, you still get the benefits where it matters.

The "unsafe" is basically marking a boundary where you're doing things outside of what the compiler can verify. If you're poking at hardware registers, that's expected and normal.

Putting "unsafe" in a program at the hardware boundary doesn't reduce the benefits of Rust elsewhere in the program.

Re: The Cloud Computer

#704

Post by mlindner »

meithecatte wrote: post #656
josephcsible wrote: post #478

They say this: > While the software is an essential part of the Oxide cloud computer, what we sell is in fact the computer. As a champion of open source, this allows Oxide a particularly straightforward open source strategy: our software is all open. But their homepage says this: > As soon as power is applied to an Oxide rack, our purpose-built hardware root of trust – present on every Oxide server and switch – crypt…

I suppose we need to know if it's secure boot (tivoization), or verified boot (remote attestation).

From my own understanding its neither (unless by "remote" you don't mean Oxide). From my understanding there's no involvement of Oxide in running the computer. You should never need to talk to them to configure anything nor should you ever need to talk to them if you want to flash the firmware with something else entirely.

Re: The Cloud Computer

#705

Post by Waterluvian »

“Cloud computing is the future of all computing infrastructure.”

My dad, who worked for IBM through the 90s and 00s always points out how amusing this is. We started with the cloud. Then went PCs. Then are going cloud again.

Doesn’t mean this is wrong. It’s just amusing.

If we do it properly, it should be far more optimal than all the local computers not doing anything most of the day.

Re: The Cloud Computer

#706

Post by Animats »

"Everyone at Oxide makes $201,227 USD, regardless of location."[1]

Do they actually assemble and build their own racks of hardware, or is that outsourced? Somewhere, there must be an assembly plant. If this stuff actually exists. It's hard to even find pictures of their products. Do they have production installations?

[1] https://oxide.computer/careers

Re: The Cloud Computer

#708

Post by axelthegerman »

robertlagrant wrote: post #24

I'm a bit confused about them calling it a cloud computer. The primary benefit of cloud is you spend opex instead of capex. Isn't this moving back to capex again?

Sure but some businesses care about how much they spend and then about capex vs opex.

I'd rather have $1 in capex than $10 in opex

Re: The Cloud Computer

#709

Post by dgb23 »

iamawacko wrote: post #515
dgb23 wrote: post #256

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I don't think salary should be tied to location, but it should be tied to experience, ability, and effort. That's the labor theory of value (see: Smith, Marx), which in theory sounds meritocratic but it can't really be measured or assessed. In reality compensation either becomes a function of power, social currency and negotiation skills, which is the general norm in professions, or you have an institutionalized, p…

That is not the labor theory of value. The whole point of LTV, at least in Marxian economics, is that workers can't be payed according to their socially necessary labor, because a surplus labor is extracted. Besides, LTV as a theory is meant to be a description of the world as Smith, Marx, etc. see it, not a prescription for how things should be done.

You're right that it is descriptive and not normative.

But the underlying belief of paying someone according to their effort, is very much based on the same premise.

What I'm saying is that nobody is _really_ paid according to their effort, experience etc. because those things cannot be reasonably measured.

The typical process of determining compensation is based on negotiation and power. In some places the process is more democratized and rules based. Both of these are only to some degree related to actual effort, experience and so on. This discrepancy becomes larger the more people are involved as well.

Re: The Cloud Computer

#710

Post by ricardobeat »

parasubvert wrote: post #666
Voultapher wrote: post #313

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Genuine question, you mention Hyper-converged, can you point to anything that comes even close to the experience you presumably get from the Oxide offering.

Dell's VxRail has been very popular and successful. Not perfect, but pretty good, and I think the market leader. HPE Simplivity has done well. Also, Nutanix.

These seem to solve the ‘host your own cloud’ problem, but are still standard server blades requiring a ton of surrounding hardware and maintenance. Oxide is entirely integrated.
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