Hi, sirocyl here again. It's been a while...

So, what has styx been up to over the past year?

A lot. Between DNS work, software, governance, decision-making and maintenance, it's been slow and steady.
Currently, we're a one-person project. And the person in question, who's writing this blog post, has been through a hell of a time getting to a relative point of stability in their life.

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Since the last blog post:

• cohost.org has fully shut down. Our blog posts on there have been migrated to this platform, including comments.
• I won't elaborate further, but political changes in both local and national government have led to changes in strategy and further considerations toward governance and continuity of the styx project.
• I've moved to the Pacific Northwest. It's not a decision I've taken lightly, but Long Island was very much not the right place for me or for fostering the styx project, owing in part to the previous bullet point.

Okay, so what are you working on?

The current strategy is to continue to work on styx, doing these things first:

• Get tooling established for package maintainers and teams to collaborate on, moderate, upload and ship styx packages using the DNS-based distributions in the styx zone.
• Work on DNS infrastructure for the styx zone, including signing/DNSSEC, AXFR/IXFR capability for package list synchronization, and updating the master DNS zone files/databases through the 'groupware' tooling, from PHP. Likely using PowerDNS for this.
• Rename and refactor this website and the Phorge-based tooling, called "hydra" up to this point. The name is confusing, doesn't exactly meet the theme of being a Stygian or Infernal entity, and there are already other distributions who call eerily similar tooling "Hydra" already.
• Work on the software that isn't on the server. This is the styx package builder, styx installer, and styx daemon.
  • The styx builder will likely consume recipes from Gentoo, at first, and build out packages from that. Gentoo has a good, existing and large library of software source code and build instructions already prepared by their devoted community, and we can maintain software provenance and SBOM integrity through their distribution and build tooling.
  • The styx-installer, whose job it is to perform all network tasks for fetching packages, updating styx repo lists, and getting styx package information from DNS and other remote/file metadata, in order to prepare and configure a package for either local installation, or to be run from a remote source directly.
  • The styx-daemon, whose job it is to monitor directories and files for changes to the system configuration, and then act on those changes to commit likewise changes to the state and configuration of the system; as well as to prepare user state (home directory) and receive handoff from the styx bootstrap (initramfs and system preparation stages).

Another major hangup, and one that is currently being worked on, is the transition of our documentation from the semi-open styxdev Discord. Currently, we have 49 RFCs and a number more notes drafted on the Discord, with commentary and discussion from the nascent community there.

RFC 50, consequently, is to be our plan to transition the styxdev discord from being our developer/internal community and documentation base, to being a general user, software maintainer and enthusiast community where announcements will be posted, and broader discussion about styx can take place.
It will also set in stone what we move to, off of Discord. I may choose to use Zulip for developer discussion and coordination; and for RFCs, a simple Dokuwiki instance may stand them up while the Phorge-based web tooling ("Hydra", soon to have a different name) is being built up.

Finally, governance and community stewardship plans are to be made, so that styx can live a long, healthy and prosperous life serving its community members and those around it well. This includes 501(c) or similar non-profit establishment, and for our goals, community codes and expectations to be outlined more explicitly.

Well, how can you afford it?

As far as money is concerned, our main costs are currently for the domains we will use to provide the styx distributions and other related services. These have either been paid out of pocket, or through generous donations from close friends and project members/supporters.
In the future, I anticipate that hosting, mirrors and other infrastructure expenses would materialize; but for now, we're very lean, and only DNS (through Porkbun) constitutes our major expense portfolio.
I'm also going to mention here some plans I'd had in mind for providing styx as a product to businesses, enterprises, schools, governments and other institutions which may require support for their usecases.

Alongside the non-commercial and non-profit plans, later plans to provide paid support and services for enterprise and business users may materialize from the styx project overall.
The goals for these efforts is not toward a profit or growth-oriented motive, and the revenue from that effort should be applied to styx, and to people who work on styx.

The major reason for doing this, is not only to support styx in and of itself; but it is to provide the "C" in "COTS", Commercial Off-The-Shelf solutions for businesses, schools, governments and their operational needs - as "free software", or anything that cannot be registered as a line-item in bookkeeping, tends to be forbidden in such practices.

There will not be, and should never be, a "styx pro" version for sale, with things you cannot have as an open-source, free software user of styx.

Those efforts will be separate from, but contributing to, the styx community, projects and groups, as specified in its bylaws or otherwise tightly bound in a legal or contractual framework.

(In this block, these are forward-looking statements and do not announce, plan or signify any promise, or expectation to follow-through on them.)

Where do we go from here?

Despite all this, styx is still going. I have no plans to cancel or back-shelf this project, and will continue to devote time towards it. It lives in my thoughts every day, because it is something I strongly feel is necessary in order to make computing better - not just for myself, nor my friends, but for everyone who comes in contact with the built infrastructure of modern-day operating systems, computers, smartphones, the embedded and IoT devices you use every day, and the servers backing the many interconnected, networked services you depend on.

We wish, simply, to do things better. Not in a pragmatic way, focusing on things like minimalism/lightweightness, visual design, or the inclusion of Blockchain, or AI, or whatever the next fad is; but in a realistic way, to know that "better" is a goal that involves patience, development, and the mutual understanding of subjective experiences which may differ. Nothing can be "better" to everyone, and trying to press that kind of narrative is what tends to lead to the sort of manic group-think that dominates modern commerce and society.

Trying to make your experience with the computer "suck less" can lead down a rabbit hole to the types of purist, utopian thinking that tends to end up with fascistic, cultlike and exclusionary groupthink.

So we choose instead, to know what sucks about your computer - and to suck better,

So, it's been a lot. How can you help?

Firstly, styx is a project that is developed through discussion. We would love it if you would join our Discord, and talk with us about what you'd like to see out of styx, what we're doing right, what we might be doing wrong. Check the #styx-notes channel in the Discord.
Second, spread the word and make it known that you're looking forward to what styx may become!
Finally, keep an eye out in the usual places - here on the blog, on our Discord, and by following our social media presence on Bluesky.

I'm hoping that by the end of this year, I can at least put some work into the core software and get a minimum-viable proof of concept for the styx packaging methods, DNS-backed distribution methods, and the package archive fetch, mount and environment preparation tooling on the local machine side, done.

This MVPOC may not be very functional, but it will serve as a ground basis to build on top of.

Once that's out the door, software build and packaging tooling, pulling sources and building them through Gentoo, will be next.

It'll be slow work. I would definitely appreciate it if I could pair-program with others, and work with a team on this, but I'll still do what I can solo, if I have to.

Outside of styx, my personal life has been quite busy. I've assembled a cool group of friends to start a new hackerspace in the Seattle area. I've helped a good friend set up a retro workspace in the area, too. The GameTank fully open-source hardware 6502-based 8-bit game console has been getting my attention as well, with me being something of a spokesperson for the project in several ways recently. (It is an extremely cool thing and I fully support it and the people behind it. I've been working on launching my youtube channel and blog, as well as getting a workstation ready for streaming games and work in my free time. (I'm using an M4 Mac Mini for this. Whole lot of computer you get for under $500 used nowadays.)

As always, styx isn't dead. I'll be back here to post up some more thoughts and plans for the project as time goes, but for now, I've gotta cut this blog post somewhere. Keep an eye out around here, and I'll be back with good news!