Show HN: WeUseElixir - Elixir project directory

I never used Erlang, and I'm a functional programming fan. But languages based on heavy VM that abstract OS away always make me doubt that's the right direction.

That's not a crazy instinct, and maybe if OSs were better you would even be right, but there's not really another way to get a skrillion communicating processes that can all crash/fail independently. Without a dedicated VM, all the other approaches are either less safe or too inefficient.

I consider BEAM an indication of a direction that OSs could and maybe should move. It's even possible to run BEAM on bare metal, (almost?) entirely in place of the normal OS.

> It's even possible to run BEAM on bare metal, (almost?) entirely in place of the normal OS.

How? With a unikernel?

i would think so, no other option afaik.

Using GRiSP Metal, not exactly without an OS, but using a real time OS designed for embedded devices.

https://www.grisp.org/software

What makes you think the BEAM VM is "heavy"?

It's almost like an OS in itself and initially designed to be like a more capable and robust OS on top of rather constrained computers. In my experience it's trivial to shell or port out to the environment when I want to, and I also see people that I don't think of as highly skilled low-level programmers do things with NIF:s so that can't be exceptionally demanding either.

Yes it's definitely not heavy like a Java program that will cannibalize your RAM.

It's actually quite lean.

It will use all your cores without you asking (which is fantastic right?) but it's configurable AFAIK.