Spoon.net runs any software without installing it (incl. IE6/7) • Hacker News Board

Re: Spoon.net runs any software without installing it (incl. IE6/7)

#21

Post by kenjackson » Fri, Sep 24, 2010, 2:53 PM UTC

How is this different than VMWare, Microsofts, and Citrix exisiting application virtualization products?

Re: Spoon.net runs any software without installing it (incl. IE6/7)

#22

Post by tamersalama » Fri, Sep 24, 2010, 2:55 PM UTC

swombat wrote: post #2

I am running IE6, 7 and 8 in parallel on the same windows install. Properly, without IETester and its glitches. As a web developer, this is a pretty awesome find. Basically, it means that instead of needing to run 3 VirtualBoxes (4, soon), one for each version of IE, I can now run just one, thus saving me a gig of RAM and a lot of performance.

Just be careful. I've used to test against their IE6 and few things (CSS related) weren't working. Had to use MS own virtual IE6 for a more proper rendering.

Awesome service.

Re: Spoon.net runs any software without installing it (incl. IE6/7)

#23

Post by [deleted] » Fri, Sep 24, 2010, 2:56 PM UTC

sosuke wrote: post #4

I want to know how much Spoon Studio costs so I click the buy button and it wants me to register and login? I clicked around a little more but I couldn't find the cost. Unfortunately it doesn't work on my Mac either, on my Windows machine though it was really cool to see IE6 pop up!

[deleted]

Re: Spoon.net runs any software without installing it (incl. IE6/7)

#24

Post by swombat » Fri, Sep 24, 2010, 2:57 PM UTC

jacquesm wrote: post #19

z92 wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Checked it myself now. it's $2395 / user.

At that price virtual machines sound like a steal. You could even buy a bunch of special purpose netbooks.

You don't have to pay to use this thing - only to develop for it.

Re: Spoon.net runs any software without installing it (incl. IE6/7)

#25

Post by JangoSteve » Fri, Sep 24, 2010, 3:00 PM UTC

timmorgan wrote: post #6

"The Spoon kernel is a lightweight implementation of core operating system APIs, including the filesystem, registry, process, and threading subsystems, completely implemented within the user-mode space, allowing Spoon apps to be executed without any device driver installation or administrative privileges." Two thoughts: 1. Wow, I cannot imagine how much work it would be to fake all the necessary Windows APIs for this…

I hadn't even considered the possibility that they implemented that part themselves. I just assumed they were using something like Crossover as part of their product. Now that is impressive.

Re: Spoon.net runs any software without installing it (incl. IE6/7)

#26

Post by AjJi » Fri, Sep 24, 2010, 3:04 PM UTC

tamersalama wrote: post #22

swombat wrote: post #2

I am running IE6, 7 and 8 in parallel on the same windows install. Properly, without IETester and its glitches. As a web developer, this is a pretty awesome find. Basically, it means that instead of needing to run 3 VirtualBoxes (4, soon), one for each version of IE, I can now run just one, thus saving me a gig of RAM and a lot of performance.

Just be careful. I've used to test against their IE6 and few things (CSS related) weren't working. Had to use MS own virtual IE6 for a more proper rendering. Awesome service.

I don't remember having such issues with spoon, it is more common in IETester though. Do you have some examples?

Re: Spoon.net runs any software without installing it (incl. IE6/7)

#27

Post by audionerd » Fri, Sep 24, 2010, 3:05 PM UTC

It's frustrating to be told your browser is unsupported, and not be given a list of the browsers that are.

http://spoon.net/UnsupportedBrowser.aspx

Re: Spoon.net runs any software without installing it (incl. IE6/7)

#28

Post by swombat » Fri, Sep 24, 2010, 3:09 PM UTC

audionerd wrote: post #27

It's frustrating to be told your browser is unsupported, and not be given a list of the browsers that are. http://spoon.net/UnsupportedBrowser.aspx

It's a poor error message. What they really mean is your platform isn't supported. Windows browsers all seem to work.

Re: Spoon.net runs any software without installing it (incl. IE6/7)

#29

Post by ck2 » Fri, Sep 24, 2010, 3:13 PM UTC

mahmud wrote: post #18

fname wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

allowing Spoon apps to be executed without any device driver installation or administrative privileges Isn't this what Google was looking to do with their Chrome Frame for IE? Sounds like an acquisition may be in order.

Yep. Spoon wont last in the wild for long, if it actually delivers.

It's been around since 2007 (or earlier). They just renamed/bundled it.

See my longer comment further down this page for details.

Re: Spoon.net runs any software without installing it (incl. IE6/7)

#30

Post by arethuza » Fri, Sep 24, 2010, 3:14 PM UTC

rythie wrote: post #11

timmorgan wrote: post #6

"The Spoon kernel is a lightweight implementation of core operating system APIs, including the filesystem, registry, process, and threading subsystems, completely implemented within the user-mode space, allowing Spoon apps to be executed without any device driver installation or administrative privileges." Two thoughts: 1. Wow, I cannot imagine how much work it would be to fake all the necessary Windows APIs for this…

It look Wine almost 15 years to get to the 1.0 release.

Although to be fair to Wine they have had to build the entire stack - as far as I can see this only runs on Windows. Presumably emulating the Windows APIs on Windows is a lot easier than emulating them on a completely different underlying platform.

Still - it's pretty cool.