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Broad agreement about the network parity aspect. If you can have a working TCP/IP stack /and/ can run Chrome, you have the ability to pretty much be "usable" by

Broad agreement about the network parity aspect. If you can have a working TCP/IP stack /and/ can run Chrome, you have the ability to pretty much be "usable" by many users. I'd like to stop the argument there though and ask, first, why bother for a research project? Not that it's useless, but if you're trying with a few other hackers to reconceptualize OS layout and write the relevant tools for your system, you've got enough on your back. Arguably in this hypothetical next-gen system, if you can provide an interface that looks like a Linux container, you can run a Linux application like Chrome and be done with it. (and even more to my point original point of things could have been very different: web browsers are essentially reimplementing a cross-platform GUI without a toolkit and with a custom language (JS). Maybe it's time we just had plain old network applications without a web browser..... but that's a different discussion, a different musing).

scroot 8y ago
By web browser I didn't necessarily mean Chrome. I mean a browser completely re-implemented in the new system, preferably a "live" system of "objects". I realize it's a tall order. But it would solve your issue with network applications, because people could just rip out the objects used the browser and use them elsewhere as they go. As more people adopt this system, they would forget about the browser altogether, since the objects themselves can communicate remotely. In essence: the web browser part would be for adoption, but the system can be so good that it eventually becomes obsolete. > why bother for a research project? We'll never get anything new if we don't. Linux and containers are band-aids. They are not original solutions. We shouldn't be squeamish about re-implementing everything from the ground up. The big problems in personal computing have not yet been solved. If anything, we've been regressing — in the wrong way.
- pnathan 8y ago
  I see what you mean, but the raw volume of work is an enormous load to carry for a dedicated few.

scroot 8y ago

By web browser I didn't necessarily mean Chrome. I mean a browser completely re-implemented in the new system, preferably a "live" system of "objects". I realize it's a tall order. But it would solve your issue with network applications, because people could just rip out the objects used the browser and use them elsewhere as they go. As more people adopt this system, they would forget about the browser altogether, since the objects themselves can communicate remotely. In essence: the web browser part would be for adoption, but the system can be so good that it eventually becomes obsolete. > why bother for a research project? We'll never get anything new if we don't. Linux and containers are band-aids. They are not original solutions. We shouldn't be squeamish about re-implementing everything from the ground up. The big problems in personal computing have not yet been solved. If anything, we've been regressing — in the wrong way.

pnathan 8y ago
I see what you mean, but the raw volume of work is an enormous load to carry for a dedicated few.