The Case for a Single System Image for Personal Devices

Abstract: Computing technology has gotten cheaper and more powerful, allowing users to have a growing number of personal computing devices at their disposal. While this trend is beneficial for the user, it also creates a growing management burden for the user. Each device must be managed independently and users must repeat the same management tasks on the each device, such as updating software, changing configurations, backup, and replicating data for availability. To prevent the management burden from increasing with the number of devices, we propose that all devices run a single system image called a personal computing image. Personal computing images export a device-specific user interface on each device, but provide a consistent view of application and operating state across all devices. As a result, management tasks can be performed once on any device and will be automatically propagated to all other devices belonging to the user. We discuss evolutionary steps that can be taken to achieve personal computing images for devices and elaborate on challenges that we believe building such systems will face.