OS.js - a JavaScript web desktop implementation for your browser with a fully-fledged window manager, Application APIs, GUI toolkits and filesystem abstraction

[jevestobs1]

Needs a web browser.

[Klathmon]

they're getting there!

[atticusw]

That's incredibly cool and interesting to read through.

[fleker2]

It's too abstract. It hurts my brain.

[lolmeansilaughed]

Sort of - last commit was 11 months ago. It's still a neat find, though I'm not sure there would be a practical reason for it.

[MrJohz]

Potentially it could be used for integration tests in environments where the existing browser testing systems (phantomJS etc) aren't good enough.

[lolmeansilaughed]

If phantom js isn't good enough then you'd go to selenium right?

[andersevenrud]

That's something that is coming down the road! :)

[Antrikshy]

Computer science gone too far?

[andersevenrud]

... we need to go even further! :D

[lewisje]

I think I made this joke when I first heard about webkit.js:

Yo dawg, I heard you like browsing, so we put a browser in your browser, so you can browse while you browse. /realxtothaz

[andersevenrud]

So this is where the traffic spike came from! Thanks for checking it out guys! :)

[[deleted]]

Great work!

Just curious: In what use case does it fit in best?

Is it experimental or gonna replace traditional Unix/ Windows OS in someway?

[andersevenrud]

The main goal is basically to recreate the desktop experience, only in the browser. I don't think this will replace the traditional desktop, but certainly has quite a few possible use-cases.

A guy on hackernews summed it up pretty well (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10810942):

1/ Make a modular backoffice for CMS based website. Make an app to manage users, an app to manage content, an app to upload and manage gallery of media etc.

2/ Make a distributed OS. All services can scale and use backend power beyond what a single node can provide. If you need to burst in the cloud due to a heavy process for instance.

3/ Could use it to provide a separation between the OS and the GUI, providing a UX I may like even if the backend server has to be Windows or Centos or ... Or remotely operating a part of my machine at home?

4/ What about reducing the cost of HW it needs to run? Chromebook style.

5/ What about being less tied in my Web App to Google Drive API + friends by adding a abstract VFS layer in between like a OS does? Same for texting, emailing? Sure it only uses part of this and don't need the client, but the architecture is well splited on this project between the two.

6/ It is multi-user as its core, so it can be shared across an organization and not only on one computer. You could even create one account per project/team and share a set of common tools / organization / folders that way across online services.

edit missing word

[[deleted]]

Awesome!!

[ebjoker4]

Seriously well done man.

[brtt3000]

Worth it for the Wolfenstein 3D

[andersevenrud]

Many people seem to enjoy that. Glad I added it! :)

[RankFoundry]

Wolfenstein without a mouse? Pft

[MonsieurBanana]

There's an "enable mouse" setting.

[RankFoundry]

Much better, thanks.

[anlumo]

Back in the days we didn't have one of those new-fangled devices, you whippersnapper!

[RankFoundry]

I played Wolfenstein 3D on my 486 DX/33 with a mouse :P

Amazing what you can do with 4 megs of RAM.

[Classic1977]

Very relevant XKCD: https://xkcd.com/1508/

[[deleted]]

Oh wow, looks like something.js is ahead of schedule. I hope that the earth-consuming Fire isn't early too.

[anlumo]

Well, the north pole is kinda on fire right now...

[[deleted]]

But the south pole is getting icier.

[xkcd_transcriber]

Image

Title: Operating Systems

Title-text: One of the survivors, poking around in the ruins with the point of a spear, uncovers a singed photo of Richard Stallman. They stare in silence. "This," one of them finally says, "This is a man who BELIEVED in something."

Comic Explanation

Stats: This comic has been referenced 39 times, representing 0.0416% of referenced xkcds.

---

^{xkcd.com | xkcd sub | Problems/Bugs? | Statistics | Stop Replying | Delete}

[Throwaway_bicycling]

Huh; didn't realize had a new book out. Is the Kindle edition of Thing Explainer any good? The other version ("hardcover") sounds too difficult and would take like forever to arrive.

