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Emulated PC Enables Linux Desktop In Your Browser
Ianopolous writes "Classic DOOM and DSL Linux Desktop inside your Java-enabled browser! The latest JPC, the fast 100% Java x86 PC emulator, is now available with online demos and downloads. JPC is open source and is the most secure way of running x86 software ever — 2 layers (applet sandbox, JPC sandbox) of independently validated security make it the world's most secure means of isolating x86 software. Visit the website to try out some classic games and play around with Linux all within your web browser. Refresh = reboot!"
Just what you want - an even easier way to lose data from your VM. Why rely on bugs and crashes when an accidental refresh can reboot your machine?!
I'm just waiting for somebody to go, "fuck that Java shit." But read the summary, people! Secure means security which means secure!
Also: But can it run Crysis?
I heard you like running x86 so we emulated your x86 in java to run on your x86.
Yo dawg,
I herd you like Operating systems, so we put a Operating system in your Browser so you can Browse Operating systems while you browse in yo operating system!
They must've been using IE to run their web server inside of it
A Beowulf cluster of these.... In tabs on your browser.
No it's not. Site's down.
Man, this is totally awesome!
...
Hmmm... I wonder if I can run VMware in it.
Blow, tripple booting.... three operating systems three deep!!!!
Bwahhhahahahahahah.... I will control the world!
Bow before your... oh..... It's been done before....
Nevermind!
Signature!
random link! summer vacation
JPC has been around for at least 3 years, and on Slashdot at least twice before.
I hadn't known there were so many idiots in the world until I started using the Internet -Stanislaw Lem
I saw this article and couldn't figure out why I would want to run an x86 emulator in my browser, so I clicked to see other people's comments. Apparently no one else on slashdot can figure out why someone would want to do that either.
The truth is that all men having power ought to be mistrusted. James Madison
the world's most secure means of isolating x86 software
I seriously doubt this claim...
What about? http://www.nsa.gov/research/tech_transfer/fact_sheets/nettop.shtml
Or its predecessor? http://www.nsa.gov/ia/programs/h_a_p/releases/hapr1.shtml
do they provide sourcecode ?
(really interested if they do )
virtualbox is pretty nifty but inside a JVM is pretty impressive from a engineering point of view
have they published any work on this ?
regards
John Jones
I don' think Applet deployment is the target for that project; if they are offering this option it's certainly just for quick demo sake. Notice also that the applet would need some serious time to download because (1) the emulator itself is reasonably big, (2) you need a virtual disk image containing the whole OS and apps; even a small FreeDOS distro with a couple of tiny DOS games will weight in a few hundred Kb, although the problem is mostly for first run as the Java PlugIn can cache everything.
As I see it, JPC's main goal is showing off some amazing virtualization technology that they have developed - the emulated x86 code is JIT-compiled by JPC's engine into Java bytecodes, which are in turn JIT-compiled by the JVM to native code, so the net result is full native-to-native translation. (If both steps are sufficiently efficient and the host platform is also x86, the compiled code may even be very similar to the original code.) This remembers of similar systems like Transmeta's Crusoe.
As a secondary goal,. JPC is becoming a pretty nice general-purpose PC emulator, so it's potentially just as useful as other PC emulators like Bochs. If JPC reaches sufficiently close to native performance (I tested it ~1yr ago and it's slashdotted now), and includes sufficient hardware compatibility, it's obviously an advantage to be a Java program, fully portable including UI.
It's so we can run Windows 3.11 on top of Windows 2000 on top of Windows XP on top of Windows Vista on top of Windows 7 which is inside a browser running on Java inside Windows 2000 which is on top of Windows XP, which is on top of Vista, which is on top of 7.
And it may even have enough speed to run as fast as a 386 25MHz...
Having a PC emulator written in Java means to be able to run any previously-written x86 code on any Java-enabled machine out there, forever. And don’t forget about mobile devices, too. JPC needs not to be run in a browser, it can be run standalone, and has already been ported to high-end phones - I, for one, think that running Windows 3.1 on a phone is quite cool. Running old games might even be funny. :D) of ancient software;
Perhaps JPC could be ported to an xlet and, say, ran off a bluray disc or a dvb-t transmission. OK, I hate both of them, but the point is that achieving platform-independence opens up many possibilities.
It’s not less useful than the many old-systems emulators available on the net - and those get quite a lot of followers.
I’d say that it can be useful for:
- preservation (and enjoyment
- interoperability with not-so-ancient software.
fast or Java?
I was wondering, if we run a Java x86 PC emulator that is emulating an Amiga that is emulating a Spectrum, is it still faster than a real Spectrum or do we need to optimise it a bit?
There are 10 kinds of people in the world... those who understand binary and those who don't.
It's a good (for given values of good) way of turning those old bits of legacy code into web apps. How many businesses have you seen that depend on some bit of 16-bit Windows software, probably written in VB or Delphi, which had source code once but no one's seen a copy for a decade? These programs ran okay on a 386 and ran well on a 486. Now they'll run in a web browser on whatever platform you want, including something very cheap like a Loongson 2F or ARM.
I am TheRaven on Soylent News
"Classic DOOM and DSL Linux Desktop inside your Java-enabled browser! The latest JPC, the fast 100% Java x86 PC emulator, is now available with online demos and downloads. JPC is open source [...] Visit the website to try out some classic games and [...]"
Where it mentions playing DOOM and other DOS games, JPC is booting FreeDOS. So yes, this can run FreeDOS.
Here's a screenshot of FreeDOS in action on JPC, if you need one.
In fact, we've discussed the Java PC emulator on the FreeDOS web site since JPC was first released. We even link to it on our "About" page and "Links" page. It's a great way to introduce new users to the idea of running DOS, without asking them to install their own PC emulator, or even install FreeDOS at all.
Java PC has been released under the GNU GPL since May 2007, so to answer your question: source code is available. We mirrored an old copy of the source code from 2007, but looks like we haven't made further copies. But maybe it's enough to interest folks who don't want to wait for the JPC site to recover from its slashdotting today.
2 layers (applet sandbox, JPC sandbox) of independently validated security make it the world's most secure means of isolating x86 software
I contest this notion (if I understand their setup correctly; the website is broken so I've some uncertainty about what they're doing). I agree that it's likely a very secure setup, but I disagree that the two lawyers of Java VM security makes it the most secure setup for running x86.
The common Java VM is a single point of failure. Both layers of "independently validated security" are running in Java VM, so if there is an exploit in the runtime interpreter (or compiled executable, if they're compiling things now), it may be used to circumvent both sandboxes. Using two different Java VMs would be an improvement, but better still would be orthogonal interpreters (on the plane of security vectors) such as a Java VM and a Python interpreter. Both are nevertheless still probably calling some version of glibc on x86 machine code.
If I were to speculate (and I will), I'd say that Xen et al virtualization has fewer vectors, and better still would be x86 virtualization running on top of a mainframe ala. z/VM. That would, in theory, be more secure than this Java VM on Java VM setup. Of course, it all comes down to the implementations in the end (and, as a practical matter, how big a target they are - Java is a big target for security, z/VM less so).
Again, though, I think this Java VM is likely very secure. Claiming it's the world's most secure is puffery, though, in my humble opinion.
Quick! Write a java interpreter in Flash!
Skynet will wake up there, say "WTF? Where am I?!", get confused and die, thus saving humanity who will never appreciate how JPC saved us from our machine overlords. Security through serious obscurity FTW!
Or the computer the JVM is run on will need rebooting long before Skynet can complete the thought. Whichever.