Linux Running in Your Web Browser

Javascript based games, Angelfire, Dragon Ball Z, and a rudimentary knowledge of HTML describes the summer before my seventh grade year. Also, it represents what I thought was the epoch of Javascript’s capabilities.

Holy crap I was wrong.

French developer Frabrice Ballard, who “did it for fun,” built a Javascript-based x86 PC emulator that runs Linux inside of a web browser. The only web browsers that support the emulator are Chrome 11 and FireFox 4 because of their ability to use the Typed Array spec.

The emulator doesn’t have a graphical interface or X Window, but it has a command line, small C compiler, and Bellard’s emac clone. All technical jargon aside, it is rather amazing the framework of a modern operating system can be run inside of a web browser. Bellard does see a future where his Linux emulator can run DOS games and other software. Brings me back to the days of Brick-Breaker.

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