I've always been fascinated by this, but I have never known what it would be useful for. Does anyone know of any practical use cases?
I've always been fascinated by this, but I have never known what it would be useful for. Does anyone know of any practical use cases?
I use bellard.org/jslinux to test compilation of strange code sometimes[1], since it came with compilers that are different versions from what I have installed locally, and it's easier to open up a browser than starting a VM.
[1] For example:
https://www.ioccc.org/2020/yang/index.html#:~:text=tcc%200.9...
https://www.ioccc.org/2018/yang/index.html#:~:text=tcc%200.9...
I use a similar emulator (v86) as a way to share my hobby OS. Approximately zero people, even my friends, are going to boot my hobby OS on real hardware; I did manage to convince some of them to run it in qemu, but it's difficult. A browser environment shows the thing quite well; and easy networking is cool too.
My hobby OS itself is not very useful, but it's fun if you're in the right mood.
We are a playful species. People enjoy play. If we didn't have to work for a living but still enjoyed food security that is all most of us would do. But we are also a very exploitative species, some more than others. Companies have made billions of dollars on top of Fabrice Bellard's works, qemu, ffmpeg etc.
These companies don't have any imagination. Their management has no vision. They could not create anything new and wonderful if they tried. People like Fabrice do and we are all richer for it. If your asking about the practical use you are likely in the exploitative mindset which is understandable on HN. The hacker/geek mindset enjoys this for what it is.
Some sort of web based archive of applications/etc where you can boot them up in your browser.
That’s what I’d like to use it for as well, but it’s difficult to do so because there’s no way to edit the disk image.
Any advice on how to create a JSLinux clone with a specific file pre-installed and auto-launching would be much appreciated!
The tech docs at bellard.org/jslinux/tech.html describe the TEMU config format. Each VM is just a .cfg file - you can see the existing ones linked on the main page. The VFsync integration (vfsync.org) is probably your best bet for getting files into the VM without rebuilding the disk image.
For a classroom with Windows PCs this is close to ideal - zero install, no admin rights, works in any browser. Students get a real gcc toolchain and shell without touching the host OS.
Working with VMs always felt difficult because of this. So authoring was built-in to Docker. Now you can use Apptron to author and embed a Linux system on a web page. This aspect is usable, but it's only going to get better.
Most such emulators have Internet access on the IP level. Therefore, this is a very cheap way to test anything on the Internet.
However, the speed is heavily throttled. You can even use ssh and login to your own server.It can also be used as a very cheap way to provide a complete build environment on a single website, for example to teach C/C++. Or to learn the shell. You don't have to install anything.
You need backend proxies, the browser doesn't allow ignoring CORS by default.
Agentic workloads create and then run code. You don't want to just run that code in a "normal" environment like a container, or even a very well protected VM. There are other options, ofc - eg. gvisor, crossvm, firecracker, etc, but this one is uncommon enough to have a small number of attackers trying to hack it.
What's wrong with a well protected VM? Especially compared to something where the security selling point is "no one uses it" (according to your argument; I don't know how secure this actually is)
Nothing, but "there are already working options" does not necessarily mean we shouldn't try new (and sometimes weird) things
GP says "You don't want to just run that code in ... even a very well protected VM." Why?
Yeah but GP was answering to a comment saying "you don't want to run code in a well protected VM". Which is of course complete non sense to say and GP was right to question it.
Maybe if you’ve got some ancient software that’s missing source code and only runs with X Y and Z conditions, you could continue to offer it on the web and build around it like that? Not sure if that would be practical at all, but could be interesting
My college professor used it to teach us the Linux command line
We have Windows PCs in the classroom.
Similarly I've used it for technical interviews.