v86 VS ffmpeg.wasm

> 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

There's already ffmpeg wasm. I've used it in projects. Works great.

https://github.com/ffmpegwasm/ffmpeg.wasm

There's a low-hanging fruit that I think would make ffmpeg more helpful for regular people.

There's a million terrible websites that offer file conversion services. They're ad-ridden, with god-knows-what privacy/security postures. There's little reason for users to need to upload their files to a third-party when they can do it locally. But getting them to download fiddly technical software is tough - and they're right to mistrust it.

So, there's a WASM version of ffmpeg, already working and hosted at Netlify [1]. It downloads the WASM bundle to your browser and you can run conversions/transformations as you wish, in your browser. Sandboxed and pretty performant too!

If this tool a) was updated regularly b) had a nicer, non-CLI UI for everyday users and c) was available at an easily-Googlable domain name - it would solve all the problems I mentioned above.

[1]: https://ffmpegwasm.netlify.app/

As their github page says, based on https://ffmpegwasm.netlify.app ...

I'm guessing no one did GPU-optimizations? I saw a web app (not an ffmpeg transpilation) that went clever and used WebGL so it can access the GPU and use its parallel processing capabilities...

ffmpeg.wasm: The engine making all these happen. However, I’m a bit concerned about its current situation. The repo has not been updated for more than six months now, and that’s not a healthy sign for an open-source project. Clearly I was reading the commits wrong. The author mentioned “speed up x264 with SIMD intrinsics” in their roadmap (https://github.com/ffmpegwasm/ffmpeg.wasm/discussions/415), which, if landed, could make such on-device video editors much more competitive.

I use https://github.com/ffmpegwasm/ffmpeg.wasm and I want my FFMPEG commands to be hidden from others.

Possibly using this? https://github.com/ffmpegwasm/ffmpeg.wasm

You could try using something like ffmpeg wasm which is a way of using ffmpeg client side in browser. Unfortunately WebAssembly only supports files less than 2 gigabytes, which is a problem for videos. And I don't know if ffmpeg wasm contains ffprobe, so you might have to find another project or try to compile ffprobe to wasm yourself. This stuff is out of my wheelhouse so I can't offer much help.