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Webvm: Virtual Machine for the Web

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Re: Webvm: Virtual Machine for the Web

#51

Post by zb3 »

maxloh wrote: post #44
smusamashah wrote: post #42

Some other VMs that run in browser https://copy.sh/v86/ https://bellard.org/jslinux/ https://jamesfriend.com.au/pce-js/ ( https://github.com/jsdf/pce ) https://www.pcjs.org/ (lots of hardware and OSes) ( https://github.com/jeffpar/pcjs ) https://infinitemac.org/ ( https://blog.persistent.info/2023/03/infinitemac-dot-org.htm ...) https://jamesfriend.com.au/projects/basiliskii/BasiliskII-wo ... https://jamesfriend.com.…

Also: https://ktock.github.io/container2wasm-demo/

Holy cow, this is the first time I see x86_64 and AArch64 in the browser!

Re: Webvm: Virtual Machine for the Web

#52

Post by apignotti »

Qem wrote: post #50
apignotti wrote: post #20

Hello again HN. Lead dev of WebVM and CTO of Leaning Technologies here. Happy to answer any question from the community.

Can it be installed and run offline as a WebApp?

Not right now, WebVM/CheerpX support large disks (1GB+) to be able to run complete distributions. This an advantage of the solution, but it also means that it cannot run completely offline unless we provide a way to pre-download all this data. This does not seem a practical solution.

Fundamentally, a real VM running a real OS needs lots of data.

Re: Webvm: Virtual Machine for the Web

#55

Post by xnx »

The networking workaround is clever, but still too complex for the casual user. My dream of safe, easy, local apps, with networking and persistent cloud storage is still on hold.

Re: Webvm: Virtual Machine for the Web

#57

Post by NikhilVerma »

apignotti wrote: post #48
NikhilVerma wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Being able to run docker containers on the web will immediately unlock so many usecases for my work! Right now I've been trying to get a Python sentence parser to run in the browser but it requires a lot of the ecosystem (Pytorch and such). Which is not trivial to compile to WASM.

That would fit our vision for a new generation of Web apps with traditional server-side payloads running client-side, with lots of positive impacts on user privacy and operational costs. The main difficulties right now are two: * Most docker containers are 64-bit, while CheerpX currently only support 32-bit x86 code * Due to CORS limitations it is not currently possible to downloaded layers from repositories such as…

I was thinking of a Chrome plugin to enable this, I think plugins can make arbitrary API calls.

Re: Webvm: Virtual Machine for the Web

#58

Post by 8n4vidtmkvmk »

johnisgood wrote: post #36
8n4vidtmkvmk wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unless Linus himself is behind this project, I don't think you have anything to worry about.

Who is going to take Linus' place were something happen to him (hopefully not!), or is it going to be chaos?

I think there's enough interest in Linux desktop that it'll be maintained for a long time yet, even if a web version somehow takes off.
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