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Boot Linux (or OpenBSD Or Oberon Or FreeDOS) In Your Browser (copy.sh)
Long-time Slashdot reader DeQueue writes: Back in 2011 Fabrice Bellard, the initiator of the QEMU emulator, wrote a PC emulator in JavaScript that let you boot Linux in your browser. But he didn't stop there.
On his website he now has images that let you boot Oberon, Arch Linux, FreeDOS, OpenBSD, Solar OS and more recent versions of Linux such as 2.6 or 3.18 (the 3.18 image includes internet access). You can also boot to a CD image, or a floppy image, or a hard drive disk image on your local machine. And, if you don't need yet another operating system on your computer, you can even boot to Bootchess and play chess
On his website he now has images that let you boot Oberon, Arch Linux, FreeDOS, OpenBSD, Solar OS and more recent versions of Linux such as 2.6 or 3.18 (the 3.18 image includes internet access). You can also boot to a CD image, or a floppy image, or a hard drive disk image on your local machine. And, if you don't need yet another operating system on your computer, you can even boot to Bootchess and play chess
Everybody is busy playing with it...
The first thing I tried to do, is launch Win98. That worked. Then with Internet Explorer, go to Fabrice Bellard's site again and launch Windows 98 inside the VM. But now IE wants to install a modem first :(
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Lzexe - exe file compression on the PC to fit more on your floppy. ...
Qemu - emulate random processors on your PC.
tccboot - boot linux using a live C compiler.
Live broadcast of digital video using a VGA card.
I would love to be able to use the systemd OS with this!
Where does it state that it's from Fabrice Bellard?
The page says it's by Fabian Hemmer
Not enough boots
I beat my record!
Run the Win98 one.
Shut it down.
It BSOD's with 0E exception in VXD VDD.
That's got to be a world-record in terms of "number of instructions executed before a fatal error".
Mozilla.org must be ecstatic!
I wish that his improved picture format, BPG, would get more attention and adoption. It truly is a better replacement for both JPG and PNG.
... to run an OS image 50% of the speed it would run on a 386.
Also how exactly does the internet access bit work when browsers deliberately limit the net access they allow javascript?
I think the developer is on the right track. I'd LOVE to have a workable emulator in the browser that is good. It's not there yet but keep working on it! Good job!
Keep us posted!!!
I'd like to see how they manage that one.
I'm not sure that this is created by Fabrice Bellard, since the README.MD says:
Author
Fabian Hemmer (http://copy.sh/, copy@copy.sh)
How about Global Thermonuclear War?
There is the concept of using a platform independent to run a platform specific OS and applications which is rather appealing.
Especially for those who were computing in the 1980's and 1990's where platform independent meant, you were just changing a few #define a full compile away (or if you were lucky you had the make command that did the #defines for you. Then if you had a different enough platform, you may still not be able to get it to compile, because the programmer didn't know that your OS or Linux distribution didn't have such libraries installed by default.
The holy grail was to be able to run different apps for different OS's on the same system. We now have Wine, Dosbox, and Virtualization technologies that covers most of that.
As systems are moving away from Plugins, and Interpreters. The browser like it or not, has became the default method of running applications on your system.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
Not on my system. Browsers should browse. Fuck the entire idea that they should run applications too. That's what compilers are for.
Now get off my lawn.
I can't run TempleOS on it.
Why ever would someone think that it is interesting to find a way to break this. This is obviously a fantastic effort, he needs friends to help.
So, once I booted up Linux in my browser, I could run a web browser, and in that webbrowser I could boot a Linux image, in which I could boot a browser.
Or.... I could boot a linux in a Chrome OS machine, in the linux, I could boot Chrome OS, running Android, which starts a browser, which runs a Linux, which runs a Chrome OS which runs Android which runs a browser which runs a linux boot image, which..... etc.
Can we go for the quadruple and start Windows in a Virtual Machine?... On Linux in Android in Chrome on Linux.
Want to play.
Why javascript? I thought the JVM, or .NET, were the standard, general purpose VMs?
Yes, I am a Javascript hater, at least in the browser. Maybe javascript has a better fit somewhere else.
Where do you draw the line?
Browsers use to just do text with hyperlinks, then we added formatted text and then pictures, additional text positional and formatting. Then we added input form features. After that we did some preserver checks to validate information before sending to the server so people didn't have to wait for a response. The types of checks got more complex and also needed better ways to show the validated info. Then we realized we didn't need to reload the whole page just send the data needed, based on the data the display can be changed...
Once you give a programmer a tool, that can do IF, Loops and store variables it becomes a development platform.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
You sir are full of shit. I am in no way impressed by your extrairdinary experience in C preprocessor syntax. Moreover, your claim regarding preferences of software runability in an emulated environment, which is constructed using the shittiest method available, is obviously pulled right out of crazy horse's ass. And by crazy I mean of such species crazier than a shithouse rat.
Dude, are you a web-designer or something? You talk just like them.
You don't need a browser.
Oh ... wait.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
Well I wasn't bragging about my preprocessor syntax. I actually had to look them up, because it had been a while. However back in the day, changing those were the key to cross platform capability. As with #ifdef it would tell the compiler which version of a function to load.
