From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Received: from atuin.qyliss.net (localhost [IPv6:::1]) by atuin.qyliss.net (Postfix) with ESMTP id A487E97F6; Wed, 17 Jun 2026 13:24:43 +0000 (UTC) Received: by atuin.qyliss.net (Postfix, from userid 993) id AB5C697EC; Wed, 17 Jun 2026 13:24:40 +0000 (UTC) X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 4.0.1 (2024-03-26) on atuin.qyliss.net X-Spam-Level: ** X-Spam-Status: No, score=2.4 required=3.0 tests=DKIM_SIGNED,DKIM_VALID, DKIM_VALID_AU,DMARC_MISSING,FROM_SUSPICIOUS_NTLD, FROM_SUSPICIOUS_NTLD_FP,SPF_HELO_NONE,T_PDS_OTHER_BAD_TLD autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=4.0.1 Received: from mail-108-mta44.mxroute.com (mail-108-mta44.mxroute.com [136.175.108.44]) by atuin.qyliss.net (Postfix) with ESMTPS id D3CEF97E9 for ; Wed, 17 Jun 2026 13:24:38 +0000 (UTC) Received: from filter006.mxroute.com ([136.175.111.3] filter006.mxroute.com) (Authenticated sender: mN4UYu2MZsgR) by mail-108-mta44.mxroute.com (ZoneMTA) with ESMTPSA id 19ed5c151cd00067f7.001 for (version=TLSv1.3 cipher=TLS_AES_256_GCM_SHA384); Wed, 17 Jun 2026 13:24:36 +0000 X-Zone-Loop: bb30122bd544fc65b3c1fd2214cb7a548dbdfec0df31 X-Originating-IP: [136.175.111.3] DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; q=dns/txt; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gagarin.work; s=x; h=Content-Transfer-Encoding:MIME-Version:Message-ID:Date :Subject:Cc:To:From:Sender:Reply-To:Content-Type:Content-ID: Content-Description:Resent-Date:Resent-From:Resent-Sender:Resent-To:Resent-Cc :Resent-Message-ID:In-Reply-To:References:List-Id:List-Help:List-Unsubscribe: List-Subscribe:List-Post:List-Owner:List-Archive; bh=5YftC786fWLVex2EFB9k/4fg3xBkNgxcdOG4DrUHHpY=; b=cAd+caNdf0AQkjieyTZOuzRO5O X9BzM6vZYViyo2r5k65wBH62gwo6WqqKCvxKhnuzp/GW7fGIr91BfCBSv8d7f9obCP699FzY+gG8b 1Ll9bW/wP3ZwmFIL6CUBIe6SAMQqNVgSNpW+ZAoG5tnXewVFORkqsAVvCTTMX7JlRTki5RtlmfncG QwT8RBxNhXO8UpUqgRUnKGeT13xUYsGKUI/6NthnR3o2BzVcrYYb6wCiNEZW5xfhA+701dZChcAj8 dU4/1BNJp3KCkXATmwsF1D0g45X+v+JQk8pvsnTs7/rZmL7Fne14t/SmwS2WSd2XTWOO+rcSOtdaS 6W6vUiRA==; From: Valentin Gagarin To: devel@spectrum-os.org Subject: [PATCH] Documentation: reword the distinctive feature of shared state Date: Wed, 17 Jun 2026 15:24:14 +0200 Message-ID: <20260617132414.103828-1-valentin@gagarin.work> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-Authenticated-Id: valentin@gagarin.work Message-ID-Hash: 7FPF5FHL7HVON2AXNSXG6GX3LCDNXRVJ X-Message-ID-Hash: 7FPF5FHL7HVON2AXNSXG6GX3LCDNXRVJ X-MailFrom: valentin@gagarin.work X-Mailman-Rule-Misses: dmarc-mitigation; no-senders; approved; loop; banned-address; header-match-devel.spectrum-os.org-0; header-match-devel.spectrum-os.org-1; header-match-devel.spectrum-os.org-2; header-match-devel.spectrum-os.org-3; header-match-devel.spectrum-os.org-4; emergency; member-moderation; nonmember-moderation; administrivia; implicit-dest; max-recipients; max-size; news-moderation; no-subject; digests; suspicious-header CC: Valentin Gagarin X-Mailman-Version: 3.3.10 Precedence: list List-Id: Patches and low-level development discussion Archived-At: List-Archive: List-Help: List-Owner: List-Post: List-Subscribe: List-Unsubscribe: This changes front-page wording in load-bearing ways, for reasons that may be non-obvious: - Split into shorter sentences Each one is focused on describing a separate idea. The second idea is more complex and warrants more words, so having a dedicated sentence avoids losing the reader. - s/several dozen/many/ The particular number doesn't matter, and may be arbitrarily wrong in practice. The point is that there's fragmentation. The snark about any large number is unnecessary if we put the real problem in the foreground. - s/mixed up in// It could be that entanglement is an issue, but fragmentation seems to be the bigger issue. In any case, the original sentence was awkward grammatically, because it tried putting together how a system is handled with what the system is like. - s/managed as a whole/still treated as a whole/ We're already saying "managed" in the first sentence. Managing the system is very different from managing state. We need to be careful with using words without prior definitions, so the best we can do here is avoid inadvertent conflation. There is enough potential for confusion as it is. "still" acknowledges the traditional single-system experience that Spectrum preserves by design. - s/backed up and// The difficulty of backing up is a specific instance of the fragmentation problem. But this is likely only evident to Qubes users. We can expect most readers to know about it theoretically at best. While it's not wrong to have this sort of anchor, keeping it risks diluting the main message. - "each becoming a system of its own" This captures the Qubes failure mode Spectrum avoids, where per-VM state accumulation forces operators into what amounts to orchestrating a cluster on one's desktop. In the original, the contrast to Qubes would not be as strong for people only familiar with it superficially. Being more explicit about the nature of the problem helps establishing the narrative frame and original motivation of Spectrum early on, part of which is overcoming Qubes limitations. --- Documentation/index.html | 6 +++--- 1 file changed, 3 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-) diff --git a/Documentation/index.html b/Documentation/index.html index 6d6faf7..0ea0a2f 100644 --- a/Documentation/index.html +++ b/Documentation/index.html @@ -23,9 +23,9 @@ such systems.

User data and application state will be managed centrally, while -remaining isolated, meaning that the system can be backed up and -managed as a whole, rather than mixed up in several dozen virtual -machines. +remaining isolated. This means that the system can be +treated as a whole, rather than many virtual +machines each becoming a system of its own.

Spectrum is an upstream-first project. Wherever possible, we aim to -- 2.54.0