New Linux Desktop Environment Built on Firefox

IL-CSIXTY4 writes "'Pyro is a new kind of desktop environment for Linux built on Mozilla Firefox. Its goal is to enable true integration between the Web and modern desktop computing.' This looks like an interesting marriage of the web and the desktop. In Pyro, Web apps run in windows on the desktop, right alongside desktop apps (through compositing). Features expected in a desktop environment, like task/window selection and an Expose-like function, are written in Javascript." "

If only...

[jkrise]

the apps include a very simple word processor and a spreadsheet that could work from a server hosted within the company intranet... this would be a very useful project indeed. Basic features would do - no need for all that fancy schmancy stuff.

First read

[HangingChad]

right alongside desktop apps (through compositing).

At first I thought that said through composting. Guess you'd have to call that organic computing.

On a serious note....Instead, trusted Web sites and extensions are given access to the full range of interactivity and control enjoyed by native applications today.

The "trust" issue would loom very large in that statement. Provides some interesting possibilities all the same.

Re:Somehow familliar

[haakondahl]

This strangely reminds me of Microsofts Desktop in Windows 95/98 and the resulting law suits. I am no programmer, but wouldn't the performance of a desktop system written to support java script etc. be lower than that of a regular written desktop? So, in the worst case it would slow down the whole system.

Regarding speed, I don't think it's an issue.

First, all computers wait at the same speed, and presumably the point here is to accomplish something heavily dependent on the network. Even the best network (in my experience) winds up being the limiting factor.

Second, the applications are not likely to depend on the speed of the processor for much, in the user's experience. Now obviously, if we're using bloated software like Word to accomplish what notepad could do, we'll feel the hit. On the other hand, I'm consistently frustrated by the sloth of OO apps. So if FIrefox offers an equally slow solution that is better integrated, I say it's a winner.

Of course, I haven't RTFA, as it is FSD'ed.

Symphony OS Anyone?

[asphaltjesus]

This guy is probably doing something similar. Symphony OS.

http://www.thecodingstudio.com/opensource/linux/sc reenshots/index.php?linux_distribution_sm=Symphony %20OS%202006-12%20Beta [thecodingstudio.com]

Re:slashdotted after the first comment

[smallfries]

Maybe I'm being naive, but how would this be different to running a separate browser window for each page, without any navigation controls. You know, like some really nasty site interfaces do before you navigate away from them really quickly...

What is the point? Why does it need a separate window manager? Why on earth does the summary mention compositing when it doesn't appear in the article?

Re:Symphony OS Anyone?

[Anonymous Coward]

http://www.symphonyos.com/cms/ [symphonyos.com]
YEP.

Desktop environment built on bugs?

[DogDude]

Until Firefox can solve some of the many, many bugs still present in it's product, I think that this entire discussion is silly.

User interactivity?

[macraig]

Given that Firefox already has issues with ignoring user input at various times, I guess Pyro will also bring that ability to ignore the user to the Linux desktop, as it has existed in Windows since the beginning?

Expose in Javascript? Damn!

[aschoeff]

Am I the only one to be mightily impressed at the idea of implementing Expose in javascript??

I haven't looked yet at how well they accomplished this, but damn, I love the idea of having a common Expose-like function available to me on all the modern OS's I am forced to use daily.

If it's GPL'ed I will check it out.

Re:GNOME - got a toolkit make a destop from it.

[SanityInAnarchy]

But just using the standart gui (gnome-control-center) I should not be able to mess up my configuration - If I am then gnome-control-center has not sufficently protected me.

First, spelling check. It's "standard", with a d.

Second, are you absolutely sure there's no way it could have messed up unless it was gnome-control-center? Really? For example: bad RAM, bad disk, etc could all be at fault here. I'm not saying it couldn't possibly be gnome-control-center, but understand that it can't possibly protect you from anything you could possibly do -- and, in fact, a powerful tool should make it possible to hose your system if you were really trying to. (For exmaple, gconf.)

Third, you should have had backups, anyway. It's not difficult -- back up /home and /etc and you can rebuild just about your entire desktop from scratch, or carry it from distro to distro.

Which is what I critisise: To many separate projects.

There's no getting around this. Or rather, none of the ways around it are worth it.

You could force everything to be completely integrated, so that installing a single app requires pulling in tons of dependencies, many of them completely unrelated. Maybe it's just me, but this seems to happen a LOT more with KDE apps than with GTK ones -- maybe because they're typically KDE apps, not QT apps, whereas the other side is usually GTK apps, not GNOME apps.

That's probably what you meant -- KDE does have a pretty bad case of not-invented-here syndrome, and it doesn't seem to be using Cairo, for example. But GNOME and KDE both use dbus and X11, for example. Would you rather that these not be separate projects?

Or, you could force every app to rewrite all the functionality by itself, because you don't like having a separate project for a shared library. Obviously, this is a retarded idea, and you're a retarded person if that's what you were suggesting.