https://liliputing.com/2018/04/droplet-computing-uncouples-apps-from-the-os-s...

Droplet Computing uncouples apps from the original OS
(Windows apps run on Chrome OS or Android, for example)

OK, a small soft gleam of light in the darkness is happening here.   Perk up and read, slowly, for COMPREHENSION and CLARITY OF UNDERSTANDING.





It is interesting to note that Droplet relies on the open source WINE project for loading x86 Windows applications. WINE is a compatibility layer that makes it possible to run some Windows apps on Linux machines.

WINE recently added support for running Windows applications on Chromebooks and Android devices with x86 processors… technology it picked up from CodeWeavers’ Crossover product. Droplet is partnering with CodeWeavers.

There are plenty of popular applications that are available across multiple platforms: Microsoft Office runs on Windows, Mac, Android, and iOS. And the open source LibreOffice runs on Linux, Mac, and Windows,

But it’s generally up to the developers of those apps to decide what platforms they’ll support… because it takes work to compile software to run on different operating systems.

The folks at Droplet Computing want to change that. They’ve introduced a new container solution called “Droplet Universal” that basically lets any app run on any operating system. Not only could you theoretically run MS Excel on your phone: you could run the full desktop version instead of the stripped-down mobile version.

At least, that’s the idea. Right now Droplet is targeting enterprise customers rather than end users.

The solution could allow businesses that are relying on software designed for an old version of Windows to upgrade to a newer version without losing the ability to run that core application, for instance. Or that same business could start using Macs or even Chromebooks.

Betcha MS or Google buys this one up, quick-like IF it really is an independent little company.    This is a major step on the "OS doesn't matter any more, only the apps matter" pathway and it defines Microsoft's possible way to survive by selling their best apps throughout computer space.   It is also a thumb stuck in Mickey's eyeball since this little upstart can do what the mighty Microsoft said it couldn't do --- run Win 10 on an ARM processor without a bunch of restrictions.

Falls directly in line with MS's latest restructuring thinking though, doesn't it?

It is a death knell for Wintel as a marriage, and unless Intel can make up some cheaper processors that people really really want, it is Intel's deepening of the whirlpool over the flush drain as far less expensive ARM processors will work fine with this stuff too.    

These Droplet people are currently selling the idea of a system intended to use Chromebooks universally throughout big business office spaces using MS Windows apps and Android apps and Chrome apps all interchangeably.    Have your cake and eat your Office icing too.

https://chromeunboxed.com/droplet-is-legit-windows-apps-on-chromebooks-coming...

https://www.linkedin.com/company/droplet-computing

https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/droplet-computing#section-overview

When you read this one and one from a financial magazine site both showing just one investor and only 4 employees, another little light goes on in your head.  Do you remember the little startup company of ex-googlers that pilot fished the ideas behind desktop Android functionality on Chromebooks, and then do you remember the ex-googlers that split off to do several other very phone type things that eventually wound up inside Android and Chrome naturally after the market place and FOSS  had accepted the ideas?    Remember Republic Wireless and Google Fi (another fine example of this pilot fish approach to fundamental industry changes)?

Google has done this sort of pilot fish stuff like this before as a repeated methodology, push the radical new ideas out as a well funded little FOSS startup and see if it can penetrate the ideas into FOSS culture and grow some on its own, independently, to prove the ideas are sound and well accepted.   FOSS in general will tend to freely accept a little peer group struggling to survive just like they are while they would tend to automatically shy away from a big MS or Google initiative like the plague.

Is it real?  Are the ideas any good?  MS seems to think so, well enough to announce a reorganization of itself along those same lines just last week ......

Is it ex-googlers ???   Mebbe, but certainly not known at this time.   If they fold up and are quietly reabsorbed into Google when the job is done that would tend to say yes.   Their knowledge and access into ChromeOS's guts and its net technologies tends to say yes.   If MS buys them out, then that would tend to say no.   So it hangs at "mebbe" right now which is exactly what is desired at this point, I guess.      

I betcha Droplet is totally proof against Spectre, Meltdown, CTS and the like from the very get go -- inherently secure just like ChromeOS.   Since the first general users will be running Chromebooks this will likely form the structural pattern as Droplet grows and multiplies.

