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<title>How a Computer Should Work &mdash; Joe Maloney</title>
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<a class="backlink" href="index.html">&larr; Back to home</a>

<header>
  <h1>How a Computer Should Work</h1>
  <p class="subtitle">The case for an offline-first appliance, simple enough for a mere mortal.</p>
  <p class="meta">Joe Maloney &middot; April 6, 2026</p>
</header>

<blockquote>
  And the thing about an operating system is that you're never ever
  supposed to see it. Because nobody really uses an operating system;
  people use programs on their computer. And the only mission in life of
  an operating system is to help those programs run.
  <cite>&mdash; Linus Torvalds</cite>
</blockquote>

<p>Operating systems today fail to meet this goal. So let's make an
appliance instead.</p>

<h2>Make it an appliance</h2>

<p>The system should consume as little space as possible. It should be
possible to build the system and its applications on any low-resource
machine &mdash; so that even the lowest-tier, no-cost CI/CD options in the
cloud can build it. Every machine, new and old, should be able to run it.</p>

<h2>Boot quietly, boot welcoming</h2>

<p>The computer should boot the appliance with not a single line of text,
unless the user invokes a shortcut to show verbose logging or a recovery
command line. It should boot with a light background.</p>

<h2>Login without the internet</h2>

<p>When the computer is booted, if a user must log in, it should never
require an internet connection to do so.</p>

<p>If a user wants to boot straight to a desktop and never enter a password
at all, they should be able to. This could work by letting the user create
an account with no password, or by selecting a disposable guest account
that runs entirely in memory and is never saved.</p>

<h2>Applications you actually own</h2>

<p>A user should be able to download applications from the internet without
signing in to anything. They should be able to copy an application to a
flash drive, plug that drive into a system that has no internet connection,
and use the application there &mdash; forever, with no connection ever
required.</p>

<h2>Upgrade without erasing</h2>

<p>If the user decides to upgrade the computer, they should be able to
download an ISO and boot it to upgrade only the system &mdash; without
erasing the disk, and while preserving the user's data and applications.</p>

<h2>A server with no setup</h2>

<p>If a user has ten machines and wants to set one up as a server, they
should be able to do exactly that: create user accounts on it, then boot
the other systems on the network, run applications, or log in over the
network. There should be no setup required for a single server.</p>

<h2>Old hardware is good hardware</h2>

<p>With new hardware made expensive by AI demand and other shortages, it
doesn't make sense to support only new devices. A user should be able to
buy nearly any refurbished machine and run both the appliance and the
desktop on it.</p>

<p>If I want to write books, make music, edit photos, or edit videos
&mdash; why do I need an always-on, internet-connected machine? The answer
is that I don't.</p>

<h2>Closing Thoughts</h2>

<p>I just want a system that gets out of the way and lets me make things
&mdash; quietly, on my own terms, for as long as the hardware lasts. That's
how a computer should work.</p>

<footer>
  Joe Maloney &middot;
  <a href="https://github.com/pkgdemon">github.com/pkgdemon</a>
</footer>

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