There is at least one project that aims to build an Ajax OS from the ground up: Atomic OS. It has a ROM and a Kernel and build itself up much like a real operating system on real hardware. The only difference is that everything is written in Javascript.
AtomicOS – Another AjaxOS
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Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
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Funny. But dose it serve any serious purpose?
Isn’t learning a serious purpose?
Nope. The only serious purpose I can think of is a tool to let me sit in my chair and be entertained.
Why does this have to be about you?
This is the century of the self.
If it’s not about you, it’s not worth knowing. Zealots, fanbois and complete lack of responsibility for anything. I wish I didn’t have to grow up in this world, really.
Nah. It’s always been the century of the self. Only now we have better means to show ourselves.
EDIT: spelling.
Edited 2006-09-16 22:52
Way to stretch the envelope dude!
I guess this can be call a serious overload to any web app.
Some months ago someone posted about a *nix shell coded in javascript, that worked right in your browser. Just a way to squeeze the language.
Yeah, I tried it, it sucked.
I’d rather install a _real_ shell on my system that won’t require some stupid web browser that requires a specific requirement of OS, etc.
I mean, come on. Now I don’t just require an OS to run a browser, but I need a specific level of browser that requires a specific level of OS.
This whole requiring a new platform indirection layer to abstract the OS is a load of crap.
http://masswerk.at/jsuix/
hmm….people are throw around the term Operating System for pretty much anything these days.
A framework is not an operating system.
A window manager is not an operating system
A framework and window manager developed on top of a web browser is definitely not an operating system.
But it still looks like an interesting project. I guess they will learn alot about javascript and ‘WEB 2.0’ app development.
Of course, it is not a real operating system, it is only a draft, but I don’t think that the idea of transforming a web browser into an universal tool a mad or useless idea.
It follows the tradition of Lisp Machines and Smalltalk where the underlying OS is completely abstracted out, as well as the hardware is hidden behind a virtual
machine, here the virtual machine is inside a web browser. If a program is complete enough to do everything that an OS can do, it is, for the user, an OS. You can imagine that you run a Mac emulator full screen on your windows box. The user will assume that the computer is running MacOS even if it does not actually control the hardware.
Maybe the main problem is that Javascript is not -so far- a proper language for OS development.
…I guess “Learning” is the only purpose of this project.
Because they can !
I like “invaders” from the Javascript Unix-like shell.
An operating system is just software you use to run other usefull software.
This isn’t an OS, it’s a web-app-framework, that’s needlessly convoluted.