How does the Roozz browser plugin achieve it's cross platform capability

Question

I came across the browser plugin from roozz.com and I tried it out with LinqPad, try it here. They say there is a conversion process that takes basically any exe and converts it to their platform which can then be run on windows, mac, linux through all major browsers.

When I dug into what was going on, at least for LinqPad on Windows 7, all it did was download the linqpad exe to my user AppData/Local folder and host it inside of chrome. Interestingly I could just launch the exe outside of the browser and run it normally. I was even able to uninstall Roozz plugin and keep launching the app like normal.

The main questions I have.

1. Is this really cross platform, can I run a .NET 4.0 WPF app on windows, mac, and linux, or are you only able to run windows apps on windows and mac apps on mac?
2. In general, what is this plugin doing and what are the limitations?

EDIT: Just to clear up, this isn't as much about how browser plugins generally work, but rather how this one can run apps exclusively written for one platform and run on an incompatible one.

Further testing revealed that there is some BS around their claims, or at least some confusing "hype" because LinqPad does in fact not work on MacOSx. When trying to run the app you get,

"Your operating system is not supported by the Roozz platform yet. But we are working on it."

Majorette

Answer 1

Let me clarify a little in 7 short points:

1. Roozz is a platform for distributing software on the web. Software which your users would normally have to download and install on their system and keep updated etc. It just makes life a little easier for your end users.
2. The smart thing about Roozz is that you don't have to rebuild or reprogram your apps to run on this platform. Roozz can convert most apps, target for the desktop to run from a webpage. FireBreath is an a framework that help you build your own plugin - (FireBreath is a framework for the "I do everything myself guy")
3. Next month Roozz will also have a build in Rental system, such that you can rent the application running on the Roozz Platform per hour or per day. Again these apps can use this payment system without having to integrate with SDKs and APIs. (no need to rebuild) In this case apps will not be stored in AppData/Local folder
4. Roozz can run applications written for Mono and .NET on multiple platform (Win, Mac and Linux). But only if they were build to run on Mono already. LinqPad uses some features that are not in Mono, thus it does not work cross platform yet... (in this case Roozz will make sure that the right version of .NET or Mono is available on the end users system)
5. If application have been build and released both for Win and Mac platform, then the Roozz Plugin will fetch the right version from the server and then you will be able to run the application both on Windows and Mac in the same webpage/URL (note that it is actually not the same binary, that run on Mac and Windows in this case)
6. The Roozz Plugin for Mac is still not released in public (only in private beta). The reason being. Developer requests have not been very strong as Win and Linux versions cover more than 90% all desktop Internet users today. OS Statistics
7. Roozz is not trying to do what nobody has done before => Turn native windows apps into Mac and Linux apps without recompiling at all. Roozz is merely trying to propose a easier way to handling distribution of software both for end users and developers.

Barahona

Thanks for your answer. I think the confusion is with the marketing on your/their website which doesn't really make clear what is actually happening. I interpreted the roozz.com/TechCompare.html grid as meaning the apps were made to be cross platform, not just the plugin itself. When you compare yourself to silverlight/flash/javascript I think developers immediately think of cross platform development. There should be big caveat's for developers stating what you have said here. – Majorette

I think some other misleading advertising here is doing performance comparisons to native applications. I mean would anyone really be surprised that a native app is faster than javascript? While the plugin is web based, the actual applications have nothing to do with the web stack so again it's confusing. – Majorette

Answer 2

Isn't it just a browser plugin?

• ActiveX for IE
• NPAPI for Chrome / FF / Opera

Firebreath is across platform plugin that you can do the same stuff with. http://code.google.com/p/firebreath/

Barnstorm

I understand browser plugins, but this one is saying that you can take normal compiled windows apps and distribute them to other platforms with no source changes. I'm trying to figure out if it's me mis-interpreting their marketing, total BS, or a combination. – Majorette

They are emulating a windows application in a plugin, perhaps using source code from WineHQ which can do that. Instead of emulating it in a Window, they are doing it in a NPAPI / ActiveX window. – Barnstorm