Linux Ported to WebAssembly, Boots in a Browser Tab (phoronix.com)
- Reference: 0179947228
- News link: https://linux.slashdot.org/story/25/11/03/0610234/linux-ported-to-webassembly-boots-in-a-browser-tab
- Source link: https://www.phoronix.com/news/Linux-Kernel-WebAssembly
> I'm now at the point where the kernel boots and I can run basic programs from a shell. As you will see if you play around with it for a bit, it's not very stable and will crash sooner or later, but I think this is a good first step. Wasm is not necessarily only targeting the web, but that's how I have been developing this project... [2]This is Linux, booting in your browser tab, accelerated by Wasm .
[3] Phoronix warns that "there are stability issues and it didn't take me long either to trigger crashes for this Linux kernel WASM port when running within Google Chrome."
[1] https://lore.kernel.org/lkml/618f3602-03aa-46a8-b2d4-3c9798c4cd2b@icemanor.se/
[2] https://joelseverin.github.io/linux-wasm/
[3] https://www.phoronix.com/news/Linux-Kernel-WebAssembly
Loads faster most ad ridden sites.. (Score:4, Informative)
It's a sad, sad world we live in.
Re: Who wants this? (Score:5, Insightful)
Once upon a time, this site was labelled "News for Nerds".
Re: (Score:3)
Wha? I'm a troll and you're insightful?
Once upon a time people understood irony. I can run linux on my toothbrush, this is nothing.
Re: (Score:2)
Perhaps they mean WebAssembly?
Re: (Score:2)
So I have had a few scenarios where I really didn't have any business moving data between the browser and a backend service and I would have just as soon done an operation client-side, but the ecosystem that was equipped to do the task wasn't exactly trivial to get to work in-browser. I could imagine some such use cases easier to port if a Linux instance could live transiently in browser runtime.
I've spent a fair amount if time trying to wrangle specific use cases into this scenario, but could imagine a 'l
Re: (Score:2)
Doesn't that break the browser sandbox?
Am I 10 years behind on this? A. probably.
is the browser still supposed to be a sandbox?
Re: (Score:2)
You could, in theory, have a context that is entirely within the sandbox and useful. Hence my comment about getting things in and out of the environment potentially negating many of the scenarios I can think of. But broadly speaking, if you had some local processing to do, you feed the environment a blob and the environment can now pretend it's a normal file as far as it is concerned, and then you can pull the blob out when done. WASM can't touch real stuff but you can feed it stuff within the reach of j
Re: (Score:2)
Article subject says 'browser' but I'm thinking web-based IDE, such as VSCode.
Bootstrapping just enough operating system to get your work done, within the same web sandbox as the parent process.
It could be lighter-weight alternative for certain simple tasks than hyper-virtualization, containers and all that jazz...
Re: (Score:2)
The same people who got Doom to run on a pregnancy test.
Re: (Score:2)
I think it's pretty damn cool. Mad bragging rights.
Re: (Score:2)
Is that insufficient? It's also pretty dang cool, so there's that.
Paging Dr Ian Malcolm! (Score:1)
There's a Jurassic Park meme here to see you!
Re: (Score:2)
I don't think the guy who can port Linux to WASM has trouble finding work.
Can it run DOOM? (Score:3)
Just asking for a friend.
Maybe (Score:2)
So I pondered this seriously and the demo displays using [1]Xterm.js [xtermjs.org] which is pretty advanced for displaying a terminal.
Unfortunately, [2]Xterm.js does not support the Kitty graphics protocol [github.com] which is used by [3]Terminal Doom [github.com]. However, [4]DOOM-ASCII [github.com] which uses colored ASCII art and lacks sound.
Caveats:
* if DOOM-ASCII adds anything to the original DOOM that requires an MMU then it can't run because there is no MMU support in the WASM Linux port.
* The WASM Linux port author wrote that, "The console freezes after 5 minute
[1] https://xtermjs.org/
[2] https://github.com/xtermjs/xterm.js/issues/4198
[3] https://github.com/cryptocode/terminal-doom
[4] https://github.com/wojciech-graj/doom-ascii
How about a web server? (Score:1)
Linux seems like overkill to me. Just get a server running and I can run my own pop up text service or stream videos instantly from anywhere.
Cool (Score:1)
now run firefox in it!
Re:Cool (Score:4, Insightful)
... then boot Linux via WASM on Firefox running on Linux via WASM on Chrome!
Java legacy (Score:2)
Cool, we can finally move our legacy corporate Java applications into the web!
Try it here: (Score:2)
[1]https://joelseverin.github.io/... [github.io]
[1] https://joelseverin.github.io/linux-wasm/
Until they remove the Bloatware (Score:1)
By bloatware I mean browser, not Zoho.
Re: What A Waste (Score:1)
Just what I wanted to post. Anyway, let's get back to wasting some more watts on "ai" and get rid of our own jobs.