Phyllome

Context

Operating systems (OS) installed directly on physical hardware have unfiltered access to the underling system hardware, which they trust by default.

In contrast, when deployed inside virtual machines, this access can be mediated at the hypervisor, enhancing the security of the overall system by allowing the user to distrust parts of the hardware stack.

Virtualization also provides users with more flexibility, allowing a machine to be cloned or migrated to a new host, thereby abstracting away the physical hardware.

Despite these advantages, most individuals don't use a virtual machine as their main desktop OS. One of the reasons is that granting a virtual machine 3D capabilities — a must-have to achieve optimal performance on any desktop environment — is still difficult, prone to errors, and risky from a security standpoint as it increases the attack surface of the overall system.

The goal

The goal of this project is to develop and distribute a KVM/QEMU-powered Linux distribution built on the smallest set of software and that will allow the virtualization of 3D accelerated guest operating systems out-of-the-box, including non-UNIX ones, while offering better security and privacy than OS installed directly on physical hardware.

Phyllome ?

According to the Wiktionnary, phyllome means

a foliar part of a plant; any organ homologous with a leaf, or produced by metamorphosis of a leaf.

Licence

CC BY SA 2020 Lukas à Porta