Will we ever see a Java Based OS ?
As the title says....to run on all computers...
Will it ever happen?
Has it already happened ?
Is it being kept secret by the same sinister forces who have kept a lid on anti-gravity devices, cold fusion, time machines..hydrogen cars...perpetual motion, a tomato that tastes like a real tomato...the location of Elvis etc etc...
Seriously though any thoughts on a Java based Universal OS.
Will it ever happen?
Has it already happened ?
Is it being kept secret by the same sinister forces who have kept a lid on anti-gravity devices, cold fusion, time machines..hydrogen cars...perpetual motion, a tomato that tastes like a real tomato...the location of Elvis etc etc...
Seriously though any thoughts on a Java based Universal OS.
Comments
The bytecode->ISA mapping doesn't have to be exact, either. If you were clever, you could look at some of the tricks that JIT compilers use and borrow them, sticking a very thin optimization layer between the Java and the hardware. Or you can build it into the hardware. The issue is not whether it can be done, so much as whether it makes any technical or economic sense to do it.
Java is already most of the way toward being a portable operating system - pretty much all the functionality you'd expect from an OS is somewhere in the libraries, it just happens to run as a shell of sorts on top of other OS'. It's not quite ready to be the operating system yet, though. For one thing, there's the matter of requiring an interpreter or JIT compiler underneath in order for the code to be truly portable (unless you're OK with compiling it for each platform, in which case you've just attained the level of portability that UNIX enjoyed 30 years ago). For another, there are issues with performance, and a lack of the low-level management capabilities that an operating system really needs to worry about. Automatic garbage collection is an application-level luxury.
Originally posted by Amorph
" Actually, steps have already been taken: Some handheld devices can run Java on hardware,......Java is already most of the way toward being a portable operating system ..... there's the matter of requiring an interpreter or JIT compiler underneath in order for the code to be truly portable (unless you're OK with compiling it for each platform, in which case you've just attained the level of portability that UNIX enjoyed 30 years ago). For another, there are issues with performance, and a lack of the low-level management capabilities that an operating system really needs to worry about. Automatic garbage collection is an application-level luxury.
These seem to be more like obstacles that eventually will be moved out of the way...by keen compilers...
What you said, makes me think things are more promising than I actually realised...8)
Originally posted by Brad
Doubtful for the simple facts that java runs far slower than native code.
This is totally untrue (looking at the current generation of JVM's). Hotspot optimised code runs at speed close to that of old fashioned languages like C. Just because Swing based GUI's are often sucky doesn't mean the language is slow.
A JVM is required, so you couldn't have a universal Java operating system very easily, but you could have a universal Java Desktop Environment running in top of a hardware dependent Kernel (such as Linux...).
The Java Desktop project is working towards just such a goal...
Originally posted by Aquafire
As the title says....to run on all computers...
Will it ever happen?
Has it already happened ?
Is it being kept secret by the same sinister forces who have kept a lid on anti-gravity devices, cold fusion, time machines..hydrogen cars...perpetual motion, a tomato that tastes like a real tomato...the location of Elvis etc etc...
Seriously though any thoughts on a Java based Universal OS.
It happened back in 1997 and flopped big time:
http://www.sun.com/smi/Press/sunflas...0305.1098.html
Originally posted by Aquafire
These seem to be more like obstacles that eventually will be moved out of the way...by keen compilers...
Low-level resource management isn't a compiler issue.
As to the Java OS failing in 1997, that might be in part because Java was a different, and significantly inferior, beast back in '97. For one thing, it could barely run on contemporary hardware; for another, it was hopelessly buggy (I know, because that's about when I tried learning it - we fixed a bug in a program once by changing the name of a local variable).
The CPUs that powered desktops then power automobiles and cellphones now, and Java has finally realized most of the potential that was claimed for it early on. The technical obstacles to a standalone Java system are far fewer than they were.
My main concern about Java is that Sun still controls it. Until it becomes a no-strings-attached ISO standard I'll prefer Python for that kind of work. But, obviously, there are a lot of people who don't share that concern.
Originally posted by Amorph
As to the Java OS failing in 1997, that might be in part because Java was a different, and significantly inferior, beast back in '97.
Java will be viable as a platform when we have enough (and the right kinds of) 100% pure Java applications to support an entire desktop. Will it eventually happen? Yeah, probably. It would be interesting to know how many developers are doing commercial GUIs with Java. I suspect not many. Java found its nich in the app-server space... So you're alot more likely to see a JavaOS powered server before you see a JavaOS powered desktop.
"The Java Desktop project is working towards just such a goal... "
So 8' th son of Turug,
Do you have a link...?
I for one would be interested in seeing the project's development....
Seriously, when CS people get their hands on hardware, things get ugly. Really ugly.