# plasma-umass/browsix

Browsix is a Unix-like operating system for the browser.

Repository: https://github.com/plasma-umass/browsix
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/browsix
Language: JavaScript
License: NOASSERTION
License Family: other
Topics: browserfs, unix-like, javascript-framework
Last push: 2022-03-27T22:12:32+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 32/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 0, release rhythm 35, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 3850, "days_push": 1620, "days_rel": null, "gap_med": null, "n_releases_24m": 0}
- flags: no_releases, no_license
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 3186, forks 182 (observed 2026-08-28T04:07:48.040618+00:00)

## What it is
Browsix is a JavaScript framework that brings Unix-like abstractions—processes, pipes, signals, sockets, and a shared file system—to the browser, built on web workers. It extends JavaScript runtimes so C, C++, Go, and Node.js programs can run in a Unix-like environment inside the browser, including a POSIX-like shell.

## Use cases
- run unix commands in the browser
- build multi-process web applications
- run go programs in the browser
- create a web terminal with pipes
- parallel data processing in the browser

## When to choose
- you want unix-like process and pipe abstractions in a browser app
- you need to run compiled C, C++, or Go programs client-side
- you want to move server-side microservice logic into the browser

## When to avoid
- you need a maintained, actively developed framework
- you need broad production support across all modern browsers
- you only need simple client-side scripting without process isolation

## Facets
- artifact type: framework
- maturity: maintenance
- function: concurrency, file-system, web-framework, interpreter
- domain: web-development, operating-systems, developer-tools
- platform: browser, wasm
- tags: unix-like, posix-shell, web-workers, in-browser-os, pipes, processes, javascript

## Member repositories
- plasma-umass/browsix (main) score 32

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:07:48.040618+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-30T07:25:00.076271+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/plasma-umass/browsix (fetched 2026-08-28T04:07:48.040618+00:00, sha c5c12517e8b1)
  - registry_npm: https://registry.npmjs.org/browsix (fetched 2026-08-29T09:39:13.433958+00:00, sha 96860b9928ca)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.