Now using a browser for emulation is mostly a toy. However why can't we have fun with toys every now and then. Why does technology need to be "enterprise class" all the time?
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
I think it's pretty boring. Just like people trying to do raytracing on a damn C64.
This might be just what I need :)
My bet is the site will have to pull down the Windows images since I doubt a license was obtained.
That's one thing that both Anonymous Cowards and running an OS in the browser have in common - who gives a shit? The only thing both are good for is to ridicule.
Running a secure OS inside an insecure browser doesn't magically make the browser secure. This whole thing is like a dancing dog - a diversion, but on the whole not very useful.
"Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
The developer of this thing has thoughtfully provided a "hello.c" file and cc. Oh, yes, and emacs. So go ahead and type:
cc -o hello hello.c
and marvel at the speed.
This environment is just like my first full-time, non-student programming job. There was no IDE, so we pretty much lived in emacs. I haven't used emacs in decades, but my fingers still remember the key bindings for the commands -- as long as I'm not trying to consciously remember them.
It was on a 68020 running at 16 MHz which delivered a grand total of 2 MIPS at 16 MHz. We shared all that computing power among four programmers, which was luxury because the system was supposed to support 16 users (32 max).
It seems almost inconceivable, but the funny thing is it was really just as fun programming back then as it is now with a supercomputer all to myself. Our office was next to a reservoir, and used to start a compile, wait five minutes for the parsing to catch any syntax error (about 75% of the time), then go for a walk on the 1.5 mile trail around the pond. Then I'd stop in at the convenience store to buy a cup of coffee, and head back to the office, and make would just be finishing up the linking. God forbid you got a link error though. That's why we had time to read the entire Unix manual (all eight sections) cover to cover. Many times.
This has fed my conviction that user perceptions of system speed are as strongly affected by consistency as it is by absolute speed. If you're used to a build taking fifteen seconds,a sudden change to 30 seconds seems unbearable.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
Really? Not happening, because the bulkier a browser gets, the crappier it gets. Bad enough we have to deal with OS security bugs, now you want everything to also have to deal with browser security bugs? Insane. Might as well just install Flash and be done with it if more bugs is your goal.
"Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
And once you give someone a piece of amber with velociraptor DNA inside it, and a way to embryonize it, it becomes a way to make a cool theme park.
"Believe me!" -- Donald Trump
That's one thing that both Anonymous Cowards and running an OS in the browser have in common - who gives a shit? The only thing both are good for is to ridicule.
Running a secure OS inside an insecure browser doesn't magically make the browser secure. This whole thing is like a dancing dog - a diversion, but on the whole not very useful.
But I can run an OS inside a browser and then give the OS Internet access! It's the worst of both worlds
Maybe you thought waiting for 10 frameworks to load was bad. In a few years, it will be standard practice for websites to load a full operating system to run themselves.
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You must have a Microsoft-signed UEFI tab running at boot time.
Ever see the movie Cherry 2000?
Once you can watch porn on it then everything else is just unnecessary.
Ain't that something like a VM? Like in SAP, where you open a browser under Windows, which fires up Citrix, and which then runs SAP
I was thinking - if I could run SteamOS under a browser, then I could run my Steam games in PC-BSD under Firefox
I really hope that you aren't suggesting that you don't have the checks done only on the browser. You open yourself up for attack that way. Checks on the browser are nice to validate the input and quickly provide feedback to the user if something is wrong. But you never depend on them on the server. First, your client could be out of date and not be doing the right checks. More importantly if someone wants to harm your systems then it isn't that hard to change the data being sent to the server after the checks have been performed. Yes it means that your server is going to be doing a lot of tests that are almost always going to come back fine but it's a lot better than trying to clean out your database or fixing your server because you thought that checking the data on the client side only was good enough.
Shit I'm running firefox under linux.
Get your facts right when making the story.
fucking idiot
OP says CLEARLY
so people didn't have to wait for a response.
your attempt to appear intelligent has failed miserably
I inserted a Windows 10 ISO and it got to boot logo and then the recovery screen saying my PC is not 64-bit.
When will Linux become a real user OS say like OSX? Really simple so that any of us idiots can use it without it going kablooey. I've tried loading Ubuntu and Linuxmint, I was able to get Ubuntu to work, however; I couldn't get used to the side bar icons and such. With Linuxmint, I wasn't able to get it to load my Nvidia drivers and upon loading it on my hard drive was only able to achieve a black screen with no interaction.
I'm really ready to make the switch, but I haven't been able to find something that will just load and work without many problems as I'm not tech savvy in the least.
Or you coul run them games on any Unix natively, which is far more efficient, but doesn't happen either. See why?
Where do you draw the line?
If you can serve porn videos you're all set.
Can't be. A web designer nowadays would start with Javascript and AJAX requests and forgo all these silly things such as hyperlinks and HTML.
Wow ... this is amazing! I had no idea this was even possible with JavaScript. All I can do with JavaScript is manipulate the DOM and other standard browser functions. This guy is the boss.