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Dev boots a PC from Google Drive cloud storage — a storage-less laptop becomes a truly cloud-native computer (www.tomshardware.com)

submitted 4 months ago by gedaliyah@lemmy.world to c/technology@lemmy.world

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Ersei, the developer behind this so-called Cloud Native Computer, says the project was primarily a “silly” pursuit. There is also a problem with booting from Google Drive currently being very slow. However, the dev also boasts that “the possibilities are endless” and would welcome any companies or individuals who wish to get in contact and discuss commercializing this project or something related to it.

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[-] jfx@discuss.tchncs.de 173 points 4 months ago

Soo, booting your computer from someone else's computer?

I mean we've had thin clients and PXE for ages?

[-] mox@lemmy.sdf.org 58 points 4 months ago

And bootp before that, and tftp before that. So I think roughly... 35 years?

[-] areyouevenreal@lemm.ee 8 points 4 months ago

PXE specifically uses tftp doesn't it?

[-] noobface@lemmy.world 3 points 4 months ago

yep

[-] SchmidtGenetics@lemmy.world 12 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

More being able to use cloud storage and not need a full physical secondary computer. In theory the cloud can be accessed anywhere, even if a portion is down, not the same for a single physical PC.

[-] datelmd5sum@lemmy.world 33 points 4 months ago

is the non physical cloud in the room right now?

[-] lewdian69@lemmy.world 3 points 4 months ago

Nope! That's the point. It's in someone else's room!

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[-] GamingChairModel@lemmy.world 4 points 4 months ago

Do thin clients and PXE require a server specifically configured to serve a boot image? (Genuinely asking.)

I'm not sure whether this project is doing something new by just accessing network resources that are nothing more than shared files, without any specific software running on the server (beyond just a server serving files).

[-] catloaf@lemm.ee 12 points 4 months ago

Yes, they do. The novel thing here is serving the files out of Google Drive.

There are existing PXE servers that run over the Internet, like boot.netboot.xyz, so that you don't have to run your own (assuming you trust everyone involved in that connection). Those are far more practical.

[-] seaQueue@lemmy.world 128 points 4 months ago

So it's a thin client remote booting extremely slowly over a really high latency connection. Cool, the 1980s called and they want their tech back.

[-] Dave@lemmy.nz 90 points 4 months ago

However, the dev also boasts that “the possibilities are endless” and would welcome any companies or individuals who wish to get in contact and discuss commercializing this project or something related to it.

"We're looking for dumb investors that don't understand technology so we can sell them a bridge."

[-] seaQueue@lemmy.world 59 points 4 months ago

Bro forgot to liberally sprinkle blockchain and AI dust on his project before offering it to investors

[-] Plopp@lemmy.world 22 points 4 months ago

It's basically booting and running the OS from inside the AI in the cloud!! The system doesn't "use" blockchain, it's made of blockchain! Every file is an NFT by default which provides a built in system for profit for everything you do on the computer!

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[-] rockSlayer@lemmy.world 97 points 4 months ago

So they reinvented terminals, but worse

[-] sugartits@lemmy.world 61 points 4 months ago

Put a swap file on that bad boy boy and they've invented downloading ram!

This is a revolution.

[-] Rai@lemmy.dbzer0.com 22 points 4 months ago

Aw yiss, all of my information on Google’s servers siiiiiicc

[-] Fedizen@lemmy.world 58 points 4 months ago

Wow this sounds useless. Congratulations or whatever.

[+] zelifcam@lemmy.world 36 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

[deleted]

[-] R00bot@lemmy.blahaj.zone 32 points 4 months ago

This is different (and far less practical than Apple's approach). This one doesn't download the OS and store it, it pulls the files from Google drive every time they're accessed, so it's incredibly slow by comparison, but is technically running from the cloud. The Apple one downloads everything it needs and stores it, then pulls from that local copy.

[-] sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 8 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

So it's like PXE booting without a permanent local disk. If you have enough RAM, that's probably fine.

Or is it only downloading the kernel and loading literally everything else over the net with no RAM cache? If so, that's terrifying.

[-] cley_faye@lemmy.world 5 points 4 months ago

I'd argue it's a bit worse than PXE booting, since they talk about having the actual bootloader on a USB stick, whereas the same thing could have been done by having the boot process remote too.

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[-] regrub@lemmy.world 33 points 4 months ago

Interesting experiment, but I'd rather have a personal machine that isnt completely useless when/if the internet goes out. Also would be nice not to depend on a centralized service that could easily revoke access.

Seems like it's better suited for company work computers.

[-] Treczoks@lemmy.world 16 points 4 months ago

when/if the internet goes out.

Or worse, when it basically sends a different image...

[-] regrub@lemmy.world 5 points 4 months ago

Looks like a new CVE dropped lol

[-] shortwavesurfer@lemmy.zip 5 points 4 months ago

Boot from IPFS!

[-] umami_wasbi@lemmy.ml 23 points 4 months ago

Good luck booting when Google nukes your account

[-] FelipeFelop@discuss.online 18 points 4 months ago

I can see two issues here:

It’s not really a storageless computer. It’s using EFI as storage to build the ramdisk.

What happens if you need to change things because of a change of cloud account, change of cloud API etc etc

[-] catloaf@lemm.ee 15 points 4 months ago

No computer is ever really storageless. Even the BIOS has to be stored somewhere. If you didn't have any storage, you wouldn't be able to load any code, and it would not be a computer, it would be a brick.

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[-] AVincentInSpace@pawb.social 13 points 4 months ago

the thing that gets me is that said dev tried it first with amazon S3 and it worked infinitely better there

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[-] ILikeBoobies@lemmy.ca 12 points 4 months ago

Reminds me of the image macro about using drive as your swap

[-] Glowstick@lemmy.world 11 points 4 months ago

y tho

[-] deranger@sh.itjust.works 37 points 4 months ago

“Primarily a silly pursuit”

[-] Glowstick@lemmy.world 15 points 4 months ago

Yeah, but it then goes on saying

"However, the dev also boasts that “the possibilities are endless” and would welcome any companies or individuals who wish to get in contact and discuss commercializing this project or something related to it."

And that's what I'm saying "y tho" to.

[-] deranger@sh.itjust.works 13 points 4 months ago

I mean, shit. If I did something stupid for fun and some idiot business major wants to pay me for an implementation, regardless of how useful It actually is, I’m not turning it down.

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[-] SzethFriendOfNimi@lemmy.world 11 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

So we’re back to ~~PXI~~ PXE? Everything old is new again.

Neat technical problem to solve though just for fun

[-] sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 4 points 4 months ago

I set up a PXE image for the Arch installer and scripted the whole installation. The idea was to switch the boot order and have it auto-reimage, such as for a IOT device deploy.

Once I built it, I never used it again. But it was a fun afternoon.

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[-] chiisana@lemmy.chiisana.net 10 points 4 months ago

Netboot.xyz ?

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this post was submitted on 07 Jul 2024

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