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0 pointsbhouston6mo ago0 comments

> The strategic insight behind Arc was perfect – your browser IS the Operating System, and so we should build a browser that can function as that platform.

Marc Andreessen said famously (or at least is paragraphed as saying) in 1994 that the "Browser is the Operating System" and people have been doing riffs on that since then.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/anthonykosner/2012/04/22/always...

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/apr/09/software-...

This was also the idea behind Chromebooks:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ChromeOS

0 comments

scrlk6mo ago

> Marc Andreessen said famously (or at least is paragraphed as saying) in 1994 that the "Browser is the Operating System" and people have been doing riffs on that since then.

Isn't that downstream of Sun Microsystems’ old slogan: The Network is the Computer?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Network_is_the_Computer

mananaysiempre6mo ago

AFAICT, Sun’s underlying vision was more on the side of pervasive RPC and/or downloadable code, i.e. closer to DCOM or NeWS than HTTP.

(We have in fact ultimately ended up layering downloadable code on top of HTTP. I don’t think I like the results, yet some of the things I don’t like seem inherent to downloadable code in general.)

zer00eyz6mo ago

It was more than this. The Sun Ray thin clients were so frigging impressive.

The problem wasn't the tech, the problem was it was SUN. It ran on Sun Hardware, with Sun Software and all at Sun Prices. Metaframe was just so much cheaper (it was also hot garbage but thats another story).

1 more reply

tsoukase6mo ago

Sometime I said to myself. If I hacked someone's PC, his hard drive will become my NAS.

hippo226mo ago

Sometimes there isn't a reason why a product fails to find broad product adoption. If you take VC money, you need a mega hit. Sometimes, all you find is a niche.

crowcroft6mo ago

Which is why tactics are so important. I would say no one has actually got the experience right yet, 'browser is the OS' has been true for a long time, and no one has delivered it yet.

Similar to ambient computing and augmented reality.

mattlutze6mo ago

One might suggest Cromebooks have done so well because Google got it more or less right.

jemmyw6mo ago

I think Chromebooks have done so well because they're cheap and are purchased for locked down environments (education and people who really don't want complexity). Even then, I think they kind of demonstrate that the browser is NOT the OS because users and Google still felt the need to break out of the browser box, with both Android apps and Linux application support.

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Imustaskforhelp6mo ago

I think that they had the fact that in chromebook, they could run whole linux containers in the browser , right?

tomjakubowski6mo ago

They say the browser is the OS, and yet eww is only one small part of Emacs.

ironmagma6mo ago

Isn't that because eww refuses to implement JavaScript? Which isn't very e/acc of them?

niutech6mo ago

> no one has delivered it yet

Firefox OS? Now KaiOS? The 3rd most popular mobile OS.

wslh6mo ago

In 1994 the browser was not an operating system, was an hyperlink media app. JavaScript was born in 1995 and for years was “only” used for modifying the colors of HTML buttons on a mouse-over.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse

0 pointsbhouston6mo ago0 comments

> The strategic insight behind Arc was perfect – your browser IS the Operating System, and so we should build a browser that can function as that platform.

Marc Andreessen said famously (or at least is paragraphed as saying) in 1994 that the "Browser is the Operating System" and people have been doing riffs on that since then.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/anthonykosner/2012/04/22/always...

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/apr/09/software-...

This was also the idea behind Chromebooks:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ChromeOS

0 comments

scrlk6mo ago

> Marc Andreessen said famously (or at least is paragraphed as saying) in 1994 that the "Browser is the Operating System" and people have been doing riffs on that since then.

Isn't that downstream of Sun Microsystems’ old slogan: The Network is the Computer?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Network_is_the_Computer

mananaysiempre6mo ago

AFAICT, Sun’s underlying vision was more on the side of pervasive RPC and/or downloadable code, i.e. closer to DCOM or NeWS than HTTP.

zer00eyz6mo ago

It was more than this. The Sun Ray thin clients were so frigging impressive.

1 more reply

tsoukase6mo ago

Sometime I said to myself. If I hacked someone's PC, his hard drive will become my NAS.

hippo226mo ago

Sometimes there isn't a reason why a product fails to find broad product adoption. If you take VC money, you need a mega hit. Sometimes, all you find is a niche.

crowcroft6mo ago

Which is why tactics are so important. I would say no one has actually got the experience right yet, 'browser is the OS' has been true for a long time, and no one has delivered it yet.

Similar to ambient computing and augmented reality.

mattlutze6mo ago

One might suggest Cromebooks have done so well because Google got it more or less right.

jemmyw6mo ago

1 more reply

Imustaskforhelp6mo ago

I think that they had the fact that in chromebook, they could run whole linux containers in the browser , right?

tomjakubowski6mo ago

They say the browser is the OS, and yet eww is only one small part of Emacs.

ironmagma6mo ago

Isn't that because eww refuses to implement JavaScript? Which isn't very e/acc of them?

niutech6mo ago

> no one has delivered it yet

Firefox OS? Now KaiOS? The 3rd most popular mobile OS.

wslh6mo ago

In 1994 the browser was not an operating system, was an hyperlink media app. JavaScript was born in 1995 and for years was “only” used for modifying the colors of HTML buttons on a mouse-over.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse