Fractal vs. a kernel

[natevw]

Is the current situation where the net/dgram modules are tied to the on-board CC3K and so now they and http and cetera can't use e.g. a GSM module for IP communications — more generally, the situation where we don't have an operating system managing network interfaces and name resolution and mounted filesystems and child processes and … —

Does Fractal in any specific way give us more of this missing "kernel" (even if in some sort of Mirage OS "unikernel" sense) or is that really an orthogonal concern?

[kevinmehall]

Node is built for UNIX-y platforms where processes get things like FS and net access as ambient authority, but on microcontrollers, these things don't come for free. Like in a unikernel, if you want network access, you talk to some network interface hardware. One could imagine a standardized network component interface that provides sockets as actions, and sockets providing sub-actions for transmitting and receiving bytes, or even a priority multiplexer, that routes connections over WiFi if available or cellular if not. Or a FS multiplexer, that gives you mount points. Perhaps a JS component that brings Node API compatibility could accept components as arguments to back its fs, net, or even setTimeout implementations.