| Pyro delivers Web apps to the Linux desktop |
Jul. 20, 2007
 The Pyro project has launched its "Pyro Desktop," a new Linux application with the lofty goal of "true integration between the Web and modern desktop computing." Pyro offers an interesting new approach to deploying Web-based applications on the Linux desktop, reminiscent of Opera's and Vista's widgets.
According to Pyro's website, "Pyro works fundamentally by drawing your entire computer screen as a Web Page, all from within Firefox." Indeed, at core, Pyro seems to be a window manager that renders Web content alongside existing native applications.
Pyro screenshot showing Flickr feed
(Click to enlarge)
"By leveraging the trusted Firefox Add-On system, all the capabilities of dynamic HTML, JavaScript, CSS, SVG, and Adobe Flash are available to enable incredible applications, extensions, and themes," continues the project's website.
The project is led by Alex Graveley, working in conjunction with Chris Toshok, a Mono developer. In announcing the alpha release of Pyro this week, Graveley stated, "Web content is no longer confined to the browser's window. Instead, trusted web sites and extensions are given access to the full range of interactivity and control enjoyed by native applications today."
Pyro's announcement teases readers to imagine...- Rich Web pages running side-by-side with native applications
- Single programming environment for the whole desktop
- Desktop-wide mashups
- Killer Web integration
- Novel desktop effects
"Pyro enables a desktop that tracks the latest in Web technology, and helps mold the future of the integrated Web," continues the announcement.
"Bringing all these Web technologies together with the newest generation of Linux display technology, called window compositing, allows Pyro to integrate native applications as an intrinsic part of the overall Web Desktop, seamlessly merging the two," the Pyro website adds.
Such interoperability is, of course, an expected capability of Web browsing, where Java and other machine- and OS-independent technologies and services flourish in relative comfort. However, fusing these technologies with the desktop window manager could open up serious security risks if not done carefully.
How safe is it?
In an email interview, Graveley told DesktopLinux that "security issues are exactly the same as with Firefox... any Firefox add-on you download could potentially snoop all your keystrokes, capture all your website passwords, forward all your email to Uganda, delete all the files in your home directory, etc. Just as any .exe or .deb or .rpm or .dmg could do. You must trust what you install, no matter what."
"Pyro does not however expose any new security vulnerabilities to regular websites that you visit," he continued. "Nor does it expose your interactions with any native applications that you run under Pyro to such websites."
Since Pyro can be installed now, we asked if it was safe to try for users who could not afford to lose data. Graveley intimated that Pyro should be treated as any Alpha: "Pyro is unsafe in that it might very well crash in the middle of composing an important email, after which you would have to rewrite it. But there's not any more risk than running an experimental build of compiz, or metacity, or any other window manager," he said.
"It's the first public release, after all, version 0.1. I'm honestly quite surprised that most people that download and try it have actually had something happen when they run it," added Graveley.
Availability
Pyro is currently available for download from the project's website, Pyro project's website. Additional screenshots are available here.
Our advice: proceed cautiously -- this is "alpha" level software.
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