
NW.js based operating system - rakibtg
https://externos.io/
======
headcanon
A lot of criticism for not being a "real" OS from a technical perspective - by
"OS" the author likely means this is a graphical windowing system and
application platform - the part of the OS that the user sees and interacts
with. That it is written in nodejs is irrelevant - if this gains traction it
would likely be rewritten and optimized for better efficiency.

Also bear in mind this is a single university students design project, he's
not trying to be Linus or stallman just yet - Id love to see more people
trying to rethink the desktop/workstation OS.

To the author - well done, this is far more than I would have been able to do
in uni!

~~~
DonaldFisk
If it isn't an operating system, it shouldn't be called an operating system.

He isn't trying to rethink the desktop/workstation OS. If he's found a way of
improving upon existing desktop environments, it should be clear what
improvements he's made and how he has made them.

It seems it's written in Node Webkit (NW.js), which - if I understand
correctly - allows you to build desktop applications in the same way node.js
allows you to build applications which run in the browser. He appears to have
used this to prototype a desktop environment. Rewriting a desktop environment,
for efficiency, in C and using Xlib would itself be a major undertaking.

~~~
notgood
If things keep going the way they are someday JavaScript is gonna be optimized
enough to get pretty close to C; specially functional scripts/parts (those
with no side effects).

~~~
paulddraper
Close to C for perf, in some things.

Very, very far from C in memory, for all things.

------
dna_polymerase
> eXtern is an Operating System that offers a unique user interface and user
> experiences compared to traditional systems. In addition, it is powered by
> JavaScript and takes advantage of the power of node modules making the
> possibilities of App development endless.

npm install bootloader? Please does anyone know anything about this? I highly
doubt it is an "operating system".

EDIT:

[https://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/4onxro/extern_os_a_n...](https://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/4onxro/extern_os_a_new_way_of_computing/)

It's not an OS.

~~~
giancarlostoro
NW.JS is "Node-Webkit" which came before Electron but it's similar enough.
This is just a UI on top of an OS.

------
foobarbecue
30 seconds in to the video and all I've seen are some spinning computers and a
message saying "these computers are just for show, they're not really running
anything". Please, when you try to sell a product, start by TELLING US WHAT IT
IS.

~~~
crimsonalucard
You don't need a person to tell you what it is. You can tell by that amazing
uplifting music that this is a next level idea.

~~~
NetOpWibby
LMAO! Not sure why you're downvoted, that was clearly sarcasm.

------
btaitelb
The author has some serious design and coding skills. I just wish they were
more precise about what it is (a window manager? an gnome user theme?) rather
than trying to brand it as a javascript-based operating system.

~~~
diminish
I tried to install the OS, assuming it's a debian-derived distro but couldn't
download it yet. Checking the author's twitter, patreon, instagram says he
released beta 1, and is trying to name the web browser.

What's this all about? any ideas? Finally [1]

[1]
[https://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/4onxro/extern_os_a_n...](https://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/4onxro/extern_os_a_new_way_of_computing/)

PS: the website uses stratus wordpress theme, which, like most of the _cool_
wp themes is inspired by the apple website.

~~~
kumaraman
> inspired by the apple website

My first thoughts when loading the website were "Is this an Apple project?"

It's uncanny how similar the design is to Apple's website. It's crazy how much
a brand can monopolise a market just from an aesthetics point of view.

------
kbr
I'm confused. Is this a GUI that runs on top of a kernel (like Linux)? What
part of it uses NW.js? Using JavaScript for a system like this is generally
not a good idea. The garbage collector can interfere at any time and cause all
sorts of problems in a kernel or OS environment. It'll also likely be
incredibly slow.

------
MonkeyIsNull
Here's some more info:
[https://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/4onxro/extern_os_a_n...](https://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/4onxro/extern_os_a_new_way_of_computing/)

------
foobarbecue
Wait... is this a parody?

~~~
TazeTSchnitzel
They're (badly) superimposing screen captures onto plagiarised Apple and
Microsoft ads, and not particularly attractive screencaps; that text editor
with the dropshadow and frosted glass behind the text looks… _painful_.

It can't be a parody because it's too earnest in its poor imitation of 2010s
design language.

------
sandov
I think they went a little overboard with the blur effect on the applications.

------
smnscu
The design skills of the author are phenomenal. I'm a JS skeptic, but seeing
how popular hyper.js is, maybe this project has a future.

~~~
TazeTSchnitzel
What design skills? It uses lots of frosted glass and nature graphics, but if
anything that just shows an ability to follow popular trends. It reminds me of
Longhorn concept videos, especially the focus on æsthetics rather than
utility.

~~~
StevePerkins
I don't really care much about this project one way or the other.

Even so, it is extremely frustrating to see someone put in THIS level of
effort (As a university project! From someone who is primarily a coder!)... to
then be taken down by 30-seconds worth of smug quips from some nobody on a
discussion board.

I am reminded of when the last round of _Star Trek_ movies started up a decade
ago. How the phrase "lens flare" quickly became an Internet meme. It's not
that the effect was _that_ over-used, and it certainly isn't that ANY of the
Internet film geeks commenting on it will ever accomplish 1% of J.J. Abrams'
life work. It was just a way of signaling to others, " _I know some basic
industry jargon. So I may not be on his level, but I 'm slightly above YOUR
level. Look up to me._"

I dunno. I have approximately 1000x more respect for this guy's "frosted
glass" and "2010's design language" than I do for you. Talk is cheap, he
shipped.

