At its core, OSNews is a site driven by interesting content about alternative Operating Systems. As such, we’re introducing “OSNews Alternative OS Contest,” a contest aimed at getting back to our roots and generating interest and publicity in alternative Operating Systems. Read on for the rules & prizes.
Guidelines
In order to participate in the OSNews Alternative OS contest, you must write a feature length article (at least 500 words) about your experience with an alternative OS. Your alternative OS should be an operating system other than Windows, Mac OS, Linux, xBSD, or Solaris. If you are unsure of whether or not an operating system qualifies, email me at adam at osnews dot com or see below. If it isn’t made by Microsoft or Apple and isn’t built on a Linux or Unix kernel, it probably does.
…basically, tell us how your OS works, and how it’s different from everything else we’ve used.
Prizes!
We will be awarding up to 5 two years subscriptions to OSNews and up to 10 one year subscriptions to OSNews as prizes. In addition, we have other prizes, such as an mp3 player, books, and more. Details and quantity of prizes will depend on the number of qualified submissions.
Winners
Winners will be notified via email and their work will be featured on the website. We will run the winning entries in succession over the course of several days or weeks, again, depending on the number of accepted entries. By submitting your work to OSNews, you are allowing us to exclusively publish your work on our website. You may not republish the same article elsewhere for 30 days.
Rules
Here are some of the specifics:
Suggestions
We will be judging completely subjectively based on many factors, including: quality, depth, readability/clarity, grammar, and uniqueness. If the articles are worthwhile and different enough, we may accept two reviews of the same OS. We want give away prizes, so there’s no reason not to fire up Minix3 and get crackin’.
If you’re looking for a starting off point, we would love to see comprehensive reviews of:
Good luck!
The Haiku Project link is broken (a typo, it seems). Please fix. 🙂
Also, I think this is a great initiative!
– Simon
This is why i read osnews!
The idea of using prizes to spur creativity and research is a technique that is known to be very effective. Witness the recent DARPA Grand Prize and the X-Prize tournaments. While the OS-Newsproposed contest is partially meant to be a promotion for OS-News (nothing wrong with that), it will also be beneficial in publicizing alternative OSes. Question is, does the world really need another me-too operating system? I don’t think so. This contest runs the risk of being just another appeal to a relative small community of alternative OS fanatics who are in it mostly for the fun of it. What would be nice is a contest that offers a substantial prize ($millions a la X-Prize) for the development of a new OS that solves a particularly pressing problem in the industry. I suggest that the most pressing problem faced by the computer industry is not power management or processing speed. The biggest problem in the industry is software reliability. How about a $10-million prize for the first comprehensive OS that is guaranteed 100% bug-free? Not an easy thing to do and the rules would have to be worked out so as to be unambiguous on the meaning of bug-free. Let me suggest that OSNews get together with the X-Prize commitee (or DARPA, or whoever) and convince them of the potential bebefits of such a prize.
I’ll be frank (shameless plug), I am proposing this contest because I believe I could put together a team to win it. It has to do with my faith in non-algorithmic, signal-based, synchronous software. I don’t believe that unreliability has to be an essential charateristic of complex software systems.
Louis Savain
Edited 2006-06-16 18:47
Modded down already, eh? So soon? ahahaha… My enemies are decidedly rabid lately. Good sign, IMO. Some people feel understandably threatened. It means that the message is getting through (thanks in part to sites like OSNews). Life is beautiful. ahahaha… AHAHAHA…
Edited 2006-06-16 22:02
That’s right. Practice them there deep, throaty laughs! You da MAN, Louie Seven!
100% bug free? That’s a tall order! Who’s going to do all the testing to determine whether it’s bug free. That’s a fun idea, though. However, we already have lots of highly reliable OSes. The problem is, people want OSes with more features, and they’ll generally choose them over more reliable ones, even for mission-critical stuff.
” The idea of using prizes to spur creativity and research is a technique that is known to be very effective. Witness the recent DARPA Grand Prize and the X-Prize tournaments. While the OS-Newsproposed contest is partially meant to be a promotion for OS-News (nothing wrong with that), it will also be beneficial in publicizing alternative OSes. Question is, does the world really need another me-too operating system? ”
Does the world need more than one kind of car? Does the world need more than one color of car? Model airplane kit? Yo-Yo? Cable-knit sweater? Dishwasher design? Depends on end-user demand and idle time for development. If yet another “me too” OS improves the breed, I’d say so. Remember, all software is an incrementally improving effort, just exactly as all hardware is. It’s easier to reach a pinnacle in hammer design, but software is a tad iffy-er.
