Processor and network architectures are making rapid progress with more and more cores being integrated into single processors and more and more machines getting connected with increasing bandwidth. Processors become heterogeneous and reconfigurable, thus allowing for dynamic adaptation to specialised needs. In future, thousands of billions of devices may be connected to form a single computing unit.No current programming model is able to cope with this development, as they are too tightly coupled with the underlying device structure. Furthermore, complex, non-aligned middlewares and operating systems render the programming model unnecessarily inefficient. In order to realise efficient programmability of terascale devices by experts and average developers equally, a complete new approach to handling these types of devices across all layers is required:The S(o)OS project will address future distributed systems on the level of a holistic operating system architecture by drawing from Service Oriented Architectures and the strength of Grids. This will decouple the OS from the underlying resource infrastructure, thus making execution across an almost unlimited number of varying devices possible, independent from the actual hardware.S(o)OS will allow for automatic distribution of code parts across such a resource fabric by investigating means to execute processes, threads and parallel applications across resources in a way that addresses both code requirements and resource availability, thus improving overall performance.S(o)OS intends to enable even average developers to cope with large, widely distributed infrastructures. The project therefore examines means for run-time code assessment, its segmentation and distribution across the infrastructure. This will range from automated assessment to a powerful extension for experienced developers to specify e.g. communication and relationship requirements.