faa929f · urbit.org · git.iko.soy

1+++

2title = "Introducing OS 1"

3−date = 2020-04-20

3+date = 2020-04-30

4description = "OS 1 is somewhere between ‘productivity software’ and a ‘social network’. We think it’s the beginning of an altogether new breed of social computing."

5[extra]

6author = "Galen Wolfe-Pauly"

14

15## Introducing OS 1

16

17−OS 1 is a simple, unified system for building digital communities. OS 1 is for groups of people sharing messages, links and notes on Urbit.

17+OS 1 is a simple, unified system for building digital communities. OS 1 is for groups of people sharing messages, links, and notes on Urbit.

18

19We designed and built OS 1 for ourselves, and we’re really enjoying using it every day. Instead of figuring out how to duct tape together apps and services, we use a single system to stay connected with the company and broader Urbit community that we really trust. OS 1 makes it feel like our company and community has a place in the digital world to call home.

20

26

27## What is OS 1?

28

29−OS 1 is a very simple, integrated tool for messaging, sharing links and writing with a group of people. OS 1 is somewhere between ‘productivity software’ and a ‘social network’. We think it’s the beginning of an altogether new breed of social computing.

29+OS 1 is a very simple, integrated tool for messaging, sharing links, and writing with a group of people. OS 1 is somewhere between ‘productivity software’ and a ‘social network’. We think it’s the beginning of an altogether new breed of social computing.

30

31OS 1 isn’t our first attempt to build an interface for Urbit, but it’s certainly the most complete. OS 1 is the first Urbit interface that doesn’t feel like an experiment.

32

40

41<img class="ba" src="https://media.urbit.org/site/posts/essays/intro-os1-groups.png">

42

43−The group is the main building block in OS 1. A group is simply a list of people that share a set of chat, links and publish channels. A group is sort of like a super powerful group chat.

43+The group is the main building block in OS 1. A group is simply a list of people that share a set of chat, links, and publish channels. A group is sort of like a super powerful group chat.

44

45−A group of friends might just share a few chat channels. A reading group might just share a publish channel for discussion of what they’re reading and a links channel for upcoming books. As a company, we share a variety of chat, publish and links channels to get things done and communicate. There are chats for each area of work, publish channels for digests and feature discussion, and links channels for music, influences and references, for example.

45+A group of friends might just share a few chat channels. A reading group might just share a publish channel for discussion of what they’re reading and a links channel for upcoming books. As a company, we share a variety of chat, publish, and links channels to get things done and communicate. There are chats for each area of work, publish channels for digests and feature discussion, and links channels for music, influences and references, for example.

46

47Each person in a group is identified by their [Urbit ID](https://urbit.org/understanding-urbit/urbit-id/): a short, memorable name that you own with a private key (and belongs to you completely). Each group is private and requires an invite. Groups aren’t discoverable. They’re meant to be high-trust communities of people. More like a commune than a public event.

48

62

63(If you’re curious to try one of these things, or have an idea about something you’d like to experiment with — consider submitting a proposal in our [grants program](https://grants.urbit.org/). We regularly reward contributor work with address space.)

64

65−We think of chat as a primitive, not simply a ‘better IRC’. But even in the rudimentary form it’s in today chat is essential to delivering a feeling of being at home. There’s no way to deliver a complete interface for groups without chat.

65+We think of chat as a primitive, not simply a ‘better IRC’. But even in the rudimentary form it’s in today, chat is essential to delivering a feeling of being at home. There’s no way to deliver a complete interface for groups without chat.

66

67Anyway, not everything can happen in a chat. Let’s keep moving.

68

90

91<img class="ba" src="https://media.urbit.org/site/posts/essays/intro-os1-home.png">

92

93−You’ll find a few other things on the home screen: a clock, the weather and a simple command-line that we call the Dojo. These are system-wide utilities that aren’t group-specific.

93+You’ll find a few other things on the home screen: a clock, the weather, and a simple command-line that we call the Dojo. These are system-wide utilities that aren’t group-specific.

94

95The clock and weather tiles are simple indications of the state of the outside world. We built them because they’re things we wanted to be able to check in on often. When you’re spending much of the day in front of a computer, it’s nice to know if you have enough daylight left to get some exercise in.

