[cap-talk] NLTSS and cell phones as the platform of the future

[John Carlson]

>
> I would say that for the case of NLTSS there was something of an  
> effort to
> "mainstream" it, but by that time really the die was cast.  It had  
> way too many
> aspects working against it to have any chance in that regard.  Even  
> with the
> large computer centers there was no hope at that time (just it's  
> relatively
> strong dependence on the Cray architecture for most of it's drivers  
> would
> block much wider use).  There might have been a chance if we got some
> university interest (e.g. along the Amoeba lines) and had somebody  
> do a
> port to commodity hardware in the early 1990s, but then it would only
> come with the LTSS application suite.  That would be viewed as
> inadequate at that time.

I kind of breathed a sigh of relief when NLTSS was stopped.  I didn't
know much about it at all though.  I think your idea about academia  
is a good
one to follow.  If students are trained, they can spread the good  
news to
their employers when they graduate etc.

I think getting advanced college students involved in capability  
security is a good idea.
Perhaps some of the OS and language projects here could do some
"recruiting" on campus--or maybe just evangelism.  I guess there has  
been
some evangelism to companies.

What killed NLTSS was the availability of relatively cheap UNIX  
workstations.
What almost killed Linux/UNIX was the availability of cheap PCs.   
What's going
to kill Windows/PC is a great cross platform mobile phone OS.   The  
only thing
that's slowing down the mobile phone is a docking station that drives a
large monitor, large keyboard and large mouse.  I imagine that Steve  
Jobs
is looking very seriously at this, which is why Apple is moving into  
iPhones.
When there's a real docking station for the iPhone, I'm sure many  
people will
buy it instead of a $2000 iMac.

Whoever provides the operating system on cell phones will set the  
security
paradigm for the next generation of computers.

Shoot for a capability system on the cell phone, folks.  And  
remember, messaging
is paramount, not objects. (echoing Alan Kay's remarks).

John