A Distributed Operating System

What if your distro and desktop weren’t on your computer? They were on all your computers.

Ingredients

• Base OS is Linux. Could be a VM on Windows or Mac.
• Install app, depends on Docker and has a controller daemon that:
  • Mounts IPFSfs and encrypted areas
  • Create/destroy containers
  • Chown stuff for container users
  • Gives Wayland socket to a container that logs on from the logon manager
• Pull the main image down. Contains:
  • IPFS which gets mapped to the host’s data area
  • Deals with user management and quotas
  • Pins files in IPFS for other users
  • Webserver that acts as a UI for users logging in
  • Drops a .desktop file in to enable login
  • XRDP/VNC bridge for remote users
• Mobile app/html+js
  • peerjs for communication/authentication
  • not MFA, it’s the 1FA.

Setup/login

• Go to a machine, choose IPFSOS as your login manager
• Scan QR code on phone
  • Computer and phone pair using peerjs
  • Choose objects + permissions for computer (sync/read/write to OS/mount/session)
  • Phone sends over an IPFS pin root FS + keys to unlock object paths
• Computer presents list of that it can unlock, plus available storage quota etc
  • Phone and computer are now linked.
  • If you’re an admin on that box you get more options.
  • Stuff starts syncing to this box from others.
• Choose either a local session or a remote one.
  • Remote sessions are xrdp or similar, to another box.
• Log in to session using your phone

Day to day use cases

Log on to any machine

Log on to any machine that you trust, and get the same desktop and all your files.

Distributed, free backup for your friends

No more backups. No more losing data. No more paying for cloud storage.

Any box is a backup and is backed up - your Raspberry Pi with NAS, your work machine, a random VPS… Your phone? Maybe. There’s no limit.

Disk crash? Just log in and download all your files from your friends.

File sharing is light and easy.

Send someone a link to a pin and a hash, they get the same file as you. They probably have the file anyway! To stop sharing new versions you just change the encryption key.

p2p messaging layer

• File sharing with friends
• Notifications to phone

Modern, phone-friendly

Backup by posting directory updates from your phone and syncing. Share files p2p using any node of your choice.