Will JavaScript Containers Overtake Linux Containers?

"Developers of the Deno JavaScript and TypeScript runtime are exploring the possibility of JavaScript containers - and the JavaScript sandbox itself - as a higher-level alternative to Linux containers," reports InfoWorld, citing a blog post by Node.js and Deno creator Ryan Dahl:Dahl also noted that Docker popularized the use of Linux containers, with operating system-level virtualization for distributing server software. Each container image is a dependency-free, ready-to-run software package. But browser JavaScript offers a similar hermetic environment at a higher level of abstraction, he said. Dahl said he expects JavaScript container technology to unfold over the next couple of years. In the blog post Dahl says scripting languages are "all pretty much the same" - but that JavaScript is "by far more widely used and future proof."[A JavaScript sandbox container] isn't meant to address the same breadth of problems that Linux containers target. Its emergence is a result of its simplicity. It minimizes the boilerplate for web service business logic. It shares concepts with the browser and reduces the concepts that the programmer needs to know. (Example: when writing a web service, very likely any systemd configuration is just unnecessary boilerplate.) Every web engineer already knows JavaScript browser APIs. Because the JavaScript container abstraction is built on the same browser APIs, the total amount of experience the engineer needs is reduced. The universality of Javascript reduces complexity.... In this emerging server abstraction layer, JavaScript takes the place of Shell. It is quite a bit better suited to scripting than Bash or Zsh. Instead of invoking Linux executables, like shell does, the JavaScript sandbox can invoke Wasm.... Maybe the majority of "web services" can be simplified by thinking in terms of JavaScript containers, rather than Linux containers. At Deno we are exploring these ideas; we're trying to radically simplify the server abstraction. We're hiring if this sounds interesting to you.

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