@@ -22,7 +22,7 @@ Urbit is a virtual city of general-purpose personal servers.
2222
2323What's a personal server? In a sense, you already have one. Your
2424personal server is the combination of all the cloud services you use
25−now.
25+now.
2626
2727This "server" is a mess. It's broken into 17 different fragments
2828which are scattered all over the planet. You have no control at all
@@ -32,25 +32,26 @@ we realize how unsustainable this situation is.
3232Can you remember all the services you have accounts for? How about
3333the username and password for each? Some of them will let you pull
3434your data out somehow, some won’t. Sometimes you can move your data
35−between them, sometimes you can’t. For the most part today’s services
36−are optimized for one thing: selling ads. There’s a limit to what a
37−service that depends on your constant continued engagement can do.
35+between them, sometimes you can’t. But they're all good at
36+showing you ads.
3837
3938## Your new personal server
4039
41−Your urbit is your own general-purpose server. It holds your data;
42−runs your apps; wrangles your connected devices; and defines your
43−secure identity. If you still need your old services, it drives them
44−with APIs. Your urbit presents your whole digital life as a single
45−web service. And since it's yours, open source and patent-free, it
46−never shows you ads. Or loses your data. Or updates without your
47−consent.
40+Your urbit is your own general-purpose server. It holds your
41+data; runs your apps; wrangles your connected devices; and
42+defines your secure identity. If you still need your old
43+services, it drives them with APIs.
44+
45+Your urbit presents your whole digital life as a single web
46+service. And since it's yours, open source and patent-free, it
47+never shows you ads. Or loses your data. Or updates without
48+your consent.
4849
4950Technically, Urbit is a new kind of OS that has a precise formal
5051definition. (Urbit is actually a [single mathematical function](CS
5152paper).) One advantage of a math-based OS is that Urbit is perfectly
5253portable. It can't tell whether it's in a cloud data center or on
53−your home PC.
54+your home PC.
5455
5556Concerned about mass surveillance? Download your urbit and restart it
5657on your laptop, or move to a new host in Iceland. Urbit's formal
@@ -58,15 +59,14 @@ simplicity makes managing it as easy as managing an iPhone: all you
5859have to decide is what apps to add.
5960
6061Each urbit is a node on an global, encrypted P2P network. Your Urbit
61−name, a generated pseudonym like "talsur-todres," is also your network
62+name, a generated pseudonym like `~talsur-todres`, is also your network
6263address. Like Bitcoin, Urbit address space is a cryptographic asset
63−with a limited supply.
64+with a limited supply.
6465
6566By keeping addresses scarce, we make spam and abuse expensive. Urbit
6667is a "friendly network," like the Internet in 1986, where a stranger
6768is nice until proven nasty. As it matures, Urbit will grow into a
68−decentralized, self-governing virtual city which is both free and
69−safe.
69+decentralized, self-governing virtual city both safe and free.
7070
7171## The Urbit future
7272
@@ -74,7 +74,7 @@ In an Urbit world, your data is no longer trapped in a jumble of
7474proprietary servers. Your urbit is a permanent, versioned, typed
7575archive the size of your digital life. Even before you move your data
7676from a Web service to a local Urbit app, your urbit can drive your
77−account with an API or scraper.
77+account with an API or scraper.
7878
7979And within Urbit, data is never locked inside apps. Imagine if you
8080could painlessly switch between Facebook and Google+, Asana and
@@ -82,26 +82,36 @@ Trello, Tumblr and WordPress. Not only does your urbit upgrade itself
8282and its apps automatically, you can "sidegrade" a running app to
8383another vendor without losing data.
8484
85−Your urbit is also your digital identity. Along with your lifestream
86−of media, messages and documents, it has the keys and tokens to manage
87−all your legacy Web services. It holds the keys for your
88−cryptocurrency wallets, so it can buy and sell for you. (When you
89−have just one server to secure, you actually have time to take
90−security seriously.) You shop through an app on your urbit; it
91−downloads catalogs and sends purchase orders.
92−
93−And your urbit is the hub for your network of connected devices. Your
94−smart thermostat, your wristband, your phone and tablet, all run
95−satellite urbits which talk securely to your main urbit in the cloud.
85+Your urbit is also your digital identity. Along with your data
86+lifestream of media, messages and documents, it has the keys and
87+tokens to manage all your legacy Web services. It holds the keys
88+for your cryptocurrency wallets, so it can buy and sell for you.
89+(With one personal server to secure, not 17 different accounts,
90+you actually have the bandwidth to take security seriously.)
91+
92+You still use network services. But instead of interacting with
93+the service provider's HTML UI, which phones home using
94+proprietary HTTP APIs, you interact with a third-party app on
95+your urbit, which talks to multiple service providers using
96+public, typed Urbit protocols. For example, your urbit runs a
97+single shopping app, which downloads catalogs and uploads orders.
98+This app is one store which sells everything in the world, with a
99+salesman who's 100% on your side and always has the best price.
100+Every computing experience is different when the UI is working
101+exclusively for the user.
102+
103+Finally, your urbit is the hub for your network of connected
104+devices. Your smart thermostat, your wristband, your phone and
105+tablet, all run satellite urbits which talk securely to your main
106+urbit in the cloud.
