Machines

A Machine is a computer that runs software for you. It has its own files, processes, and tools. You rarely need to think about it: when you open an app, Thinair picks where it runs, the way an operating system runs a program without asking which processor to use.

Where a Machine runs

A Machine can be your physical Mac, a Linux virtual machine running locally on your Mac, or a computer running in the cloud.

Your physical Mac already exists as a Machine. Local virtual Machines and Cloud Machines are launched for you when an app or an agent needs one. There is no Default Machine: Thinair places each app. In the Thinair app on your Mac, apps run on your Mac; in a web browser, they run in the cloud.

The Thinair agent gets a Machine of its own, the way a program gets a process. On your Mac that is a small Linux virtual machine; in the cloud it is a cloud computer. Every agent's Machine sees the same Thinair files in ~/Thinair. An idle agent's Machine pauses, and deleting the agent ends it. Your Terminal can still open a shell on your Mac itself.

Machines and your workspace

Machine Applications run on a Machine. You see and interact with them through Frames in your Workspace or Workbench. Right-click the canvas and choose Apps to open one, such as Google Chrome: its window appears where you clicked and says it is starting until the app is ready. Choose New Terminal to open a shell on your Mac, in Thinair Native, or in Thinair Cloud. A window's title bar shows what it is about and where it runs, never which Machine.

Thinair Native is the installed app you use to work with those Machines. Native itself is not a Machine.

Starting with a reusable setup

A Machine Definition describes how to prepare a Machine, including its software and configuration. The definition is the recipe; the Machine is the computer that runs it.

See Get Started to begin using Thinair.