I wonder if the name "capabilities" was intentionally chosen to be confused with the "object capability" security model, which is a completely different beast.
Object capabilities would bring reasonable security to the OS, so we wouldn't have to use clumsy VM's as a security model. Unfortunately, the mistake of the 1960's (ACL-based security) stuck to this day, and object-capabilities were barely put to use.
Object capabilities would bring reasonable security to the OS, so we wouldn't have to use clumsy VM's as a security model. Unfortunately, the mistake of the 1960's (ACL-based security) stuck to this day, and object-capabilities were barely put to use.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Object-capability_model