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Pure JavaScript Unix-Like Web Based OS

Posted by Zonk on from the java-and-unix-sitting-in-a-tree dept.

slummy writes " JS/UIX 'is an UNIX-like OS for standard web-browsers, written entirely in JavaScript (no plug-ins used). It comprises a virtual machine, shell, virtual file-system, process-management, and brings its own terminal with screen- and keyboard-mapping.' If only you didn't need an OS to run the web browser on."

32 of 313 comments (clear)

  1. So its true! by kevin_conaway · · Score: 4, Funny

    People DO read the comments on Slashdot

  2. Next up by tqft · · Score: 5, Funny


    From TFA:
    "The only application for now is a simple implementation of vi"

    How long before emacs is ported?

    --
    The Singularity is closer than you think
    Quant
  3. Uses? by AKAImBatman · · Score: 4, Insightful

    That's kind of neat, but I am having some difficulty in deciding what it's useful for. Perhaps teaching Unix to new users? It is, after all, a "fake" environment that looks like the real thing.

    Related to this (but much cooler), there used to be a site at WebOS.com where the site lauched a full-screen browser window and allowed you to interact with an entirely HTML desktop. Even the applications were downloaded on the fly, and the files were saved on the server.

    --
    Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
    1. Re:Uses? by AnObfuscator · · Score: 5, Funny

      Usefull? Usefull??!! Dude, it's a Unix OS written in JavaScript that runs on a web browser... the nerdiness is off the charts! Who cares about usefull?!

      --
      multifariam.net -- yet another nerd blog
    2. Re:Uses? by rjamestaylor · · Score: 5, Funny

      If your browser is sufficiently tabbed you can run multiple sessions and create a Beowolf Cluster from them -- BeoFox? Beafari?

      --
      -- @rjamestaylor on Ello
    3. Re:Uses? by Goaway · · Score: 3, Interesting
      Related to this (but much cooler), there used to be a site at WebOS.com where the site lauched a full-screen browser window and allowed you to interact with an entirely HTML desktop. Even the applications were downloaded on the fly, and the files were saved on the server.


      Shameless plug: I've made something similar here: http://wakaba.c3.cx/desktop-test/desktop.pl
      Log in as test:test. It's fairly useful for doing management of a web server. Try not to Slashdot it too badly, OK?

      Mor information here: http://wakaba.c3.cx/sup/kareha.pl/1116806324
    4. Re:Uses? by DrSkwid · · Score: 3, Informative

      Corkscrew is a tool for tunneling SSH through HTTP proxies.

      those crazy firewall admins and their rules !

      --
      There are places where the networks are not touching,and there are places where they are-Boeing's Lori Gunter
    5. Re:Uses? by AKAImBatman · · Score: 4, Informative

      Just so you're aware, this only emulates the Unix shell, not the entire Unix OS. So you can see a file system in memory, run vi, cat, ls, etc, but you can't actually interact with any environments.

      The MirrorDot mirror is here so that you can try for yourself. :-)

      --
      Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
  4. Especially... by nmoog · · Score: 3, Informative

    ..Especially when combined with XUL
    (apologies to slashdot member CTho9305)

  5. Obligatory by Deep+Fried+Geekboy · · Score: 3, Funny

    I for one welcome our new web-based OS overlor... oh, shit, look at that, it's slashdotted.

    PS You do know that in Soviet Russia, your browser runs your OS, right?

    --

    I'm not wrong. You haven't thought about it hard enough.

  6. Screenshot by md81544 · · Score: 5, Funny
    Dead already, but I managed to grab a screenshot:
    [guest@www.masswerk.at:2]$
    :-)
  7. fake DOS... by wirehead78 · · Score: 4, Funny

    I remember back in the day I wrote a BASIC program that looked exactly like DOS, except it would give weird error messages any time you did anything. My parents sure loved that one.

