Just some thoughts that arose as I skipped along the web...

With the idea of using Pharo in the cloud, I was thinking of how

PharoNOS[1] is basing off top of the Linux kernel, but the examples

indicate its operating in User Mode. So I was wondering about

performance being greater[2] if the CogVM ran in Kernel Mode. However

maybe this could get tangled in the GPL license of the kernel.

Now I believe FreeBSD/NetBSD license is compatible with COG's MIT

license, so that seems a better option for eliminating layers of the

operating system. They both[3][4] have pre-built Amazon Machine Images

to run on EC2, as well as instructions[5] to build your own AMI. So

potentially we could build an AMI with the CogVM linked to the

FreeBSDKernel operating in Kernel Mode, with no User Mode. The lack of

direct access to memory from the Image, and probably single application

focus should be sufficient security to forgo User Mode, and run faster.

But we could go a step further. Runing in the cloud relies heavily on

virtualisation, and for performance[6], most likely on the OS's

paravirtualisation interface - to Xen for example. So from Cog, why not

interface direct to the Xen FrontEndDriver[7] and eliminate the DomU

operating system all together. What I understand from [6] is that Xen's

paravirtualisation hooks makes it much easier to boot, than booting on

the bare metal of a fully-virtualised system. So the former seems more

achievable than the latter (which was the only option in years past),

and also be more portable as technology evolves, to any platform Xen

runs on.

Squeak/Pharo on Cog-Xen could be a good choice for a Cloud Operating

System[8]. Maybe a good student research project?

cheers -ben