Capyloon: An Experimental Web Based OS | Hacker News Reader

Capyloon: An Experimental Web Based OS

capyloon.org

36 pointsfabrice_d10 comments

What is this? I couldn't understand from the landing page. Is it a desktop shell that uses web-based technologies? Is it intended to run locally and offline?

It's a Web based OS, based on the boot2gecko/FirefoxOS stack. Images are available for Android based devices as well as "desktop" builds. Builds for the Pinephone and Librem5 linux phones are coming soon.

You can indeed use the desktop builds as a linux desktop shell.

An easy way to get started is to clone the https://github.com/capyloon/nutria repository and follow the "quick start" guide. Both Mac and Linux are supported.

Apologies for my licensing inexperience, but what does AGPL mean when applied to an operating system?

I guess put another way: what is the licensing risk one is trying to drive down by picking such an aggressive license?

Copyright is a negative right. In light of that, characterizing the AGPL as "aggressive" is a little misleading—or maybe best to say that it's something akin to an optical illusion—considering that AGPL is strictly more permissive than the "all rights reserved" terms that apply to most copyrightable works that most people interact with over the course of an ordinary day.

Related, see https://gerda.tech/ which is a KaiOS fork (and therefore in the FirefoxOS family)

I wonder if Capyloon can run FirefoxOS apps like Kai can.

With minor adaptations due to some api changes, yes. This is the beauty of the web!

> B2G : Gonk based devices. The Pixel 3a and Android Generic System Images are currently supported.

Is that to say it can be flashed over an Android system and it should just work on the vendor drivers?

Yes, with some caveats due to the fact that there are changes to the vendor <-> gonk interface that can't be achieved with a GSI image.

I recently upgraded from a Pixel XL to a Pixel 5a, so no joy for me. What are the prospects of other devices being supported?

No, that's the great thing about GSI images! You just plop it on top of an Android image - even stock - and it runs your OS on the vendor kernel+drivers!

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