DistOS 2023W 2023-01-23 - Revision history

Soma at 04:30, 24 January 2023

2023-01-24T04:30:45Z

← Older revision		Revision as of 04:30, 24 January 2023
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	* What did you find interesting? Surprising?		* What did you find interesting? Surprising?
	* Are there any ideas here that seem promising but we've "forgotten" about?		* Are there any ideas here that seem promising but we've "forgotten" about?

			==Notes==

			<pre>
			Lecture 5
			---------

			Significance of MOAD?
			- really was a glimpse of the future, blew people there away
			- so far ahead

			But how real was it?
			- how much of it was on the computers?
			- video/audio? NO, was closed-circuit cameras/audio
			- graphics was overlays, not from the computer
			- how distributed was the computer part?
			- all running on one computer
			- communication was over dedicated data links (courtesy of the phone network), just providing serial connections for keyboard & mouse
			- (text) video was remotely projected

			Much of the development of the Internet was an attempt to reach the vision of MOAD
			- and note it envisioned a distributed system on which everyone worked and
			could share data, and that would require distributed OS services

			So what was the Alto, in relation to the MOAD?
			- people from Englebart's lab ended up at Xerox PARC

			Technologies invented at Xerox PARC
			- ethernet
			- laser printers
			- GUIs
			- smalltalk (not first, but groundbreaking object-oriented programming)

			Windows & Macintosh (well, the Lisa) were inspired directly by the Alto
			- note the original Mac didn't really do networking, didn't seem like such a big deal relative to GUIs and laser printers (desktop publishing)

			Did they have a "distributed OS" at Xerox PARC? No, but they saw the benefit in trying to get networked computers to work together as "one system"
			- print servers
			- file servers
			- whole idea of "workgroup computing", where every individual would
			have their own computer but those computers could share network resources

			The idea of having most of a computer's resources devoted to making an interface was revolutionary and controversial


			Objective-C is Smalltalk + C
			- used by NeXT, formed basis of MacOS X

			The Alto, and the tech developed at PARC, showed the possibility of personal computers when they were connected to a network.
			- Distributed OSs are an extension of that vision
			- collaboration & personal empowerment

			The thing about a "bicycle for the mind" is that it assumes you know how to ride a bicycle
			- that requires training
			- the systems that succeeded in the marketplace required almost
			no training initially, could be used in a basic way very quickly
			(or seemed like they could)

			This effort to make things "easy to use" isn't just for end users, it also applies to developers
			- we often want to be able to use systems immediately without investing
			any time learning new ways of doing things
			- developers are just as much like this as are regular users
			- Distributed OS started off trying to make things "easy to use",
			be just like what developers knew already (UNIX)
			- only later did they do things differently in order to maximize the power
			of the system
			</pre>

Soma: /* Discussion questions */

2023-01-23T16:37:28Z

Discussion questions

← Older revision		Revision as of 16:37, 23 January 2023
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	* How distributed was the Mother of All Demos?		* How distributed was the Mother of All Demos?
	* How distributed was the Alto?		* How distributed was the Alto?
			* How did the demo actually work? What was the system capable of?
			* What could the Alto do? On what sort of hardware?
	* How do these systems relate to the topics of this class?		* How do these systems relate to the topics of this class?
	* What did you find interesting? Surprising?		* What did you find interesting? Surprising?
	* Are there any ideas here that seem promising but we've "forgotten" about?		* Are there any ideas here that seem promising but we've "forgotten" about?

Soma: Created page with "==Discussion questions== Remember, these are just to get you started. Please allow your discussion to go where it will, so long as it is somewhat related to the readings. * How distributed was the Mother of All Demos? * How distributed was the Alto? * How do these systems relate to the topics of this class? * What did you find interesting? Surprising? * Are there any ideas here that seem promising but we've "forgotten" about?"

2023-01-23T16:36:48Z

Created page with "==Discussion questions== Remember, these are just to get you started. Please allow your discussion to go where it will, so long as it is somewhat related to the readings. * How distributed was the Mother of All Demos? * How distributed was the Alto? * How do these systems relate to the topics of this class? * What did you find interesting? Surprising? * Are there any ideas here that seem promising but we've "forgotten" about?"

New page

==Discussion questions==

Remember, these are just to get you started. Please allow your discussion to go where it will, so long as it is somewhat related to the readings.

* How distributed was the Mother of All Demos?
* How distributed was the Alto?
* How do these systems relate to the topics of this class?
* What did you find interesting? Surprising?
* Are there any ideas here that seem promising but we've "forgotten" about?