JSLinux Now Supports x86_64

petcat

I've always been fascinated by this, but I have never known what it would be useful for. Does anyone know of any practical use cases?

maxloh

Unfortunately, he didn't attach the source code for the 64-bit x86 emulation layer, or the config used to compile the hosted image. For a more open-source version, check out container2wasm (which supports x86_64, riscv64, and AArch64 architectures): https://github.com/container2wasm/container2wasm

wolttam

I can launch this thing and start making arbitrary connections out to port 25 on the internet from some random IP? Hmm.

notorandit

Incredible guy!

westurner

How do TinyEmu and JSLinux compare to linux-wasm? From "Show HN: Amla Sandbox – WASM bash shell sandbox for AI agents" (2026) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46825119 : >>> How to run vscode-container-wasm-gcc-example with c2w, with joelseverin/linux-wasm? >> linux-wasm is apparently faster than c2w From "Ghostty compiled to WASM with xterm.js API compatibility" https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46118267 : > From joelseverin/linux-wasm: https://github.com/joelseverin/linux-wasm : >> Hint: Wasm lacks an MMU, meaning that Linux needs to be built in a NOMMU configuration From https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46229385 : >> There's a pypi:SystemdUnitParser.

westurner

UBY: touchscreen: How to scroll the scrollback

blackhaz

Sorry for the off-topic, but what a bliss to see Windows 2000 interface. And what an absolute abomination from hell pretty much all the modern UIs are.

simonw

The thing I most want to use this (or some other WASM Linux engine) for is running a coding agent against a virtual operating system directly in my browser. Claude Code / Codex CLI / etc are all great because they know how to drive Bash and other Linux tools. The browser is probably the best sandbox we have. Being able to run an agent loop against a WebAssembly Linux would be a very cool trick. I had a play with v86 a few months ago but didn't quite get to the point where I hooked up the agent to it - here's my WIP: https://tools.simonwillison.net/v86 - it has a text input you can use to send commands to the Linux machine, which is pretty much what you'd need to wire in an agent too. In that demo try running "cat test.lua" and then "lua test.lua".

shevy-java

He builds epicness.

AlecMurphy

If anyone is interested, I made some modifications last month to get TempleOS running on the x86_64 JSLinux: https://ring0.holyc.xyz/

stjo

I love how nonchalantly demonstrates his custom terminal emulator and javascript engine.

brucehoult

Out of interest I tried running my Primes benchmark [1] on both the x86_64 and x86 Alpine and the riscv64 Buildroot, both in Chrome on M1 Mac Mini. Both are 2nd run so that all needed code is already cached locally. x86_64: localhost:~# time gcc -O primes.c -o primes real 0m 3.18s user 0m 1.30s sys 0m 1.47s localhost:~# time ./primes Starting run 3713160 primes found in 456995 ms 245 bytes of code in countPrimes() real 7m 37.97s user 7m 36.98s sys 0m 0.00s localhost:~# uname -a Linux localhost 6.19.3 #17 PREEMPT_DYNAMIC Mon Mar 9 17:12:35 CET 2026 x86_64 Linux x86 (i.e. 32 bit): localhost:~# time gcc -O primes.c -o primes real 0m 2.08s user 0m 1.43s sys 0m 0.64s localhost:~# time ./primes Starting run 3713160 primes found in 348424 ms 301 bytes of code in countPrimes() real 5m 48.46s user 5m 37.55s sys 0m 10.86s localhost:~# uname -a Linux localhost 4.12.0-rc6-g48ec1f0-dirty #21 Fri Aug 4 21:02:28 CEST 2017 i586 Linux riscv64: [root@localhost ~]# time gcc -O primes.c -o primes real 0m 2.08s user 0m 1.13s sys 0m 0.93s [root@localhost ~]# time ./primes Starting run 3713160 primes found in 180893 ms 216 bytes of code in countPrimes() real 3m 0.90s user 3m 0.89s sys 0m 0.00s [root@localhost ~]# uname -a Linux localhost 4.15.0-00049-ga3b1e7a-dirty #11 Thu Nov 8 20:30:26 CET 2018 riscv64 GNU/Linux Conclusion: as seen also in QEMU (also started by Bellard!), RISC-V is a *lot* easier to emulate than x86. If you're building code specifically to run in emulation, use RISC-V: builds faster, smaller code, runs faster. Note: quite different gcc versions, with x86_64 being 15.2.0, x86 9.3.0, and riscv64 7.3.0. [1] http://hoult..rg/primes.txt

testifye

I've been using the x86_64 Alpine jslinux browser image in Chrome for the last 4 hours - pulling code down via git, building several large packages from source, editing and altering code, and running their test suites. This VM may be 50 times slower than native, but it is rock solid - worked perfectly and is stable. It's simply remarkable.