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

spoon.net

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

#41
post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

It's easier, and a pass-through model is not entirely new.

DEC's fx!32 emulator was running Windows x86 code on Windows Alpha way back in 1996. And yes, fx!32 passed calls through to native Windows code, too.

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

#42
post #28

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.

Too bad it works neither on Linux nor OSX. Would be nice to see the info about unsupported browsers earlier.

I would love to try it!

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

#43

"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…

Why should IT Managers fear this? From looking at their site it is very similar in concept to Citrix, which is already widely used. The browser plug-in is still needed so that provides some measure of control.

If people are able to install the browser plug-in then they could probably install the applications directly.

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

#44
post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Too bad it works neither on Linux nor OSX. Would be nice to see the info about unsupported browsers earlier. I would love to try it!

I tried to run it in WINE, but it did not work. It would be great if somebody implemented the required features for it to run.

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

#45
post #15

"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…

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.

No, Chrome Frame for IE is a way to swap out the rendering engine used by IE. It replaces the IE layout engine with Chrome's WebKit-based layout engine.

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

#46

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

Tried the newest versions of chrome and firefox. Both failed. I left the site. I assume this only works on IE (which I dont have on my mac).

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

#47
post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

It's easier, and a pass-through model is not entirely new. DEC's fx!32 emulator was running Windows x86 code on Windows Alpha way back in 1996. And yes, fx!32 passed calls through to native Windows code, too.

I remember having a PC emulator on a OSF/1 Alpha about 94 or so (SoftWindows?) - was perfectly usable.

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

#48
post #15

"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…

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.

I think you're thinking of NaCL (http://code.google.com/p/nativeclient/)

In contrast, Google Frame is designed to make the deployment hassle for new browsers simpler (user still clicks on "The Internet").

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