Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments
Search

News for nerds, stuff that matters

Slashdot Log In

Log In

Create Account  |  Retrieve Password

Pure JavaScript Unix-Like Web Based OS

Posted by Zonk on Thu Jun 16, 2005 07:51 AM
from the java-and-unix-sitting-in-a-tree dept.
Operating Systems Software Unix Java Programming
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."
+ -
story
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.

Pure JavaScript Unix-Like Web Based OS 50 Comments More /

 Full
 Abbreviated
 Hidden
More
Loading... please wait.

  • So its true! (Score:5, Funny)

    by kevin_conaway (585204) on Thursday June 16 2005, @07:54AM (#12831443) Homepage
    People DO read the comments on Slashdot [slashdot.org]

  • Next up (Score:5, Funny)

    by tqft (619476) <ianburrows_au@yah[ ]com ['oo.' in gap]> on Thursday June 16 2005, @07:54AM (#12831446) Homepage Journal

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

    How long before emacs is ported?
    • Well, that reminds me of the old emacs joke:-

      --:-- *scratch* (Lisp Interaction)--L5--All--
      Loading vmunix.el... Done.

      It is rather impressive to have an OS in a web browser though.. even if it's not exactly that useful.

    • Re:Next up (Score:3, Funny)

      by Ingolfke (515826)
      Wow, that boggles the mind. A web-based OS running an editor-based OS. Holy virtualization Batman!

  • Uses? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by AKAImBatman (238306) * <akaimbatman.gmail@com> on Thursday June 16 2005, @07:54AM (#12831448) Homepage Journal
    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.

  • Especially... (Score:4, Informative)

    by nmoog (701216) on Thursday June 16 2005, @07:55AM (#12831455) Homepage Journal
    ..Especially when combined with XUL [sf.net]
    (apologies to slashdot member CTho9305)

  • Compiler (Score:3, Funny)

    by derphilipp (745164) on Thursday June 16 2005, @07:55AM (#12831456) Homepage
    Is there already a customized gcc or other c-compiler available?

    I wanna run doom on it!

  • Obligatory (Score:3, Funny)

    by Deep Fried Geekboy (807607) on Thursday June 16 2005, @07:56AM (#12831475)
    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?

  • Screenshot (Score:5, Funny)

    by md81544 (619625) * on Thursday June 16 2005, @07:57AM (#12831485) Homepage
    Dead already, but I managed to grab a screenshot:
    [guest@www.masswerk.at:2]$
    :-)

  • fake DOS... (Score:4, Funny)

    by wirehead78 (576106) on Thursday June 16 2005, @07:58AM (#12831491)
    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.

    • Re:fake DOS... (Score:5, Funny)

      by rayde (738949) on Thursday June 16 2005, @08:04AM (#12831532) Homepage
      did you call your creation MS-DOS?

      ;-)

    • Parents? You're supposed to run such things in the classroom!
    • I did this in school once, and got kicked out of the computer lab for the week.

      c:\> prompt "enter password:"

      so then, instead of the friendly c:> prompt, this was what everyone saw:

      enter password:

      I still don't think they'd figure that out if presented with that prompt today.

    • Re:fake DOS... (Score:5, Funny)

      by PakProtector (115173) <cevkiv@ g m a i l . c om> on Thursday June 16 2005, @09:25AM (#12832068) Journal

      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.

      • Re:fake DOS... (Score:4, Funny)

        by fons (190526) on Thursday June 16 2005, @08:18AM (#12831638) Homepage
        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

        • Re:fake DOS... (Score:4, Funny)

          by the way, what're you (591901) on Thursday June 16 2005, @08:29AM (#12831712)
          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

  • crap .. (Score:3, Funny)

    by macaulay805 (823467) on Thursday June 16 2005, @07:58AM (#12831493) Homepage Journal
    Does this mean that Boot Managers need to be Acid2 Certified as well??!!?

  • If this becomes too successful... (Score:3, Funny)

    by AtariAmarok (451306) on Thursday June 16 2005, @07:59AM (#12831498)
    If this becomes to successful, we might get lawsuits in the future to prevent a browser company from shipping a free OS add-in!

  • Site slashdotted (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Underholdning (758194) on Thursday June 16 2005, @07:59AM (#12831499) Homepage Journal
    The site is already dead, so here's something else [sourceforge.net] - not a complete OS, but still has a (working) browser, games etc.