96

98

99<img class="ba" src="https://media.urbit.org/site/posts/essays/intro-os1-dojo.png">

100

101−The Dojo gives you a quick way to see that, under the hood, Urbit OS is a powerful general-purpose system. The system hasn’t evolved to the point that our libraries, frameworks and modules are polished to our standards. Since it’s still early, we can’t claim that it’s easy to develop on top of this platform. But we want it to become much easier.

101+The Dojo gives you a quick way to see that, under the hood, Urbit OS is a powerful general-purpose system. The system hasn’t evolved to the point that our libraries, frameworks, and modules are polished to our standards. Since it’s still early, we can’t claim that it’s easy to develop on top of this platform. But we want it to become much easier.

102

103## Why we made OS 1

104

105−We made OS 1 because we wanted to begin the process of re-centralizing our digital lives on a platform we actually control. Replacing all the services we use all at once is impossible — so we picked a suite that we felt would work really nicely together. We’ve always felt that one of the most exciting things about Urbit is in bringing your digital life together in a way that feels like home.

105+We made OS 1 because we wanted to begin the process of re-centralizing our digital lives on a platform we actually control. Replacing all the services we use all at once is impossible — so we picked a suite that we felt would work nicely together. We’ve always felt that one of the most exciting things about Urbit is in bringing your digital life together in a way that feels like home.

106

107The digital home, we think, is what our computers are meant to be but simply can’t be in a world of cloud services. Once upon a time, thirty years ago, your personal computer was an open-ended tool that was reasonably simple to understand and use, lasted a pretty long time, and belonged to you in every way.

108

109−OS 1 is a first step down the road back to a system that’s simple, durable and belongs to you in every way. It’s a long road, and we feel like we’ve made a very significant step forward.

109+OS 1 is a first step down the road back to a system that’s simple, durable, and belongs to you in every way. It’s a long road, and we feel like we’ve made a very significant step forward.

110

111One really critical thing about OS 1 is the pattern of ‘groups sharing modules’. This pattern makes it perfectly clear how a virtual computer can outcompete a bunch of different services. As the collection of modules in OS 1 → N grows, we make it easier for others to contribute modules, and we increase the flexibility of connecting modules our system quickly outruns the messy, disconnected world we’re currently stuck in.

112

124

125Specifically, we want better affordances for putting multiple streams of data on the screen at once, better keyboard shortcuts and navigation affordances, better libraries and frameworks for building modules. We want a standalone client and a single login system. These are some of the things currently on the drawing board.

126

127−As far as modules are concerned, there are too many things we’d like to build to list them all. We’d really like to have threaded conversations; short, Twitter-style messages; biometric and status tracking; an e-book reader and annotations system; and that’s just to name a few we see in the near term.

127+As far as modules are concerned, there are too many things we’d like to build to list them all. We’d really like to have threaded conversations; short, Twitter-style messages; biometric and status tracking; an e-book reader and annotations system — and that’s just to name a few we see in the near term.

128

129We’ve long since felt that the most powerful thing about Urbit is that it’s a general-purpose system. OS 1 puts us on the road to giving people an actual material sense of what using a general-purpose networked computer feels like.

130

131−As we expand the affordances of the system and add modules over the course of OS 1, 2 and beyond we expect to deliver a system that can foster everyday creativity. There’s a long road ahead, in the best possible sense. We’re really excited about what the future holds.

131+As we expand the affordances of the system and add modules over the course of OS 1, 2, and beyond we expect to deliver a system that can foster everyday creativity. There’s a long road ahead, in the best possible sense. We’re really excited about what the future holds.

132

133### Becoming a homesteader

134

135<img class="ba" src="https://media.urbit.org/site/posts/essays/intro-os1-landscape.png">

136

137−As a distributed team trying to stay connected, we like using OS 1 from day to day. We’d really like to hand onboard a small group of like minded groups of people who want to experiment with living on the fringe of the digital world. Toward this end, we started the community grants program.

137+As a distributed team trying to stay connected, we like using OS 1 from day to day. We’d really like to hand-onboard a small group of like minded groups of people who want to experiment with living on the fringe of the digital world. Toward this end, we started the community grants program.

138

139−Each community that’s selected will get a block of address space to share, direct support and (in the near future) free hosting.

139+Each community that’s selected will get a block of address space to share, direct support, and (in the near future) free hosting.

140

141Please tell us a bit about yourselves [here](https://urbit.org/community/community-grants/).