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Context true 2021-11-12T15:31:13.657Z markdown 2021-11-12T15:31:13.657Z

[]{#anchor-24}Phyllome OS

[]{#anchor-25}Context

[]{#anchor-26}Public clouds and open source software

Public clouds provide on-demand computing resources over the Internet. The largest are called hyperscalers.

Almost all hyperscalers, at the notable exception of Microsoft Azure, , depend on open-source software[^19] to support their platform[^20]. Put simply, without open-source software, they wouldn't exist, at least not in their current form[^21].

In particular, the Linux operating system and its Kernel-based Virtual Machine (KVM) module are two basic, essential, open-source building blocks upon which these hyperscalers are built.

These providers also add their own custom software to the core engine that propels their platform[^22]. Unfortunately, this custom software remains for internal use only[^23].

Isn't there an equivalent to these custom building blocks available for everyone to reuse ?

[]{#anchor-27}The rise of robust general-purpose hypervisors

Rust-vmm (or Rust-Virtual Machine Monitor) is an ongoing effort among software and hardware companies, including some hyperscalers, to share more of their codebase. Rust-vmm provides a platform to share reusable virtualization-related code by means of Rust-crates[^24].

As of 2021, this project offers the closest open-source equivalent to the aforementioned custom software used by hyperscalers.

At least three key projects using Linux and KVM are also taking advantage of Rust-vmm :

  • crosvm (2010 --)

    • Crosvm means the Chrome OS Virtual Machine Monitor. It allows the virtualization of guest systems on devices running Chrome OS and Chromium OS, its open-source counterpart. It is the oldest project of its kind, upon which others are built or forked.
    • The ongoing Spectrum (2020) project is a promising attempt to built a secure desktop OS around Chromium OS, crosvm and the Nix declarative package management system.

  • firecracker (2018 --)

    • Originally built for desktop systems, crosvm has also been reused as a foundation for firecracker, the serverless computing platform which powers AWS Lambda. This is a story not unlike that of KVM, which was originally built with desktop workloads in mind but later gained traction as a solution for other workloads.

  • Cloud Hypervisor (2019 --)

    • Cloud Hypervisor may be considered as the spiritual successor to the now-defunct NEMU project. NEMU provided a stripped-down version of QEMU [^25].
    • Contrary to crosvm and projects that rely on it, it is possible to run non-Linux virtual guest systems on Cloud Hypervisor, provided that they support UEFI.
    • As of today, there is no desktop-oriented operating system intended to take advantage of Cloud Hypervisor.
                            crosvm   firecracker   Cloud Hypervisor

QEMU No No No KVM Yes Yes Yes Desktop-friendly Yes No No Support for non-Unix guests No No Yes

Until recently, any attempt to create a local-first, free and open-source operating system that could run atop affordable, virtualization-friendly hardware[^26] using basic building blocks similar to those used by major public clouds would rightfully be met with skepticism.

Thanks to the rust-vmm umbrella project, assembling such an operating system is now becoming a possibility.

[]{#anchor-28}Description

[]{#anchor-29}Phyllome OS

Phyllome OS intends to tap into some modern software- and hardware-related innovations used in the cloud and make them available to a wider audience locally: to bring some of the cloud back home, so to speak, with a focus on performance and usability. As an operating system, Phyllome OS makes it easier to run virtual machines locally using off-the-shelf hardware : it is designed from the ground up to be easy[^27]-and safe[^28]-to-use.

Technically speaking, Phyllome OS is an attempt to port the Cloud Hypervisor to desktop systems[^29].

Conceptually, Phyllome OS can be thought of in several ways : as a wrapper around operating systems that use a Graphical User Interface (GUI), just as Docker is, among other things,a headless wrapper around GUI-less containers ; as an abstraction between the hardware and the operating system; as a local-first appliance or sandbox whose sole purpose is to run general computing operating systems using hardware-assisted virtualization, and hopefully run them well ; or as just another attempt to bring Linux back to the desktop, albeit more covertly this time.

As with popular existing operating systems, Phyllome OS is designed to be installed on a single machine or host. Contrary to existing operating systems, it abstracts the physical layer away, allowing diverse operating systems to run concurrently on the same machine if the user so desires.

[]{#anchor-30}The Phyllome OS Project

The Phyllome Project aims to build a community around open source virtualization and to make the development of Phyllome OS sustainable. The project relies on self-hosted open source software.