Super slick demo, I'm on mobile and it's impressively fast nevermind functional.
But it is 'just' a DE webapp right? From 'internet OS' here (which actually I don't think you use at TFA repo) I expected to be able to boot to it. I guess there is some other solution that would allow that, but not a package deal?
I suppose I'm just saying be careful/manage expectations with 'OS', but for what it actually is it's really cool.
It's got an app store, and it seems to implement embedding, windowing, and a virtual filesystem for arbitrary apps that have been built for it. I.E., When you open "Polotno" (a graphics editor), or what appears to be VSCode, it opens in a windowed IFrame, but then going to "Save" pops up a file selection dialog controlled by Puter, which lets you create a "file" which can then be accessed by the "Open" button in any other app.
It looks like there are other integrations between the DE/OS and its apps as well, like applications being able to set their window title dynamically (E.G. based on open file/tab), and an API allowing robust support for third-party apps. If you open one of the games like Doom, you'll see that it's usually hosted on a third-party site like DOS.Zone, but according to the query string using a custom build for Puter, which presumably has modifications to integrate with the desktop environment and filesystem. Other apps are hosted on Puter.site, .
So if you treat the browser as the "hardware" (and maybe also the backend services hosting a lot of the apps), maybe you could call it an "OS" in that it abstracts and manages a single environment for multiple other programs to run simultaneously and share information with each other.
I suppose `puter.js` is what passes for its LIBC, or the syscall interface:
To OP: The information on publishing third-party apps doesn't seem very discoverable. The only mention I saw is in the popup that shows the first time you launch Dev Center, and after closing that I can neither find it again nor find anything else about it on Google (other than the linked terms, and the app IFrame source, which I presume is from GoogleBot's temporary account):
This reminds me of something I made once in "Macromedia" Flash back when I was 16 in like 2001ish or so.
It wasn't really an actual OS, but I managed to get a working desktop with a file browser, fake non functional web browser, and a task bar and start menu.
My flash application didn't accomplish anything, but I felt immensely proud of having been able to create a mock up of a UI, even though it was extremely kludgy and wasn't even able to read or write files in the fake applications.
...No offense to the creator though. I don't mean to compare my high school project to this one. This project is indeed very cool!
I too dream of one day inventing my own kind of spreadsheet and terminal hackery OS, so I salute this person for creating a proof of concept that looks good.
But it is 'just' a DE webapp right? From 'internet OS' here (which actually I don't think you use at TFA repo) I expected to be able to boot to it. I guess there is some other solution that would allow that, but not a package deal?
I suppose I'm just saying be careful/manage expectations with 'OS', but for what it actually is it's really cool.