About a week ago, we dropped a story about a little-known entity called Droplet Computing.
Up until that article, most people had never heard of this company or the wild things they are planning. I have to admit, while researching for the article, I had my doubts about whether or not Droplet and the initiative they are driving would ever actually see the light of day.
A funny thing happened after that article was published. We had a lengthy Hangout chat with some of the team and got some detail about not only the legitimacy of the company, but how it plans on changing one of the largest pain-points of computing: app delivery.
Your App on Your Device
The mission of Droplet, after talking with these fine folks, seems very clear. They want to free applications from their respective OS and hardware. Want to run a Windows app on a Chromebook? Android app on Windows? Android app on an iPhone?
All possible with what Droplet calls their container. That’s where the magic is, really.
When we posted about Droplet last week, the comments were all over the place. Things like “repackaged WINE” and “Looks identical to Crossover” were thrown around, along with some even saying it may be a scam or vaporware.
I can confidently tell you it is none of those things.
Keep in mind, one of the services some are claiming this is cloning or using is Codeweavers. Here’s a direct quote from Codeweavers CEO James Ramey:
It’s quite remarkable to think of how this could shape computing for the years to come.
As the guys at Droplet said, all these other emulators and VMs are pieces of the puzzle. Droplet is bringing those pieces together.
Much of what we discussed I cannot share yet, but I wanted to share that Droplet is fully legit and it is coming at the latest by the end of 2017.
And yes, Google is in the loop on this. Droplet wanted to fly under the radar for just a bit longer, but we seem to have spoiled that a bit.
Over My Head
The ins and outs of what Droplet shared with us was over my head in many ways, but what they say on their site is, in fact, exactly what they are working towards and showed us. A container that can support different OSs and their applications for delivery on another OS.
And through a browser tab in Chrome. WHAT?!??
It is crazy and mind-bending, but we’ve seen it in action and it is pretty amazing stuff.
We should start seeing a public beta within a month or so, and when it shows up, there will be plenty of testing, videos and stories from Chrome Unboxed all about it.
For now, though, we just wanted everyone to know what Droplet isn’t. More importantly though, we wanted you to know what they are, what they are up to, and that we are in for something pretty special and unique. As before, you can keep up with them over at Droplet’s Website.
/// UPDATE ///
The folks over at Droplet have reached out and told us they are in the process of upgrading their server for their website. If you are getting errors on the site, please reach out to info@dropletcom.com to sign up for the Public Beta.