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Mozilla Unveils "Webian Shell" - A Google Chrome OS Competitor?

22 points by dkd903 15y ago

no-espam 15y ago
I don't think it is from Mozilla. It was featured by Mozilla. It's just a simple mock app from what I can tell.
gkoberger 15y ago
This was not created by a Mozilla employee, but rather by someone using Mozilla Chromeless. Source: https://mozillalabs.com/chromeless/2011/05/31/webian-shell-a-full-screen-web-browser-built-on-chromeless/ https://mozillalabs.com/chromeless/2011/05/31/webian-shell-a...
mwill 15y ago
The mockups for split screen apps later in the video remind me of the Windows 8 preview. Also: am I the only one who feels like these sort of shells should do away with the back/forward buttons as a default part of the display provide shortcuts or similar instead, especially since a lot of web apps don't play well with browser history, or provide their own state management/back button. The same could probably be said for the address bar, as well; hide it unless the user specifically wants to enter a URL. I find I mostly enter search terms into my address bar, and on web shells this could easily be replaced by offering a search box front and center on your new tab landing page.
- sqrt17 15y ago
  small screen apps often do away with statelessness (one of the basic ideas in the standard windows/icons/menu/pointer world) to organize things in different modes/screens. And there are means for web apps to manage the browser history by setting and querying the hash part of the window's URL. Most Maemo apps work with a back button in this way (despite not being browser-based). Hiding the address bar still seems to be a good idea, as you only need it when things get broken...
riffraff 15y ago
Has firefox finally got around to having one-isolated-process-per-tab? Otherwise the idea of "crash an app, take the whole OS shell with you" seems kind of familiar to an old windows user, not in a good way.
- voidr 15y ago
  Old windows user? you can crash a brand new Windows 7 with a "rouge" application. :) Just try Starcraft - Broodward on a Windows 7 64 bit, it will randomly crash your system to the point where you have to manually reset the system. Yes I know it's a legacy application(whatever that means) but still the OS should not let an app freeze the input.
- dstein 15y ago
  Yew, you can see it for yourself if you play a flash movie you can tear off the tab into a window without affecting the video.
deleted 15y ago
[deleted]

22 points by dkd903 15y ago

I don't think it is from Mozilla. It was featured by Mozilla. It's just a simple mock app from what I can tell.

This was not created by a Mozilla employee, but rather by someone using Mozilla Chromeless. Source: https://mozillalabs.com/chromeless/2011/05/31/webian-shell-a-full-screen-web-browser-built-on-chromeless/ https://mozillalabs.com/chromeless/2011/05/31/webian-shell-a...

mwill 15y ago

The mockups for split screen apps later in the video remind me of the Windows 8 preview. Also: am I the only one who feels like these sort of shells should do away with the back/forward buttons as a default part of the display provide shortcuts or similar instead, especially since a lot of web apps don't play well with browser history, or provide their own state management/back button. The same could probably be said for the address bar, as well; hide it unless the user specifically wants to enter a URL. I find I mostly enter search terms into my address bar, and on web shells this could easily be replaced by offering a search box front and center on your new tab landing page.

sqrt17 15y ago
small screen apps often do away with statelessness (one of the basic ideas in the standard windows/icons/menu/pointer world) to organize things in different modes/screens. And there are means for web apps to manage the browser history by setting and querying the hash part of the window's URL. Most Maemo apps work with a back button in this way (despite not being browser-based). Hiding the address bar still seems to be a good idea, as you only need it when things get broken...

riffraff 15y ago

Has firefox finally got around to having one-isolated-process-per-tab? Otherwise the idea of "crash an app, take the whole OS shell with you" seems kind of familiar to an old windows user, not in a good way.

voidr 15y ago
Old windows user? you can crash a brand new Windows 7 with a "rouge" application. :) Just try Starcraft - Broodward on a Windows 7 64 bit, it will randomly crash your system to the point where you have to manually reset the system. Yes I know it's a legacy application(whatever that means) but still the OS should not let an app freeze the input.
dstein 15y ago
Yew, you can see it for yourself if you play a flash movie you can tear off the tab into a window without affecting the video.

deleted 15y ago

[deleted]