Linux In JavaScript, With Persistent Storage

An anonymous reader writes "Remember Fabrice bellard's [Linux-booting PC emulator in JavaScript] ? This modified version [Note: click on "emulator.html" in that directory to see it in action] allows the same emulator to boot the most recent linux kernel, 3.0.4, as well as providing the user with persistent storage. It is achieved by building a virtual block device, which stores data in HTML5 local storage. The block device can be partitioned and formatted as ext2, so it can be easily used."

Educational sandbox?

[Irick]

This could be a great thing to embed into online how-tos and the like for teaching basic or even advanced linux. ... heh, embedded linux on the rise again :P

Re:Whiskey Tango Foxtrot!

[somersault]

I think it's very cool. Technical, yes. Difficult? Probably not that difficult seeing as Linux is designed to be amazingly portable. It doesn't even need the C standard IO library to compile, so really you'd just need to emulate a few low level interfaces for things like memory access, keyboard input and a terminal display. There are a few different ways to implement it, but if he has it running quickly then that would be quite impressive :)

New malware vector?

[Anonymous Coward]

Rather than using javascript to load infected files that use *.pdf and other infectible formats, they can now run a botnet just using an infected ad straight inside your web browser.