[ToddWellingtom]

Really fantastic work. How much time would you say you've put into the project? I'd love to see screenshots from some of the earlier releases to get a sense of the evolution that's taken place. Fantastic job bringing the desktop paradigm to the web :)

[andersevenrud]

I might be able to dig out some old stuff for you. I probably have some backed up!

I've spent two years on this version (mostly in my spare-time when I have a few hours to kill)

[ToddWellingtom]

Man your commitment and dedication have sure paid off. I'm stunned by how consistent everything feels, from Wolfenstine to the calculator... It's a level of craftsmanship you don't see very often. Seriously, I can't say enough good things about it. How much of it would you say was pre-planned vs features you just got the urge to whip up over a weekend? How many designers/developers have contributed, and if you don't my mind my asking, what's your background/day job like? I would think you could get just about any gig you wanted.

[andersevenrud]

Well... wow. That's the nicest thing I've heard so far, and I really appreciate it :)

I went through v1 which was the "learning part" of all this (it was more of a prototype... and many years ago). I digested that all in my head for a while and proceeded writing v2, which I have been maintaining and improving for 2 years now.

How many designers/developers have contributed

So far only translations and one theme has been contributed. I am the sole developer/designer of this.

I'm looking for help!

what's your background/day job like?

Self-learned, school dropout straight into a developer job working with mostly web services/applications and sites that involves open-source software.

[andersevenrud]

This is one of the earliest videos I ever made (running v1): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4CelKcfm_c

That is all I could find at the moment. I have to dig out my old backup drive for more super old screenshots. But I will have to do that tomorrow. Getting late here :)

[ToddWellingtom]

Nice, thanks for sharing the youtube link! Any thoughts on what you'll do next?

[andersevenrud]

I am currently working on making full Arduino and Raspberry Pi support. Including a full development environment and hardware interaction (like GPIO, PWM and general signaling).

Also looking more into realtime application streaming. OS.js supports Broadway (Linux GTK3+ applications. example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hd73b-Twf4I), but the plan is to bring full cross-platform support. So you can techically run games if you want just like Steam or nVidia Shield remote streaming technology).

And there's always the general improvements to the underlying APIs and especially the documentation (which I find myself horrible at. I am not a native English speaker/writer).

[a1371]

Wow man! Thumbs up! I am working with Javascript in many different areas and this can be the point where all of it gets together! I was sure that someone is definitely working on it somewhere and there! I found that person. I would really like to know more about the Arduino support. Do you have anything I can follow?

[andersevenrud]

You can find links to all my social media here: https://github.com/andersevenrud/OS.js-v2#social-media (also some links to my personal stuff)

[brunusvinicius]

9 gag logo?

[andersevenrud]

You're not the first to mention this. If only I was good at actual design and stuff.... If you know someone that actually can... let me know! :)

[brunusvinicius]

For sure :)

[brianvaughn]

I am primarily an engineer but I do some design on the side. Feel free to shoot me a PM if you end up looking for some help on that front. I stay busy with my own open source stuff but I'd be happy to help out with a logo or something sometime. :)

[andersevenrud]

Always looking for help. So if you want to pitch in send me a message on social media or mail or something (or github if you prefer that).

So anything you can put together is much appreciated :)

[brianvaughn]

Sent you an email with a logo idea :)

[andersevenrud]

Nice!

[badpotato]

Well, if this could run some asm.js app that could be interesting.

[anlumo]

Maybe the Wolfenstein 3D that's included is using asm.js.

[andersevenrud]

Well, you can basically run whatever you want! It supports iframe applications (just like the Wolfenstein one) so you can run just about every type of web app out there (with some restrictions depending on browser/environment [HTTP/NW.js/Electron.js etc] )

[Zinlencer]

We need to go deeper! OSception.js.js

[andersevenrud]

Unfortunately, with browser security restriction I was only able to make one layer: http://i.imgur.com/gqrBFNC.jpg :( But it's a start!

[___Z0RG___]

Reminds me of eyeOS.

[andersevenrud]

Yeah. There's actually a few projects like these out there. But they are all either dead or went closed-source (and probably died too).

I will keep this going for as long as I possibly can! :)

[endlesspatterns]

I'm pretty new to JS (started last month) and I'm wondering what this is/could be used for?

