5 ms·

> Maybe using an archive.is-like service that renders the static page (as an image at the extreme) A lot of companies are starting to use "browser isolation" w

> Maybe using an archive.is-like service that renders the static page (as an image at the extreme) A lot of companies are starting to use "browser isolation" which is essentially what you're saying. A proxy runs between the client and the server, but it does more than just direct TLS streams - it actually builds the DOM and executes the JS. The resulting web page is sent to the actual client browser, which might send back things like mouse and touch events to the proxy, which will then update the page. I think most companies are using this as a malware protection thing, but it does hide the actual client IP address and fingerprint, and I imagine it would make tracking very difficult. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Browser_isolation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Browser_isolation

kibibu 5y ago
Opera Mobile has been doing this for years and years
- Quai 5y ago
  The Opera product you are thinking of is Opera Mini. Opera Mobile is a browser running mostly on your device (except for "turbo" which optimized media trough a proxy setup, but did not, afaik, execute any of the javascript). Opera Mini can be looked at as a browser running in the cloud, sending OBML (Opera Binary Markup Language, if I remember correctly) causing the (very thin) client to draw things on the mobile screen, like text, images, etc without having to transfer, parse, execute, flow and paint every thing on the device.
  - Fnoord 5y ago
    Yeah, they released countless of rebrands and versions and what not. The equivalent on desktop would be Browsh (e.g. with terminal + Mosh), but it runs Firefox under the hood. Opera Mini is just akin to a remote browser with the result being send to the client (as a compressed picture like in RDP/VNC, or a proprietary markup language like OBML).
GekkePrutser 5y ago
Browser isolation isn't quite that. It's just running a browser that is heavily sandboxed from internal files and networks, or running on another machine so any exploits don't hit your machine. It's very much like running a browser through Citrix (in particular the remote flavour which is the most common as far as I've seen). But of course any data in the browser itself is still within reach for the malicious code... Which only solves half the problem. Unless you rigidly separate internal browsing from external sites. But it doesn't run all the JavaScript and then send you a screenshot or anything. The resulting page is still interactive. Remote browser isolation has the ability to change the landscape of personal computing enormously by the way. Right now we equip all our laptops with at least 16GB (32 for customer care) because some web apps like Salesforce Lightning are such memory hogs. Considering the importance of the browser in modern computing this model world basically make the PC more like a terminal and require much less resources. Of course this has already been going on with web based apps and streaming of things like games but this could be the final nail in the coffin of the PC as we know it. Not sure I'm happy with that...

kibibu 5y ago

Opera Mobile has been doing this for years and years

Quai 5y ago
The Opera product you are thinking of is Opera Mini. Opera Mobile is a browser running mostly on your device (except for "turbo" which optimized media trough a proxy setup, but did not, afaik, execute any of the javascript). Opera Mini can be looked at as a browser running in the cloud, sending OBML (Opera Binary Markup Language, if I remember correctly) causing the (very thin) client to draw things on the mobile screen, like text, images, etc without having to transfer, parse, execute, flow and paint every thing on the device.
- Fnoord 5y ago
  Yeah, they released countless of rebrands and versions and what not. The equivalent on desktop would be Browsh (e.g. with terminal + Mosh), but it runs Firefox under the hood. Opera Mini is just akin to a remote browser with the result being send to the client (as a compressed picture like in RDP/VNC, or a proprietary markup language like OBML).

GekkePrutser 5y ago

Browser isolation isn't quite that. It's just running a browser that is heavily sandboxed from internal files and networks, or running on another machine so any exploits don't hit your machine. It's very much like running a browser through Citrix (in particular the remote flavour which is the most common as far as I've seen). But of course any data in the browser itself is still within reach for the malicious code... Which only solves half the problem. Unless you rigidly separate internal browsing from external sites. But it doesn't run all the JavaScript and then send you a screenshot or anything. The resulting page is still interactive. Remote browser isolation has the ability to change the landscape of personal computing enormously by the way. Right now we equip all our laptops with at least 16GB (32 for customer care) because some web apps like Salesforce Lightning are such memory hogs. Considering the importance of the browser in modern computing this model world basically make the PC more like a terminal and require much less resources. Of course this has already been going on with web based apps and streaming of things like games but this could be the final nail in the coffin of the PC as we know it. Not sure I'm happy with that...