Interesting item to watch to be sure.    Reminds me of the old timey hand systems to quarry large blocks of stone using a line of wooden wedges driven in a cut line to slowly split the stone.  They poured water over the wedges once they were in as far as they could go and the wedges grew just a tiny bit, but with great force.       CRACK ......   then more larger wedges pounded in and more water added later.   They supposedly split off them huge Egyptian tall spire thingies using that system ......

FOSS and Wine and CodeWeavers and Droplet all seem to sing in the same choir, I do believe.   Google supports FOSS, but Google isn't judged really suitable to join the little guy's choir as it is jest too durn big and Googlely.

 
As I finished fixing up the last items in my last Linux Mint Mate install at 18.3 version level, I discovered that Flatpaks had all grown up and are ready to replace individually loading the drivers, setting them up and then monitoring how your software (Steam, in this case) utilizes the drivers, hardware and fitting it all up to your games.

Steam itself is now Flatpak'd and it sure works good, actually works better than I have ever seen Steam run before.    I found this out while seeking help for a driver issue on my old graphics card .....   ASUS ATI drivers are gone since ATI sold itself off.   Surprise, get a Steam Flatpak and it auto installs the exact right driver setup custom tuned for your specific machine .....

I asked why this wasn't set up as default in the Linux Mint Mate Software Manager and was told that some of the Mint maintainers were a little slow to pick up on flatpaks as in their nation/language Flatpaks hadn't penetrated jest yet.    Mint is based out of Europe (France mainly) and lots of languages and locals need to get up to speed with the newest Flatpak stuff before it all goes back to being all seamless easy again.

I can understand this, as I hadn't heard the term Flatpak associated with BEING ALL FINISHED, done & out the door but since very early this morning ......    Last I heard of it was it was a neat sounding theoretical thing that could be done to make software work better across hardware and OS systems.

Good news, Flatpaks are sandboxed sorta like ChromeOS does it, so any attack or illness is limited to the one sandbox that got hit, and only that Flatpak app needs to be fixed, removed and replaced during update time.


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Now the radical part -- Wintel now has a problem.    Wintel was clinging on by the skin of their teeth games in some areas, and some folks (like me) were willing to put up with Wintel simply to play a game that didn't work on Linux.   This no longer is a restriction.

Guess what Wine, Crossover, Droplet, and all the big new push for completely tuned game specific Flatpaks means for games that used to only work on Wintel Windows systems before now ......  they can be set up to run in a Linux Flatpak now.



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Yup, Good Old Games (GOG) is being asked by their fans to Flatpak Windows games for Linux and sell a whole ton of old games legally.

Since developers can work with whatever environment they like then package the exchange environment specifically tuned for their game ALL AAA GAMES should come out in Flatpaks to suit the OS you currently use.

Wintel must begin to fight against Flatpak as it is their death knell if it becomes commonplace.   A Linux machine is simply a lot cheaper to build AND IT RUNS FASTER TOO.

Old Gabe at Steam is jest a chuckling with glee, as this is his Linux ready dream world is coming true all over the place spontaneously.   In the past, when a Steam game became Linux ready and you owned it already in Windows, it simply showed up in your Linux ready game listing.   Be interested to see how Steam handles this Linux switch over going forward ..... one thing has already happened is Gabe has stopped selling OS specific Linux gaming machines since the root OS being used matters a heck of a lot less than it did a month ago.

Pirate Bay is undergoing a renaissance too as the pirate folks are Flatpaking lots of stuff and listing the raw Flatpak itself on the Bay as a free download.

Folks running pure Linux can have these things survive MS's nightly "update/inspection visits" because there ain't no MS on their machines at all any more and Mickey can't go there legally any more.

And if Mickey goes and raids your pure Linux machine -- that is illegal as hell as they have NO EULA from you to go on to that machine ever again.

Papa Bear,

I really can't understand why MOST of the old guys on this list are still stuck on Windows and won't even try to get off of it.    

I poke at them occasionally, but have pretty much given them over to their fate as Mickey begins to twist their arms off to force them to spend even more money on new hardware (a synthetic need that was created by Wintel to make more money off of the existing customer base).

I am tickled shiteless to get all my old raw speed back again, having allowed Mickey Soft to screw with my Linux box for nearly two years now and in that two years they had crapped me up down to a crawl.   And Mickey wasn't even my go to system, but it was just on the machine to support the Windows gaming partition side of things.