The Idea of MiZe

• this note is my attempt at conveying the idea of the MiZe Software Projekt (plz send help)

TLDR

• a Software Ecosystem… like the one from Apple (company), but even better and not locking you in to any particular Hardware…
• and SO MUCH MORE (read on for that)

Short

• I hate extremely many things about how Software is made and all the restrictions this imposes on how Computers can be used.

  • rel: the tiny list of software c2vi actually thinks is good

• MiZe is my attempt at fixing those things

  • or you could say: “MiZe is c2vi trying his best to implement the Ideal Software World”
  • or “I am making the software I’d want to use”

dump of “things” about MiZe

• “having all your data in one place, that is fully under your control, accessible from every device like it was on a simple local Filesystem”

• “MiZe should not place any restrictions on how it can be used”

  • The only reason why a picture taken with your phone is not immediately “openable/viewable” on your Laptop is incapable software… Hardware wise this is absolutely possible…
  • because of me learning hardware and software and striving for a Full Understanding of Computers… I think in terms of the abilities/possibilities the layers (Tech Stack) underneath me give me/allow me. When thinking of solutions to problems related to Computers I consider the usage of all possibilities from all layers… which is where I almost always run into something that would work according to the lower layers, but not to the most upper layers. WHICH ANNOYS ME GREATLY.
  • When making software, the developers think of how the software will be used, which I’m totally ok with… but then they make the software in a way, where that is the only way the software can be used… (WHICH ANNOYS ME GREATLY)
  • another way of putting it: I’m really creative when it comes to the ways I want to use software… those ways are rarely possible, because of useless restrictions
  • example: special IDEs for Embedded System development boards or SPSes: those IDE’s have all the things needed to develop applications using Embedded System boards/chips or SPSes… but they are (for the most part) one giant monolithic thing, which takes “hours” to boot up, has no respect for ppl like me, who would like to use the mouse as little as possible when coding, and many more restrictions
  • rel: dont pile features - remove restrictions that make features appear necessary
  • rel: Software that allows you to do all things the Hardware is theoretically able to do

• I once called it a “Filesystem for the age of connectivity”

  • back in the Unix days everything was stored as Files on the local Filesystem and because “Everything is a File (unix philosophy)” even devices… so everything could be accessed/changed through the same API… back then you only had one Computer so there were no problems with storing everything only locally
    • also according to the Unix Philosophy programs were made in a way that they could work together, you could combine them, every program did one single thing and that thing well
  • nowadays everyone has multiple Computers from which you want to access your Data… the current solution to this is for every program to implement Data management their own way… KOMPLETELY killing any interoperation of modern programs.
    • you only get a glimpse of combining programs when you use Shell (cli)s
    • Android/IOS (apple) are absolute anti examples here with their “Apps”
  • I also called it “A Modern Plan 9 (software)” once

• every Application has to deal with Data somehow

  • so the basis of MiZe is formed by the MiZe Data Engine
  • more detail in: Architecture of the MiZe Data Engine

• have a look at The current Data management Situation (c2vi Diploma Thesis)

• “MiZe is basically Obsidian for EVERYTHING and not just Markdown files” - c2vi on 2025-06-21

Origin Story

• have a look at History of MiZe (c2vi Diploma Thesis)