Amibian.js

Index

Introduction

The Quartex Web OS (codename “Amibian.js”), is a cloud software platform that is built using off-the-shelves web technology.

The back-end consists of a series of services running under node.js, making the system extremely portable and scalable. The system is designed to run either in solo mode (on a single computer) or as a machine cluster, meaning that the services can be installed on separate computers, taking advantage of additional CPU cores and resources.

The front-end is likewise compiled to JavaScript and HTML5, making the desktop environment available from any modern browser. It is also possible to create custom Linux images where the system boots into a web-view, not unlike Chrome OS.

Modern browsers have evolved to a point where they are capable of delivering enterprise level software. In the past most large-scale web applications was simply not possible due to limited bandwidth. JavaScript was not evolved enough to handle the amount of code needed for a large application (examples being: Photoshop and Visual Studio), and speed was also a determining factor.

With the introduction of HTML4 these limitations largely vanished. With HTML5 becoming the norm, it is not only possible to deploy large-scale applications through the browser, it has become more cost-effective to use web technology rather than traditional programming languages and toolchains.

The challenge for developers is that JavaScript and the browser, despite it’s awesome new powers, lacks the infrastructure that ordinary operating systems provide. Things like a windowing manager, process and user management a distributed file system, application menu systems — things that ultimately are time-consuming and costly to build and maintain.

Purpose

With the Quartex Web OS developers save time by getting a rich and powerful ecosystem out of the box. Since the system is written completely in JavaScript, it will run on anything that has node.js. Companies that build routers and NAS devices can deploy Amibian.js as their foundation, and then implement settings and various aspects of their hardware as individual programs. This makes their products more attractive for end-users who are already familiar with desktop environments.

Since Amibian.js delivers many of the features found in Microsoft Windows and Apple OS X, developers also save time. They can focus on their product directly, without having to first create the infrastructure that should host it.

The desktop also serves as an alternative to Chrome OS, meaning that it can be installed on affordable hardware (devices such as ODroid XU4 and Asus Tinkerboard for example), turning these devices into a full desktop experience.

In short the Quartex Web OS aims:

  • To be a foundation for embedded and IOT products
  • To deliver a complete desktop experience for single board computers
  • To provide a full development platform [scheduled for 2020] where the entire software development process is performed through a browser
  • To run both solo and clustered, taking advantage of available CPU cores and resources when available