  • Yes, but . . . (Score:5, Funny)

    by Idou (572394) * on Thursday June 16 2005, @07:59AM (#12831500) Journal
    Can it run Lynx?

  • If you cant reach because of the /.... (Score:5, Informative)

    by sandstorming (850026) <johnsee.sandstorming@com> on Thursday June 16 2005, @07:59AM (#12831502)
    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 [mirrordot.org]

  • unnecessary... (Score:5, Funny)

    by rayde (738949) on Thursday June 16 2005, @08:00AM (#12831511) Homepage
    I've already got my browser based OS of choice [albinoblacksheep.com]. ;-)

  • Why is this in the Java topic? (Score:5, Informative)

    by Tim C (15259) on Thursday June 16 2005, @08:05AM (#12831541)
    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.

    • Re:Why is this in the Java topic? (Score:5, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 16 2005, @08:16AM (#12831628)
      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.

    • I would throw the blame in the direction of the person/group that called it javascript rather than come up with a better name for it.

      Likewise, I think that Intel should have done better to name their new card format other than PCIe because PCI-X was available for a few years already. At least PCI-X is electrically, physically and software compatible with the PCI standards, PCIe isn't on any of these accounts.
      • I would throw the blame in the direction of the person/group that called it javascript rather than come up with a better name for it.

        That would be Netscape. The actual standard is called ECMAScript, but the JavaScript name has stuck.

        • LiveScript was the first name, then Netscape called it JavaScript. ECMAScript came WAY later after MS came out with JScript, and they wanted to standardize the language, so they submitted it to ECMA. They obviously couldn't come up with a real name either, IIRC that was an interim name but no one could come up with a better one so it stuck.
      • Oh?

        The change of name from LiveScript to JavaScript happened at roughly the time that Netscape was including support for Java technology in its Netscape Navigator web browser. The choice of name proved to be a source of much confusion. There is no real relation between Java and JavaScript; their similarities are mostly in syntax (that is, both derived from C); their semantics are quite different, notably their object models are unrelated and largely incompatible.
        Source [wikipedia.org]. You have any links on the contr

  • Mirror (Score:3, Informative)

    by b0lt (729408) <b0ltz0r@gmail.com> on Thursday June 16 2005, @08:08AM (#12831557) Homepage
    Mirror here [mirrordot.org]
    The terminal works, just without pictures for the buttons.

  • Finally we can put together... (Score:5, Funny)

    by ratta (760424) on Thursday June 16 2005, @08:16AM (#12831626)
    the ease of use of Unix with the security of Internet Explorer.

  • SSH client? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by ahg (134088) on Thursday June 16 2005, @08:24AM (#12831670)
    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.

    • Re:SSH client? (Score:5, Informative)

      by Jerf (17166) on Thursday June 16 2005, @09:15AM (#12832011) Journal
      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.

        • Re:SSH client? (Score:3, Informative)

          by Jerf (17166)
          Why not use https?

          Learn what sockets are. Learn (It extends past a single slashdot message.) Learn SSH uses them [snailbook.com].

          Then compare with the https protocol.

          Doesn't matter how clever you get; an https connection isn't an ssh connection; you've already lost before any of your JS program's input has made it onto the wire (encrypted or otherwise).

          • Re:SSH client? (Score:3, Interesting)

            by Kent Recal (714863)
            Well, actually you can get quite far with polling.
            As you said, latency will be hell (e.g. 2 sec), but the UNIX CLI deals surprisingly well with high latency links.

            Back in the day it was quite common to do stuff over 300bps links with high latency (probably rarely up to 2s but in the ballpark).

            So, first of all you'll decouple Input and Output.
            Instead of sending a char, waiting until the server echos it and printing it you will print the typed chars immediately and probably send the whole line on each poll

  • I Know!!! (Score:4, Funny)

    by eno2001 (527078) on Thursday June 16 2005, @08:30AM (#12831714) Homepage Journal
    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

  • Lemmings! (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Butterspoon (892614) <Butterspoon+slas ... m ['il.' in gap]> on Thursday June 16 2005, @09:47AM (#12832224)
    For another really cool example of what you can do with JavaScript, click here [193.151.73.87].

All trademarks and copyrights on this page are owned by their respective owners. Comments are owned by the Poster. The Rest © 1997-2010 Geeknet, Inc.