All you need to know about Zero-OS

[hannahcordes]

Whether you’re a farmer, token holder or other community member, you’ve probably heard of our groundbreaking operating system Zero-OS. It’s one of the technology components that make ThreeFold so unique!

As our community keeps growing and new people join us, I feel this is a good time to give an overview of the Zero-OS essentials and to point you to some key readings where you’ll find all you need to know about Zero-OS.

The Zero-OS Essentials

We’ve built this decentralized autonomous operating system (OS) from scratch, starting with just a Linux kernel, for the purpose of dedicating hardware capacity to the People’s Internet via the TF Chain.

Based on ThreeFold’s open-source technology, Zero-OS is a stateless and lightweight operating system that allows for an improved efficiency of up to 10x for certain workloads. Our OS achieves unparalleled levels of efficiency and security. With no remote shell or login and extremely small footprint, Zero-OS ensures that hosted workloads are protected from administrative exploits and human intervention.

All 3Nodes are booted with Zero-OS to provide the storage, compute and network primitives for our open-source peer-to-peer Internet infrastructure. Due to the unique design of Zero-OS, any server-like hardware with an AMD or Intel processor can be booted and dedicated to the network.

Did you know Zero-OS runs autonomously on 3Nodes once booted, requiring no maintenance or administration? The process is actually quite simple, also enabling people without technical skills to join the People’s Internet by connecting a node in their home or office with full data sovereignty and security.

If you’d like to dive deeper into Zero-OS, check out these links:

• Preview the Zero-OS episode of our new Knowledge Base Video Series.
• Learn more about the key benefits of Zero-OS here.
• Take a look at the Tech Times article featuring our OS.
• Check out our blog posts on Zero-OS and how we’re building a new Internet from the ground up.

So, how do you like our Zero-OS? Do you have any questions about it? Let us know in the comments!

Also, a great way to get to know ThreeFold, the tech and the people behind the People’s Internet, is to watch the recordings of our recent deep dive meetups here. And we’ll have two more meetups this week, we hope you’ll tune in!

[karoline]

I love so much the fact that people without technical skills can join the People’s Internet by connecting a node in their home or office with full data sovereignty and security.
This is SUCH AN EXCITING TIME we are living and PARTICIPATING in!!!

Thanks for the post @hannahcordes

[igg]

Hello colleagues,

I want to suggest a few improvements to Zero-OS.

It seems to me that the operating system takes up a lot of system resources. I use a processor Core i5 3210M, which has low consumption, memory 16 GB DDR3L, SSD 256 GB and HDD 750 GB. Currently used resources CPU Usage 1%, Memory Usage 1%, SSD Reserved 100 GB and MRU Reserved 3 GB. In my configuration, the CPU fan constantly blows warm air. I did not measure the electrical power consumed.
If it is possible to optimize the operating system:

• Uninstall unnecessary applications and processes.
• Disable services that are not needed at the time of work.
• Dynamic reduction of CPU frequency at lower loads.
• Turn off the screen after a certain period of time.
• Power off the hard disks spindle if not in use (this function may already be available).

I hope these improvements will be included in future editions of the operating system.

Best Regards

[weynandkuijpers]

Hi @igg. Thank you for being here. We have done a lot of optimization to zero-OS for it to be a very efficienrt OS to run cloud workloads one. The claims zero-OS does is to make the autonomous part work. Remember there is no remote login facility nor a local one so there is nothing you can do with or on the box / OS itself. Please turn of the monitor and use it for something more educational or entertainment, it is not needed for zero-OS.

WIth regards to your specific points:

• there are no unnecessary applications installed: it is the linux kernel (trimmed and tailored), some modules providing primitive functions for the TF Grid and that’s it.
• services are disabled
• CPU frequency reduction I have to check - not sure if that is being done.
• Take the screen of the server and use it for something else.
• Disks are being spun down AFAIK if not needed.

Thank you for the suggestions and keep supporting us!