Google Native Client Puts x86 On the Web

t3rmin4t0r writes "Google has announced its Google native client, which enables x86 native code to be run securely inside a browser. With Java applets already dead and buried, this could mean the end of the new war between browsers and the various JavaScript engines (V8, Squirrelfish, Tracemonkey). The only question remains whether it can be secured (ala ActiveX) and whether the advantages carry over onto non-x86 platforms. The package is available for download from its Google code site. Hopefully, I can finally write my web apps in asm." Note: the Google code page description points out that this is not ready for production use: "We've released this project at an early, research stage to get feedback from the security and broader open-source communities." Reader eldavojohn links to a technical paper linked from that Google code page [PDF] titled "Native Client: A Sandbox for Portable, Untrusted x86 Native Code," and suggests this in-browser Quake demo, which requires the Native Code plug-in.

Comments

Re:Two steps backward

[MikeBabcock]

The only problem you seem to have with Java plugins is the load time -- this is only resolved by Javascript because JS is pre-loaded by the browser at all times (in modern browsers at least).

If other plugins were to be marked as 'frequently used' by the plugin engine and loaded at runtime instead of page load-time, they'd obviously be just as responsive as Javascript (or more so, since Java is compiled to native code in many cases).

Making a browser that integrates Java in a reasonable way and makes it work just as seamlessly as Javascript was tried already (by Netscape) but it was before we had computers with enough RAM to handle it IMHO.

Re:doesn't sound too secure yet

[should_be_linear]

I also noticed that Google is very aggressively trying *not* to use Java JRE anywhere, as Dalvik VM or this x86 nonsense demonstrate. I have no idea why is that, given Java and JRE are FOSS now. One thing is for sure: Their Google Docs and other office-like applications would only start to make much more sense if they use new JavaFX clients (that can be dragged from browser to desktop, becoming standalone app) alongside with improving JRE support in Chrome and Firefox.