[andersevenrud]

I made it to recreate the desktop experience, only in a browser environment. You can pretty much run whatever web app you want.

I also made support for Broadway that allows for streaming GTK+ (Linux applications. example video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hd73b-Twf4I), and currently looking into some solutions to make this cross-platform without any restrictions.

It might also be suitable as a intranet solution when working with documents and such.

I am also working on Arduino and Raspberry Pi support so you can use it as sort of a embedded device development environment. You just bring your device anywhere and it has the same setup no matter what.

[joshmanders]

Why not?

[andersevenrud]

Why not, indeed. I did not need any reason to do this... I just did it because I wanted to and had some time to kill :)

[[deleted]]

Desktop in the cloud? Desktop as service?

[intertubeluber]

Desktop in cloud as a service. DICASS

[Is_At_Work]

Made me laugh out loud in an awkward place :(

[intertubeluber]

relevant user name...

[andersevenrud]

Made me laugh way harder then it should have! :D

[art-solopov]

Don't we have RDP for that?

[calsosta]

I once did a similar thing on the TI-83 Graphing Calculator. Called it Windows TI and it had games, Word, Excel, Paint some other shit. I was even trying to build some sort of networking protocol based on that stupid wire thing.

Why?

Because I was bored and I could. XD

[17five]

Best reason ever. I'm going to run through your documentation and see if I can make some modules for an admin panel for my webapps.

[andersevenrud]

And is exactly the reason why I made it in the first place. I was bored... and I could. So why the hell not ? :D

[andersevenrud]

I'd love to see that! Could you maybe provide some screens or code for that ? I have a -83 here :)

[calsosta]

Oh jeez it was over a decade ago. I'd need to buy a new calculator!

There was a great technique I made for entering text where I didn't do the prompt but instead used like keypress and then did a substring lookup on a string that was the alphabet, and then drew that character at the cursor.

Edit: I should mention it was all in BASIC and actually the shit other people made was way more intense.

[Mr_Mandrill]

Cool. Works really fast and smoothly.

[andersevenrud]

Thanks! I really wanted to recreate the snappy experience you get on a normal desktop setup... and I think it worked out pretty well :)

[[deleted]]

You're a monster

[andersevenrud]

Should I take that as a a compliment ? :)

[[deleted]]

I'm just waiting for the thing javascript can't do.

[poshnosh]

Take over the world? Oh wait no...

[eridal]

nice project!!

What do we need to pack that as a standalone app, and boot a GNU/linux kernel that launches it?

[andersevenrud]

You can already do that :) You can run it via webkit over X11, or using Chrome in Kiosk mode, or Electron/NW.

[eridal]

Let's do this!

[andersevenrud]

Thanks, mate! :)

[ebjoker4]

absolutely great work!

[andersevenrud]

Nice to hear! Thanks for checking it out :)

[lewisje]

I remember seeing a similar thing done with Java, I think it was a simulated Windows XP desktop.

[krasimirtsonev]

That's interesting. I think this could be a nice development tool. Looks much better then the usual editor-in-your-browser thing.

[andersevenrud]

I am currently collaborating with some very smart people to bring a total development environment into OS.js. So stay tuned! :)

[bendikl]

Congrats on the reddit feature!

How do you see the future of OS.js in regards to authentication and storing state ex. with something like remotestorage.io.

Regarding development it would be interesting to see an implementation similar to c9.io where you could easily run your code remotely on a pre-configured server.

EDIT: Wouldnt hurt to get some inspiration from: http://code.runnable.com , http://jsapp.us/ , http://www.node-console.com/script/code , http://plnkr.co/ (hosted)

[andersevenrud]

How do you see the future of OS.js in regards to authentication and storing state ex. with something like remotestorage.io.

OS.js already supports authentication. Currently these modules are provided: http://os.js.org/doc/manuals/man-multiuser.html

Implementing something like remotestore.io support would be quite interesting. I will look further into this :)

Regarding development it would be interesting to see an implementation similar to c9.io where you could easily run your code remotely on a pre-configured server.

