Real Linux. In a browser tab. No install. No server. No Docker

11 pointsposted 11 hours ago
by kilian-ai
(linuxontab.com)

10 Comments

apignotti

3 hours ago

As another commenter pointed out this is similar to our WebVM (https://webvm.io) , although this one is based on v86 so it will be less performant.

Although the x86 virtualization angle is powerful we think that native WebAssembly executables on top of a Linux-compatible kernel are more viable for the execution of full workloads in the browser.

BrowserPod is a newer project of ours that brings to vision to life, we have recently published a deep dive that might be interesting: https://labs.leaningtech.com/blog/browserpod-deep-dive

smalltorch

9 hours ago

You've been posting this for awhile can you tell me more about how this works?

m1keil

6 hours ago

Probably a slop of https://bellard.org/jslinux/

calmingsolitude

3 hours ago

Have to agree. Unsure why the page is comparing with docker/cloud shell instead of jslinux/webvm.

bjconlan

6 hours ago

This is a pretty harsh critique, while I see the agent related markdown the application seems measured and well applied. Hardly seems like slop; it's might be a one man show+ai agent but the direction and project composition feel like it's something that's logical and manageable.

I personally like the idea even as a p.o.c (inline with bellards work). I'd like to see how nostr & cloudflare workers providing out of band ops on what is effectively a container per tab.

m1keil

3 hours ago

I don't think that guesstimating that something is an AI slop is very harsh these days. It sure has the signs of one:

- HN User created 66 days ago

- In these 66 days it submitted 4 stories about this project

- The heavy lifting is all done by v86 project (not jslinux as initially suspected)

- The project is a "rebrand/fork" from another project by the same author - "traits.build".

- In the original project, the first commits that mention v86 seem to start at around 23rd of April.

To be clear, I don't really mind people vibing & slopping around. I just would want to have a disclosure about it.

smalltorch

3 hours ago

Show dead and you see 23 posts about this exact same thing which gives me pause and makes me wonder, did this guy really post this 23 times?

Why? Or is there some program setup on a loop?

Either way,a legit Linux shell in a browser would be kinda powerful and even if this one isn't legit, Im intrested in adjacent projects...for instance this may be the only way to get a shell in a usable shell on iphone which would be neat and useful

user

3 hours ago

[deleted]

rvz

3 hours ago

The entire project is complete low-effort slop. Even the user name of the person is AI and the title says it all.

This account has been posting the same site repeatedly and it makes me think that this is 100% a bot account or AI agent.

I think we need a higher quality bar for posts on HN given that the flood of low quality projects such as this just add additional noise.

The comment that you cannot see at the bottom violates the HN guide-lines of AI-generated text from: [0]

"Don't post generated text or AI-edited text. HN is for conversation between humans."

[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html