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Re: Running Linux in a browser [message #32864 is a reply to message #32434]

Wed, 15 June 2011 17:17

harmac
Messages: 16
Registered: January 2011

Promising Member

Haha, I'd guess it certainly has to be slow as fu**. Considering how incredibly slowly a fully emulated PC runs Minix on my computer, which I've recently tested for the first time using Bochs on my admittedly not too powerful Atom system, I doubt that it would be enjoyable to run it on any weaker platform in a browser. That an emulator implementation is possible in JavaScript is not very surprising, given the functional core of the language, which some may even regard as superior to C++ (although there also seem to be at least as many ugly features in the language as are in C++; I can really suggest anyone interested in JavaScript or computer history or the state of web programming to watch Douglas Crockford's video lectures, some of which, especially the first one and the last ones, include truly mind-provoking views and insights).

Anyway, JavaScript implementations still differ at least as much as do other language implementations (you have probably already heard about compiler incompatibilities in the C/C++ world). jslinux for instance didn't work for me the first time I tried it with the then current Opera (although it seemed to work now some weeks later, maybe it is being improved). It was also not freely licensed, although the website now suggests that that might be planned in the future.

IMHO, the cleaner way to make the browser become the next application platform would be to replace JavaScript with something better instead of using it as the basis for proof-of-concept development in the now and inspire people to use it even more. Then again, the lower depths on which we built our systems are ugly as well. In an ideal world, people would do better.

Nonetheless, exciting technology that this guy has built. Here is an article that links to some of his projects: http://www.softwarequalityconnection.com/2011/03/fabrice-bel lard-portrait-of-a-superproductive-programmer/

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