~~~
TazeTSchnitzel
I mean, I don't want to be as mean about it as I come across. It's great
they're creating things. The praise just seems… misdirected. I find the
execution more impressive than the actual design.

------
trevordev
Looks cool, I started making an electron based desktop environment like this a
while ago but didn't see it through
[https://github.com/TrevorDev/niftyOS](https://github.com/TrevorDev/niftyOS)

~~~
LeoNatan25
Oh great, another "OS" in the making. I am starting to get the feel people
have no idea what an OS actually is.

------
harisvs-code
If you looking for a way to develop apps for linux ( elementary os) with
nodejs and vala,here is an example
[https://github.com/harisvsulaiman/Pushy](https://github.com/harisvsulaiman/Pushy)

~~~
Can_Not
How does vala compare to electron or qt?

------
Phrodo_00
I wouldn't get too hung up in it being an OS. My main question is about why
you'd use something like this instead of the existing web-based "OS",
ChromeOS.

~~~
482794793792894
If it's a desktop environment for a Linux-based operating system, like it
seems from the comments here, then you'd have access to more and especially
more powerful software.

And then I suppose, it's a matter of taste when compared to KDE, GNOME, Xfce
etc.

Would however be interesting how much resources it actually uses when idle.
The page suggests a minimum for RAM of 4 GiB.

So, unless that is one of those minimum system requirements where the author
wants you to not even touch their software, if you're not equipped to have a
completely stutter-free time, I also find it hard to think of many cases where
someone would prefer the design so much that they'd buy another RAM stick for
it.

------
samwestdev
So it's like chromeos but worse

------
StevePerkins
Haven't seen a high-profile NW.js application in a little while now. What's
the current state of the landscape between it and Electron? Fading, or still a
very active project and viable option?

~~~
jancsika
I use it for the GUI of a FLOSS project I maintain and it works very well. It
looks to be quite active still.

Granted, my use case is rather idiosyncratic-- I have to support the use of
multiple toplevel windows which communicate over a TCP socket with the
"business logic" process. With Electron, this would either require an
additional socket connection per window, or central node.js socket connection
with the business logic which then forwards messages to/from each window using
some form of IPC.

With nw.js you get the option of just accessing the window/browser context
directly from the node.js context. That made it a lot easier to get the GUI up
and running.

I should also say I'm doing the socket connection through node.js, and I've
completely disabled the Chromium part of the toolkit from accessing the
network. For use cases where the app needs to load web content over the
network, Chromium makes all kinds of requests to Google for all kinds of
reasons. That's kind of a weird thing for a general purpose GUI toolkit to do.
I'd imagine the same is true for Electron.

------
holydude
Looks and feels (from the video) like a variant of KDE.

------
Zekio
If everything runs on nodejs I can't imagine the performance you would get on
the average modern dual core laptop

------
nathan-osman
...and both download links are now returning HTTP 508 - Resource limit
reached.

------
sparky_
All I can say is that I certainly hope the browser application runs in a
separate, sandboxed process from the rest of the, er, "OS". Imagine a world
where clientside browser JS can interact directly with the desktop
environment...

~~~
drunkcatsdgaf
See ActiveX for windows

------
diminish
Is that a Linux distro?

~~~
yakcyll
Not sure (I haven't tried it yet), but the developer manual stub mentions
using gnome-terminal.

------
majidazimi
Get ready to replace your PC with a super computer.

------
andreapaiola
It's a DE

------
ryanpcmcquen
Where is the source code?

------
crimsonalucard
nodejs is the right choice for doing anything nowadays. The next step is not
just operating systems, but airplane systems. I want to see autopilot
programmed in nodejs.

~~~
KGIII
I can't be 100% sure that you're joking.

If you are joking, and I'm going to assume you are, you might want to be
careful. Somebody will see your comment and think it is a brilliant idea.

Hell, they might even suggest a blockchain to verify output in the two-out-of-
three CPU check. ICO forthcoming.

~~~
DonaldFisk
It's increasingly hard to distinguish satire from news reporting too, but as
you point out that can work both ways.

~~~
KGIII
I've noticed Rust encroaching into this space lately. "They should rewrite it
in Rust!" Many of those posts seem to be sincere. Hell, there are whole
articles that are very sincere.

A recent(ish) favorite was one suggesting that all C should be rewritten in
Rust. Granted, they suggested doing it when you did patches and doing it piece
by piece, as opposed to all at once, but they were quite serious about it.

They appeared to even be serious about doing it in pieces over a period of
many years. I'm not actually sure which one is worse.

~~~
bitwize
The Rust Evangelism Strikeforce is real, dude.

------
mmargerum
[Something].js [https://xkcd.com/1508/](https://xkcd.com/1508/)

------
gdiocarez
Awesome!