    1. Re:fake DOS... by rayde · · Score: 5, Funny
      did you call your creation MS-DOS?

      ;-)

    2. Re:fake DOS... by fons · · Score: 3, Funny

      haha, downloaded and tried it.

      It still works on my XP machine!

      I was even worried for an instant when it was supposedly formatting my hard d^i^c^kz^z^z^^z^z^f^^ s^d^f^zêf^zê^f^sd^f s^df ^sd^f ^sd^f^s^df^s s^df ^sd^f^s^df^s^df^^s^sd^f^sd^f^^sd^f ^^sdf^^sd^f

    3. Re:fake DOS... by the+way,+what're+you · · Score: 3, Funny
      I was even worried for an instant when it was supposedly formatting my hard d^i^c^kz^z^z^^z^z^f^^ s^d^f^zêf^zê^f^sd^f s^df ^sd^f ^sd^f^s^df^s s^df ^sd^f^s^df^s^df^^s^sd^f^sd^f^^sd^f ^^sdf^^sd^f
      for those of you keeping score at home, that's (zf-c)(sd+2k-i)(f-x)(1-ê)^3, with len(d^i^c^kz) = 0
      --
      example.org - powered by Linux!
    4. Re:fake DOS... by PakProtector · · Score: 5, Funny

      You wanna hear a really fucked up story?

      Okay. It's 1993. I think. I was somewhere between 8 and 10, so maybe it was '94. Anyway, it's not important.

      I was learning to program at the time, and my uncle who is four years older than me decided that since I was a rather dull child, with wit as sharp as a rubber ball, I should start with QBASIC.

      So I created a grand program: A DOS Shell. It would let you look around, cd, all that fancy stuff. I added colours.

      It was all good.

      So, anyway, I didn't really have a good concept of exactly what an OS was, and I decided I'd written one, so, (this was back in the day you understand, and my parents really weren't too computer savvy) I got on their AOL account and uploaded it to AOL's file center, billing it as a revolutionary new operation system called DHDMP. I think. That or DHCMP. I forget.

      The instructions went something along the lines of, STEP 1: Uninstall DOS.

      You get the picture.

      Well, after around 9 thousand downloads, my parent's AOL account was canceled.

      I'd like to think I did a great deal of good via those 9 thousand downloads.

      --

      Edward@Tomato - /home/Edward/ man woman
      man: no entry for woman in the manual.
      "Qua!?"

    5. Re:fake DOS... by Mr.+Underbridge · · Score: 3, Funny
      10 in 94? Holy crap. Congratulations on making many of us feel old.

      Maybe that's hex. I'm 1A years old.

  8. crap .. by macaulay805 · · Score: 3, Funny

    Does this mean that Boot Managers need to be Acid2 Certified as well??!!?

  9. Site slashdotted by Underholdning · · Score: 5, Interesting

    The site is already dead, so here's something else - not a complete OS, but still has a (working) browser, games etc.

    --
    Underholdning.info
  10. Yes, but . . . by Idou · · Score: 4, Funny

    Can it run Lynx?

    --
    Sdelat' Ameriku velikoy Snova!
  11. If you cant reach because of the /.... by sandstorming · · Score: 5, Informative

    JS/UIX is an UN*X-like OS for standard web-browsers, written entirely in JavaScript (no plug-ins used). It comprises a vir- tual machine, shell, virtual file-system, process-management, and brings its own terminal with screen- and keyboard-mapping.

    For an overview of implemented commands have a look at the complete > JS/UIX-Manual-Pages; see also the > Version-History.

    The keyboard accepts the US-ASCII character set. As key-mapping depends from your browser, you may have to use the cursor and backspace buttons at the lower right of the terminal. A complete keyboard can be accessed at the lower left.

    Compatibility: Netscape 4+, MS IE 4+ and DOM-aware browsers.


