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What is Pyro?

Flickr Add-on

Exposé in JavaScript

Live Window Switching

Pyro is a new kind of desktop environment for Linux built on Mozilla Firefox. Its goal is to enable true integration between the Web and modern desktop computing.

By merging the Web with the desktop, Pyro offers the first big step toward a new future for the Web and the applications built for it. You can call it Web 3.0.

In Pyro, 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.

Imagine...

Rich Web pages running side-by-side with native applications
Weby programming environment for the whole desktop
Desktop-wide mashups with killer Web integration
Novel desktop effects, using off-the-shelf JavaScript libraries

Pyro enables a desktop that tracks the latest in Web technology, and helps mold the future of the integrated Web.

How does it work?

Pyro works fundamentally by drawing your entire computer screen as a Web Page, all from within Firefox. At the core Pyro is a window manager which renders Web content alongside existing native applications.

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.

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.

Already advanced features like smooth OSX-style Exposé, live window switching, and animated window minimization are implemented using pure JavaScript.