96107
97108## A chance for digital freedom
98109
99110The promise of the personal server isn't just convenience.
100−General-purpose computing is magic. This magic must be in the hands
101−of all, not just those who can manage a Unix server. The computer is
102−a bicycle for the mind. It's an open-ended vehicle for human
103−exploration and discovery. It’s not just a way to optimize ad
104−delivery.
111+General-purpose computing is magic. This magic must be in the
112+hands of all, not just those who can master Unix. The computer
113+is a bicycle for the mind. It's an open vehicle for exploration
114+and discovery. It’s not a way to optimize ad delivery.
105115
106116Urbit, as virtual city, is a platform that brings together all our
107117datastreams -- from emails to heartbeats -- in a way that we ourselves
@@ -121,13 +131,13 @@ but most people don't have a global adversary. A single portable
121131platform provides "herd immunity" for the few who do need direct
122132physical control over their main computers.
123133
124−Though even laptops are atrophying into browsers, mass-market,
134+Though even laptops are atrophying into mere browsers, mass-market,
125135general-purpose computing on the client side remains an endangered
126136species that must be protected. But on the server side, this species
127137has never even *existed*. There has never been anything like a
128138mass-market personal server. Why not?
129139
130−## The stack is a mess
140+## Freedom is an engineering problem
131141
132142Urbit is not a difficult idea. Urbit is like a flying car: the idea
133143is not the hard part. Almost everyone we talk to about Urbit turns
@@ -145,44 +155,46 @@ fun. So the personal Unix/Internet server is like the personal
145155bulldozer. This is not a consumer product. Any number of engineers
146156can't turn a bulldozer into a bicycle.
147157
148−How did we build the personal bulldozer? We didn't. We started from
149−scratch. (The people who made the first PCs didn't start with a
150−mainframe OS, either.) We built a new platform: Urbit.
158+How did we build the personal bulldozer? We didn't. We started
159+from scratch. (The people who built the first PCs didn't start
160+with a mainframe OS, either.) We created a new platform: Urbit.
151161
152−Urbit doesn't compete with Unix and the Internet. It's a new, opaque
153−layer on top of them. Your browser runs on a native OS, but it
154−doesn't give Web apps any way to talk to the native OS. Urbit is like
155−a browser for the server side: code within Urbit is formally isolated
156−from the platform it runs on top of.
162+Urbit doesn't compete with Unix and the Internet. It's a new,
163+opaque layer on top of them. Your browser runs on a native OS,
164+but it doesn't give Web apps any way to talk to the native OS.
165+Urbit is like a browser for the server side: code within Urbit is
166+formally isolated from the platform it runs on top of.
157167
158168Your urbit is a Unix process, in a data center or your PC. It sends
159169UDP packets over the Internet. It can both load and serve web pages
160170over HTTP. Except for character sets and crypto, nothing in Urbit
161−reuses or depends on any 20th-century code. Urbit is a complete,
162−clean-slate system software stack: an interpreter (Nock), a language
163−(Hoon), and an OS (Arvo), with its own protocol (Ames), typed revision
164−control (Clay), reactive web server (Eyre) and functional build system
165−(Ford). The full system, including basic apps, is only 30,000 lines
166−of Hoon.
167−
168−The first complete prototype of Urbit took one programmer eleven years
169−to build. The current beta took three more, with about three
170−engineers on average. Three now maintain the whole stack. We think
171−we've solved all the real CS problems. But it will take more than our
172−small team to deliver a polished, user-friendly Urbit that can
173−actually challenge the modern web.
174−
175−## Where we are and what we're doing
176−
177−Urbit is in feature freeze. It's a minimum viable product in early
178−beta; it still could use a bunch of fit-and-finish work. We certainly
179−don't recommend it for end users or consider it in any way secure.
180−But it's fun to play with, if you're a nerd.
171+reuses or depends on any 20th-century code.
172+
173+Urbit is a complete, clean-slate system software stack: a
174+non-lambda interpreter (Nock), a functional language (Hoon), and
175+an event-driven OS (Arvo), with its own encrypted protocol
176+(Ames), typed revision control (Clay), reactive web server (Eyre)
177+and functional build system (Ford). The full system, including
178+basic apps, is only 30,000 lines of Hoon.
179+
180+The first end-to-end prototype of Urbit took one engineer eleven
181+years. The current beta took three more years, with about three
182+engineers on average. We think we've solved all the real CS
183+problems. But it will take more than our small team to deliver a
184+polished, user-friendly Urbit that can actually challenge the
185+modern web.
186+
187+## Where we are, what we're doing
188+
189+Urbit is in feature freeze. It's a minimum viable product in
190+early beta. It still needs quite a bit of fit-and-finish work.
191+We certainly don't recommend it for end users or consider it in
192+any way secure. But it's fun to play with, if you're a nerd.
181193
182194This summer, we're making the switch to an open and transparent
183−development and specification process. A system as unusual as Urbit
184−can't be invented in public. But it has to be finished and maintained
185−in public.
195+development and specification process. A system as unusual as
196+Urbit can't be invented in public. But it has to be finished and
197+maintained in public.
186198
187199Addionally, we're creating an open political and economic process,
188200with a small, fixed-price public presale of Urbit address space. Join