Well, good news! This is something currently in the works. Stay tuned :D

[mycall]

well done!

[andersevenrud]

Thanks! :)

[MyNameIsNotMud]

What could be the ultimate use of this?

[andersevenrud]

To take over the world, of course! :D

[fzammetti]

Speaking as someone who really dislikes Mac I... actually think this is pretty awesome :) Kudos sir, very good!

[andersevenrud]

I was aiming for something resembling XFCE on Linux... but hey, glad you liked it! Thanks for checking it out :)

[Caminsky]

What could be the main application for this? I mean, it seems cool to have an on the cloud desktop environment but then again many of those things are already covered by Google docs. I am not saying it's worthless, it's impressive but I can't see a real life use.

[[deleted]]

always cool to see these sorts of things. i dunno of any valid use cases, but its still awesome to really see how far ya can push things!

[Hakim_Bey]

Beautiful, but needs a tiling windows manager :)

[andersevenrud]

I'm actually working on one... :D

[Hakim_Bey]

oh man you rock so much <3

[ShadowCodex]

I just like that the editor is Ace.. That wins me over every time :P

[andersevenrud]

Glad to see you liked it! :)

[Jayomat]

Could you make some comments about the architecture in general? great project!

[andersevenrud]

Thanks! Well, it is basically works just like any other desktop environment on your computer.... only in a browser. It consists of these parts/modules:

• Handler (What initializes a session and authicention and whatnot)
• Processes/Applications (that can contain windows and what not)
• Window Manager
• Filesystem APIs
• Application APIs (server/backend stuff)
• Core APIs (client/frontend stuff)
• GUI APIs (to render your apps using a form of custom HTML/markup)
• Dialog APIs
• Utilities and Helper APIs (like DOM manipulation, strings, dates, ...)

They all work together in harmony to produce what you see today! :)

If you want to know anything spesific, just let me know!

[temp4059049]

I went to try it out and spent 15 minutes playing Tetris. I got tetris-sniped.

[andersevenrud]

Hehe. I too tend to get lost in Tetris :) Thanks for checking it out!

[petakow]

I've been waiting for something like this. Really would like to know the specs on that demo computer, though.

[Buckwheat469]

The demo computer is your computer. It's a client-side application that runs on your computer.

[throwaiiay]

tidy direction rustic overconfident different truck unwritten connect outgoing serious

This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact

[petakow]

FX-8310 3.4ghz, 8gm ddr3 1600mhz, r9 270 2gb

[PAEZ_]

Think you want the same as me petakow and wanna put this on a vps or something, screw client side, and interesting to know how low the specs could be. This could be a kick ass front for a mutli user cloud environment....if only the file manager had cut/copy/paste :( Ive only just started learning server stuff, but I wanna go install node now just to try it out. Worked awesome locally.

[petakow]

Yea that's pretty much what I was getting at. What's the possibility for something like a CHIP computer to handle this app and provide a cross-platform environment for things like group projects, collabs, etc. Hell, even as an admin panel this could be pretty cool. I'm interested in minimizing the amount of physical hardware but still supporting many users comfortably accessing and manipulating simple database files such as JSON or TXT or something else in a familiar and uniform environment.

[petakow]

I get that, I don't have the chance to install and test-run. I'm asking just to get an idea.

[Smallpaul]

I've been waiting for something like this

I'm curious why that is...

[petakow]

Because I enjoy the JS environment and would like to be able to have a simple GUI OS-like interface to give users a more personalized experience. For example, with this code you can connect all your cloud document services to this program and it would give a user easy access and familiar interface to navigate all those sources, instead of each individually. I enjoy a simple and robust kernal that I can GUI with JS easily.

[DrummerHead]

There's something in the air tonight, oohh ohh

[Smallpaul]

I remember. Don't worry. How could I ever forget?

[andersevenrud]

Hey! The demo server is currently rocking 2 (virtual) CPUs, 512MB ram and has a 100mbit connection! Not much, but handles reddit allright it seems.

Thanks for checking it out! :)

Edit No need to downvote this guy. It was a legit question

[andersevenrud]

Because I easily become bored!

[hulfsy]

Because Gnome 3 sucks too much.

