Orb VS v86

I took a peek at the "Explorer" app code base. PHP + JS + jQuery, but surprisingly readable (but a lot of practices in there that are not exactly considered "best" today). Perhaps we have sunk too deep into the SPA/API rabbit hole that we can no longer appreciate simplicity.

https://gitlab.com/hsleisink/orb/-/blob/master/public/apps/e...

https://gitlab.com/hsleisink/orb/-/blob/master/public/apps/e...

Download source | Demo website

Source: https://gitlab.com/hsleisink/orb Demo: https://desktop.leisink.net/

Apps are small Javascripts. Take the Notepad app for example.

Live demo | Screenshot| Source code

Download at Gitlab or try the online demo.

I'm also working on a web desktop, called Orb. It's has an actual back-end. It's free and open source. Download the source at GitLabor check out the online demo.

Thank you so much for the kind words! If you're looking for a desktop environment WITH cloud filesystem the only one I know of at the moment is https://gitlab.com/hsleisink/orb. If you mean just the local desktop environment, there is a big list here.

> As a thought experiment, we're almost there! We could technically have `win95.img + bochs86vm.wasm + autorun.inf + msword.exe` wrapped in a "browser evaluator"

I looked into this and... holy crap! We are there. Not for modern programs quite yet, sure, but this is amazing. You can use Windows 2000 from your browser.

https://copy.sh/v86/?profile=windows2000

I think you are looking for Shadow.

https://shadow.goose.icu

Or just the whole kitchen sink. Why not?

http://copy.sh/v86/?profile=windows98

Also: https://github.com/copy/v86 - more productized browser x86 runtime, used by eg https://github.com/snaplet/postgres-wasm

Wonder if you could put all those databases in a Linux image and boot it using v86 [0], eliminating the need for a server.

[0] https://github.com/copy/v86

Trying it out in https://copy.sh/v86/?profile=kolibrios , it's also clearly a love letter to Windows 95 in particular. That could be an unstated goal here, create a very particular PC experience under very particular constraints. I don't know anything about the creator but it's very possible that this kind of work was actually their career in the 90s.

It's incredible how much work was done. Maybe this should be an internet curiosity like how TempleOS has become, though Terry's personality was a unique factor.

hmm, why would people still use VMWare? Isn't vbox open source, or even things such as https://copy.sh/v86/ would do most virtualization trick now days?

Oh, there are more OSes one can use at the parent page:

https://copy.sh/v86/

My highlights:

- First version of Windows (1.01)

- SerenityOS <3

- and even ReactOS