    Mirrordot link:
    http://mirrordot.org/stories/1c1bf041ca7144dbe4b35 249a8db7dff/index.html

    --
    http://www.sandstorming.com
  12. unnecessary... by rayde · · Score: 5, Funny

    I've already got my browser based OS of choice. ;-)

  13. Why is this in the Java topic? by Tim+C · · Score: 4, Informative

    For the nth time, Java and Javascript have nothing at all to do with each other. The syntax is similar (both being based loosely on C), but that's it.

    It might as well go in the Hardware topic too, while you're at it - after all, it must be running on some kind of hardware.

    --
    It's official. Most of you are morons.
    1. Re:Why is this in the Java topic? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny
      For the nth time, Java and Javascript have nothing at all to do with each other. The syntax is similar (both being based loosely on C), but that's it.
      Why do you call yourself Tim C? For the nth time you were not written in C, you are composed of DNA and a bunch of other chemicals. The syntax is similar (both being based on a series of instructions), but that's it.

      You might as well call yourself Tim x86 Assembly - after all, there's some underlying atomic arrangement to your cell structure.

    2. Re:Why is this in the Java topic? by allanc · · Score: 5, Funny

      That's a stupid way to pick a username.

      --AC

  14. Finally we can put together... by ratta · · Score: 5, Funny

    the ease of use of Unix with the security of Internet Explorer.

    --
    Wondering why i am doing so strange posts? I am trying to get a "+5,Flamebait" or "-1,Insightful" rating.
  15. SSH client? by ahg · · Score: 3, Insightful

    An in browser SSH client in Java has been done before... but I would love one in Javascript, no extra components to install in the browser.

    --

    --Aaron Greenberg

    1. Re:SSH client? by Jerf · · Score: 4, Informative

      An absolutely pure, portable, cross-platform Javascript SSH client is currently not possible. Javascript does not have a "socket" primitive. It only has XMLHttpRequest, which can only connect to webservers via HTTP, which is page-based protocol and you can't emulate a socket that way, either.

      Of course you can build an SSH-like thing that has a server component, but that's been possible for a while. (It's not easy emulating a term, and it'd be latent as all hell, but that's what you get.)

      You can hack and hack and hack, but without server support you just can't get past the fact you don't have a real socket connection in Javascript.

      I added all those adjectives at the beginning because if you're willing to write and install a Mozilla XPCOM control or ActiveX or something that exposes a socket you can do it. But that is, presumably, not what you meant since you mentioned not needing to install components.

  16. I Know!!! by eno2001 · · Score: 3, Funny

    Let's build a kernel around the Gecko engine!!! Boot into Firefox on a framebuffer!!!! The ultimate intarweb terminal! In the process we accomplisht the following:

    1. No more monolithic Linux kernel or proprietary Windows kernel!
    2. No more mach kernel because they're slow dontchaknow
    3. We get rid of X Windows and replace it with Gecko, Javascript, CSS and Mozilla chromes
    4. No more clunky X Windows network transparency because nobody uses it anyways. Now all graphic connections will happen in memory instead of going out over the network to the router and back in to the machine they went out of!
    5. No more ability to run servers (because only crackers and pirates do that)
    6. Google searches become embedded in teh OS like Microsoft plans to do in Pot Noodle Hornlong!
    7. A driving instructor somewhere in Johanessberg gets his job back mate!

    Man am I thirsty! ;P

    --
    -"...bad old ideas look confusingly fresh when they are packaged as technology" - Jaron Lanier (Digital Maoism on Edge.o
  17. Re:No comments and site dead. by Waltre · · Score: 3, Funny

    since the google cache site has been slashdotted, we now need a cache of the google cache page.

  18. Lemmings! by Butterspoon · · Score: 3, Interesting

    For another really cool example of what you can do with JavaScript, click here.

    --
    pi = 2*|arg(God)|
  19. Irony by AgentSlash · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Hmm. Ironically, your post sounds an aweful lot like a "I'm not clever or imaginive enough to come up with my own innovations so I'll just ridicule someone else who is." compensation device...