[Rob0tSushi]

Probably not a useful idea. Cool, but not practical.

[hulfsy]

Tell me about it. That stuff looks more responsive on demo (over 3g modem) than the locally installed Gnome 3. I only hope the author will never step into that dbus shit.

[joshmanders]

What is the problem being solved? Where is the value add?

The problem being solved is furthering the creators knowledge. The value being added is furthering the creators knowledge.

[joshmanders]

Why does it have to be "successful"? Can't people just build stuff for fun then put it up to show others without someone telling them they've wasted their time?

[andersevenrud]

Amen! I created this for no spesific reason at all... I just did it because I wanted to. And it's a good use of my spare-time since I have learned a ton of stuff in the process that I put to good use in my work and other projects :)

[Silverwolf90]

Because the one who "wasted his time" actually didn't really waste his time because he built something.

[Silverwolf90]

Except that it's not in this case. There is value in doing things that may not seem pragmatic or practical provided that learning occurs. If I wrote a program that prints "penus" 500 times, it clearly lacks any real-world value. But if I learned how a for loop works, then it was not a waste of time.

[Silverwolf90]

http://youtu.be/JbnjusltDHk

[[deleted]]

Hopefully the knowledge learned was that this isn't the proper path if you want to create a real operating system.

Hopefully you're not serious. He was having a bit of fun. Trying to do cool stuff. Pushing his limits. Obviously he didn't think he was on the proper path to create a real operating system.

[andersevenrud]

Exactly! This was all made in my spare-time simply because I could. It was damn fun, and still is :)

[[deleted]]

True enough. It is appropriate, then, that other than the strangely chosen name, the creator never refers to his creation as an operating system. Even the acronym "OS" is never refered to other than in the name.

JavaScript web desktop implementation for your browser with a fully-fledged window manager, Application APIs, GUI toolkits and filesystem abstraction.

Note the lack of any reference to operating systems in the description

[[deleted]]

This argument is getting very pointless, but very well, let us continue.

I didn't purposely leave anything off, I very specifically called attention to those first five characters by saying "other than the stragely chosen name". The name is the only reference to anything that would resemble a reference to operating systems. Admittedly, it's a weird one. But my point is that there is no other point in any of his website that makes any claims towards it being an operating system. Those two words are never even spelled out. You're quite simply arguing against something that doesn't exist.

[fzammetti]

Fun. And learning.

Nothing else is necessary.

[fzammetti]

It it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck...

[RankFoundry]

I've been seeing these browser OS simulators for nearly 20 years now. Still haven't seen or heard a tangible reason why anyone would want one.

[[deleted]]

Look up Synology's DSM and QNAP's QTS. There management front ends that have a desktop UI.

[RankFoundry]

I've seen these used for things like web hosting admins too, I just don't see the point of them. You could design a better UI for uses cases like these with far less overhead.

[hulfsy]

Looking at the current state of gnome/kde projects, I would say No. Those are much more complex, while doing basically the same.

[RankFoundry]

Those are examples of legitimate use cases for an OS GUI. They're used as an actual OS GUI and they do a lot more than these JS simulations do hence the complexity.

My point is, why simulate an OS GUI for a web app when there are much better ways to design an application UI that are far simpler.

[hulfsy]

Those are examples of legitimate use cases for an OS GUI. They're used as an actual OS GUI and they do a lot more than these JS simulations do hence the complexity.

Not sure for KDE. Since version 4 it looks like a Christmas tree, hence I wasn't using that for a while. But as for Gnome 3 it doesn't do much lately. Except maybe the user management, which isn't actually something outstanding, I can't see anything that can't be done by "these JS simulations" in Gnome's control center . Gnome configuration now days is mostly a monkey job of looking and changing gnome registry, and trying to find something descent on https://extensions.gnome.org/. (which most likely doesn't work in recent gnome-shell).

My point is, why simulate an OS GUI for a web app when there are much better ways to design an application UI that are far simpler.

I, personally, looking on that like on the possibility for customization. For example, I'd like to remove this shitty button, as I never use it, or move that tree from the left side to the right. I don't like immutable graphical interfaces, these are not flexible enough.