” I don’t think so. This contest runs the risk of being just another appeal to a relative small community of alternative OS fanatics who are in it mostly for the fun of it. ”
Pray tell, who else other than a fairly lunatic fringe would even start to care? Look at us, Man! We’re reading OSNews.com! Can’t you see our pain?
” What would be nice is a contest that offers a substantial prize ($millions a la X-Prize) for the development of a new OS that solves a particularly pressing problem in the industry. ”
First pressing problem: getting $millions!!
” I suggest that the most pressing problem faced by the computer industry is not power management or processing speed. ”
I still kinda think it’s getting the $millions.
” The biggest problem in the industry is software reliability. How about a $10-million prize ”
Would you believe $145 and a free ride in the “Geek Squad” Volkswagen Beetle?
” for the first comprehensive OS that is guaranteed 100% bug-free? ”
Define comprehensive. Define 100% bug-free. Would an ugly brown interface be considered a bug? Inability to read my thoughts? Being packaged in a box that is ridiculously huge for its contents?
” Not an easy thing to do ”
Plausibly impossible to define, yet.
” and the rules would have to be worked out so as to be unambiguous on the meaning of bug-free.”
Define unambiguous, and be precise as possible.
” Let me suggest that OSNews get together with the X-Prize commitee (or DARPA, or whoM, whom whom whom whom!!
(fist “whom” fix is free)
ever) and convince them of the potential bebefits of such a prize. ”
Yes, like essentially re-inventing the wheel. You have me convinced, now get on the horn with DARPA, you sexy genius you! Oh, and I’m letting “bebefits” slide because I think you just sneezed while typing and it’s VERY fun to say.
” I’ll be frank (shameless plug), ”
You’re shamelessly plugging Frank? I sure hope he works at DARPA.
” I am proposing this contest because I believe I could put together a team to win it. It has to do with my faith ”
My favorite quote on faith is: “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.”
Hebrews 11:1 (NIV), and buddy, you have it in spades. You honestly believe in a comprehensive computational system that is bug-free. Of course, you also seem to believe that for the world to deserve this system, they must first give you a poke at a few million dollars, as opposed to the lovely folks at itty-bittyOS who do it for free.
” in non-algorithmic, signal-based, synchronous software. ”
Odd that you mention this. I have one of those lying around here somewhere. Methinks it’s called “Leisure-Suit Larry”
” I don’t believe that unreliability has to be an essential charateristic of complex software systems. ”
Define reliability. Define essential. Define complex. Oh, yeah, this contest is off to a boiling start already. Tell you what, just MAKE the thing and you’ll be a guarateed $millions-aire by my sister’s third trimester. Then you can tool about in your Murcielago and laugh deep, throaty laughs at the peons still struggling along with their algorithmic, something-else-based, asynchronous software.
” Louis Savain ”
And remember, folks. It’s not software, it’s Savain-ware!
(Hey, if you get rich and use the slogan, I’d like $million for thinking it up.)
Odd that you mention this. I have one of those lying around here somewhere. Methinks it’s called “Leisure-Suit Larry”.
BEWARE!
Thou art in great danger of desecrating the Holy Leisure-Suit Larry.
“(Hey, if you get rich and use the slogan, I’d like $million for thinking it up.)”
ahahaha… You’re a real karma whore, aren’t you? and pompous to boot. Bravo! Give the boy a hall pass. ahahaha… AHAHAHA… ahahaha…
Louis Savain
Found this somewhere, sorta fits my situation, and it saves me making it up myself.
” Modded down already, eh? So soon? ahahaha… My enemies are decidedly rabid lately. Good sign, IMO. Some people feel understandably threatened. It means that the message is getting through (thanks in part to sites like OSNews). Life is beautiful. ahahaha… AHAHAHA… ”
I have to admit that the “message getting through” part is perhaps a bit wishy. But it is cool, huh? See? I post a ridiculous bit of mindless fluff, and when I get called on it, all I have to do is claim to be persecuted by smaller minds who fear my perspective. No matter how wrong I am, I can’t lose! I’m making that snippit a macro!
Thus far, all you’ve got to your credibility is a fancy website with all your theories, but no real useful demonstration to show that your theories are actually practical.
Once you’ve got an OS using COSA and all your other theories that allows a user to run a COSA program (which you must also provide) that performs a perfect implementation of Windows Note Pad (a simple program to reproduce as proof-of-practicality!) then you will have some amount of credibility. After all, Note Pad is incredibly easy to implement (I’ll even relax the details of having to handle different fonts with proportional spacing: only monospaced fonts required) and shouldn’t take more than a day to implement in any programming language for someone that’s not incompetent. Also, if your COSA stuff is so easy to work with, it should take even less time to decipher how to have everything react and work correctly.
