Technology | DOI: 10.1145/1610252.1610260

Ready for a Web oS?

A new generation of browsers may finally herald the long-awaited convergence of the Web and operating system.

BACK in 1995, Netscape co- founder Marc Andreessen predictedthathisfledgling Web browser would one day render Windows obsolete. Fifteen years later, Netscape is long gone, and the traditional desktop operating system (OS) remains firmly established on most personal computers. Meanwhile, Web browsers still look a lot like they did in the mid-1990s, running inside application windows. In hindsight, Andreessen may have spoken a bit too soon. But history may yet prove him right.

The hegemony of the desktop OS is starting to fracture with the emergence of a new generation of browsers that may finally herald the long-awaited convergence of Web and OS. An enormous amount of Web OS development is currently under way, with the development of Web standards, such as HTML5, to add richer capabilities and features; new technologies like Microsoft’s Xax and Google’s Native Client that make browsers and their applications as capable and powerful as desktop applications; and architectural changes to browsers, making them process oriented, which increases their robustness and security.

A Web OS offers enormous promise. Potentially, it could take the best of the Web—the rapid deployment and updating of new applications, device independence, and the ease and convenience with which large communities can collaborate and share information—and combine it with the advantages of desktop applications—operating at machine speed, rich and interactive interfaces, and access to local hardware—and sidestep many of the security and compatibility issues currently plaguing desktop OSs. Before the Web OS becomes a practical reality, however, browser developers must overcome several major obstacles to security and de-

vice integration that continue to tilt the balance of power in favor of the desktop OS.

For many average computer users, the browser has become their de facto OS—a tool of choice for e-mail, personal finance, and other activities that were once the domain of desktop applications. Today’s Web has come a long way from its original incarnation as a collection of passive, hyperlinked documents. Web developers now routinely use sophisticated scripting languages and other active client-side technologies to provide users with rich experiences that approximate the performance of desktop applications, including features like drag-and-drop, keyboard shortcuts, and other desktop-like affordances that have become commonplace.

The latest Web browsers include powerful features that further close the gap between Web applications and native desktop applications. Most major browsers have significantly increased the speed of their JavaScript engines, allowing more complex and computationally demanding applica-

 

Web Page Instance

Web Page Instance

Web Page Instance

Storage

User
Interface

Network

and audit log Access control

Browser Kernel

Operating System

display

network

file system

to improve the performance and security of the oP Web browser, the main architecture is divided into five main subsystems: browser kernel, storage subsystem, network subsystem, user-interface subsystem, and Web page instances.

Alex Wright

tions to be developed. And Web applications will soon benefit from evolved Web standards, such as HTML5, featuring offline support, local storage, geolocation capabilities, graphics acceleration, and perhaps access to client devices, such as a scanner or video camera.

“With HTML5, we’re going to see a new generation of rich Web applications,” says Adam Barth, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of California at Berkeley who focuses on privacy and browser security. “But I suspect it will take a while for application developers to realize the full potential of the various HTML5 technologies like canvas, local storage, and video.”

In a similar vein, experimental technologies, such as Xax and Native Client, allow Web publishers to implement Web programs as native x86 code that executes directly and safely on the client’s processor, eliminating the interpretation or compilation overhead of scripted or byte-cod-ed languages and frameworks such as Java, JavaScript, Silverlight, and Flash.

“I think we’re going to see a proliferation of different scripting languages in the browser,” says Barth. “In the past, JavaScript had a mortal lock as the lingua franca of the Web, but now, with technologies like Xax and Native Client, anyone can write an interpreter for their favorite language and run the interpreter in the browser without pestering the user to install the interpreter.”

Sam King, assistant professor in the computer science department at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, thinks JavaScript is too entrenched in today’s Web ecosystem to cede its dominant position anytime soon. “JavaScript is tightly integrated into modern browsers and a fundamental part of the current Web,” he says. “However, as technologies such as Xax and Native Client show up in

FiGURe: CHRiS GRieR, SHUO TANG, AND SAMUeL T. KiNG, “SeCURe WeB BROWSiNG Wi TH THe OP WeB BROWSeR”, PROCeeDiNGS OF THe 2008 ieee SYMPOSiUM ON SeCURi T Y AND PRiVACY (OAKLAND), MAY 2008.