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Ripen OS - Operating System on the WEB 🖥️🌐

Navaneet Jaggannathan on July 12, 2024

Greetings Dev 🙏! I've been coding for 2 years and I'm excited to introduce our project, Ripen OS, an operating system on the web! I'm co...
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Rene Kootstra

"An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware and software resources, and provides common services for computer programs.". I am pretty sure that Ripen OS does not manage hardware so it is definitely not an OS. Nonetheless is pretty nice what you have achieved but, as a former OS developer, what you have created now is really the easiest part. OSdev is really hard.

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Navaneet Jaggannathan

I agree brother, It's not an OS as it serves, but at least, it mimics, and the name was for Branding purposes. TBH it's still in preview so I will be redoing it to serve a better purpose. All I'm doing now is experimenting with this Beautiful field!

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Tobias Nickel

It provides access to disk, that is essentially hardware, so it can be considered an os.

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Rene Kootstra

Well no... it provides access to the file-system which is provided by the OS. That fundamentally different. Checkout osdev.org if you want to known what on OS is/does/requires.

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Mardeg

I like the idea of emulating a desktop inside a web page, and so do all the people who already did it:
dustinbrett.com/ (github)
killedbyapixel.github.io/OS13k/ (github)
desktop.leisink.net/ (gitlab)
puter.com/

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Paweł bbkr Pabian

I think you got quite a few negative comments due to misleading name / target misplacement.

  • It is not an Operating System, as it does not manage hardware layer.
  • It is not even a Desktop, as it does not have any composer working directly with graphics driver API.

It's just an application that mimics desktop feel. Same as - for example - Synology DSM. Which is correct target for this kind of gimmicks. For regular user that already has file manager provided by OS itself there is no use for this project as a daily driver.

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Navaneet Jaggannathan

I agree brother, It's not an OS as it serves, but at least, it mimics, and the OS name was for Branding purposes. TBH it's still in preview so all these negative comments will help me rebuild it into its best version! I will be redoing it to serve a better purpose. All I'm doing now is experimenting with this Beautiful field! Thanks for the concern!

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Okerew

No idea why it has it become lately popular to create systems which are not actually OSs, but just a user level javascript something, I would recommend at least not using javascript ( maybe go ) for this as it would improve performance a lot, also what is the point of this? As with more features you will come into performance issues and scaling ones. Using also another language would make it easier to create extensions for the system.

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Navaneet Jaggannathan • Edited

Thanks for the suggestion but Indeed, Afterall Trend is what makes the "current" internet run right!
About the performance, Im rebuilding Ripen OS with React and Golang as u mentioned and if you have any suggestions, do mention it!

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Okerew

I would also recommend maybe speeding up the animations although in principle they look nice, it would really get annoying to use this over a long period, also I would recommend using linux namespaces, some security modules, isolation techniques, this would allow for the user to have more control and be able to install more system apps while isolating them from the rest of the code, or you could jut use docker for this, also there are some ui bugs in the desktop edit mode, also I would suggest prioritising functionality over looks.

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Navaneet Jaggannathan

Sure, thanks a lot, I will consider your suggestions. :)

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JoelBonetR 🥇

Can it be installed as OS "as is" or do you need another OS that has a browser so you can access ripen?

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Navaneet Jaggannathan

The sole purpose of Ripen OS is not to install as a traditional OS on one device alone but to create the actual sense of ecosystem with the power of web technologies.

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Domenico Tenace

It's an Open Source alternative to Chrome OS, right?
Good project ✨

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Navaneet Jaggannathan

Almost!! Its more versatile since u can use it on mobile devices too

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Arbuckle

Can I ask, what is the monetisation model? This can't be cheap to run?

The main benefit I see would be having the possibility of desktop apps on low-power or mobile devices (e.g. GitHub codespaces)

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Navaneet Jaggannathan

Not yet, as its still in preview, but sooner, we are gonna provide a full user bounded rich service with Ripen OS!! So do support us with suggestions, and promotions so that we can reach you with our Best soon.
Thanks

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Cheikhnouha

Good project on operating system

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Navaneet Jaggannathan

Just visit the site: Ripen OS

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Prashant Verma

I am not sure why do I need a os for my browser.

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Paweł bbkr Pabian

There is very small niche for those solutions: take for example Qnap QTS or Synology DSM "desktops" in browser. But even there user rarely needs actual windows functionality.

I thought for a brief moment about "login from anywhere" factor, where you sacrifice some performance for having desktop and files served remotely through browser. But computers sharing is nonexistent today. Those who need mobility buy laptops.

Maybe author can share some insight of business model?

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Eelco Verbrugge

Yeah me too. It is impressive and really a nice gimmick. Other then that, please explain to me what the practical use is. I am really interested in enriching my life using this, but I can't see it.

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Navaneet Jaggannathan

Im happy that You liked wht i did. The aim of Ripen OS is not to replace the existing OS or create a mimic of it. This link i shared is a preview of it which im still working on.

Once its ready, Ripen OS is going to act like a "GUI bridge" for a wide range of user applications like a complete Advanced Office suite, Editing Suite, Gaming Suite, Marketplace, Streaming services, and much more, only accessible through Ripen OS since all these works better in it.

This is an ambitious plan i have kept, if you feel there is potential for it, i will be happy if you consider further suggestions and tools to fulfil this dream of mine.

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Paweł bbkr Pabian

I'm not sure I understand "all these works better in it".

Responsiveness is janky AF, there is no workaround and there will be no workaround. Try to move a Ripen window and compare it side by side with moving any OS window on 120Hz screen. Or play something quickly on this piano app using keyboard. Desktop running in JS running in browser will always add noticeable overhead.

When apps get more complex and put more strain on eventloop you will hit huge performance penalty - JS has its limits and it is not the right tool for the job. Right now having just a few stub apps windows opened instantly murders CPU, while my fully blown Arch Linux with KDE plus few fully functional apps opened sits comfortably at <10% of single core. You cannot beat apps written in compiled languages and having access to kernel scheduler with runtime interpreted JS. Simple as that.

OK, I sound like a dream killer. But if you like to keep this project going you need to think about target audience. It will always be significally worse than regular desktop performance-wise and limited due to lack of hardware access. So you need to think of some cool use case as countwerweight. I feel that "Advanced Office suite" may not be it.

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Navaneet Jaggannathan • Edited

Thanks for the concern brother....
I saw myself how js played a huge toll over performance....so i thought im gonna switch the languages to GOLANG and react native for both better efficiency and performance.

I researched n found such languages reduce the rendering time as well as maintain performance....

Soon i will be also switching to deploy n use AWS for to upscale it.
What are your opinion about this brother. Do u feel this decision is wiser?
Thanks again, a lot!!!

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