So, I’m issuing you a challenge right here and right now to produce an COSA-based OS that boots and runs the Windows Note Pad clone and some other process at the same time, within the time constraints of this contest. The benefit is I’ll mod you up everywhere regardless of how off-topic you are (like you have been in this thread, along with almost all others, spamming your concepts) if you accomplish it within that timeframe. The down side is I will mod you down everywhere you post with your spam, and encourage everyone else to do so, too, if you don’t accomplish this within the timeframe of this contest.
After all, if the concept is so brilliant and practical, you’ll easily have an OS and a Windows Note Pad clone within that timeframe that is completely error-free, and then you can write about it and submit the article to OS News to be published, because then you’ll have something that people can actually *try* with their machines.
Frankly, I strongly suspect you can’t accomplish this, because of all I’ve read on your site, and how little you seem to know about what else in the outside world resembles what you preach, and yet you fail to give any notice about that outside world. I’ll give you a hint: what you’re proposing is practical to do is equivalent to writing a word processor with the same methodology used to control your typical city’s traffic light system.
“First they tell you you’re wrong and they can prove it; then they tell you you’re right but it isn’t important; then they tell you it’s important but they knew it all along.”
Charles Kettering, former head of General Motors
“Even if you are on the right track, you will get run over if you just sit there.”
Will Rogers, American Humorist, fake cowboy.
“Even if you are on the right track, you will get run over if you just sit there.”
Or better yet:
“I own this road. Get the hell out of the way or you’ll get run over. ahahaha…”
Anonymous
It sure is easy to make claims when you know that you’ll never have to substantiate them, because your preconditions will never be met. The more pressing question is, why do you require the attention of others so much? If you can’t be famous, why not be infamous? Is that it?
I’ll be frank (shameless plug), I am proposing this contest because I believe I could put together a team to win it.
A convincing testimonial of faith in ones own abilities. Until, that is, one reads your website and encounters some of the other things you believe – E.g., http://www.rebelscience.org/Seven/bible.html . I was especially amused by your claim that scientists have an “anti-religion prejudice” because they discard data which cannot be measured or observed. If anything, scientists have a prejudice against unverified and unverifiable assumptions; the funny part is that the claim clearly demonstrates your bias.
link to skyos should be http://www.skyos.org not .com
We need more stuff like this! It’s boring to read about Microsoft, Linux and Apple everyday
By the way, I strongly encourage people to be a little technical in their review. It’s cool to know how networking works, what kind of memory management is used, filesystems, etc.
Oh! I hope all the reviews will be posted on OSNEWS. Not just the chosen ones.
Great idea guys!
We’ll post all of the good, publishable articles.
Great!
Great idea guys, and thanks for adding Visopsys to your list.
Andy
But as an OSNews poster already, what exactly is the value of free OSNews subscriptions? Is there a lot more content that people might pay for normally that I don’t see as someone with this type of account?
Otherwise, hey, why not do such a contest? Surely it can’t result in horrible things…
http://www.osnews.com/subscribe.php
I wasn’t even aware there was a subscription! I just looked and it’s hidden down the side menu labelled “Membership” completley undistinctive.
Although there’s not much value to subscription, it is for good karma. People should support the site if they use it regularly, I know that this is my second most read site next to Digg.
I’ll definitely be looking into getting a subscription. Is there any distinction shown in the comments for subscribers? And will it fix the problem of me having had 0 votes for the last year despite being modded up often and e-mailing you regarding it?
Would it be OK if I wrote an article about how I came to write my own OS? It would be about why I did it, how I started, the pitfalls I encountered, the lessons I learned, where I got the know-how, and of course, how I actually did it. The OS is called Cefarix by the way, and the latest version is on SourceForge.
Edited 2006-06-16 20:34
As long as there is available code and a website, it’s permissible. Try to be technical though, and explain about HOW you handle things like files, boot up, graphics, etc.
It’s still quite rudimentary. No graphics, networking, or user-land applications support yet. Just a minimal (and buggy) command line interface. It does have a namespace system, file system, HD support, multitasking, and the other essentials of a modern OS. Is it still acceptable? Or does this require an OS that is more usable?
It’s valid. This is OS news – we’re interested. Tell us whatever you can.
Hmm, since you state the source code must be available, you might want to put that requirement on the article … … …
I don’t think that the source code must be available for an alternative OS review to be concerned for this contest. But it might be a requirement if you are actually the author of that OS. This way, we will know for sure that you won’t be over-hyping your project.
since you state the source code must be available
I didn’t state that, and if I did, I didn’t mean it. This is what the article already says:
The work should cover an existing desktop OS available to the public for download or purchase
If just the binary is available, that’s ok too. The point is, it shouldn’t be some top secret project you’ve been working on in your basement but haven’t shared with anyone yet.
Sweet. It was actually the comment of “code must be available” that was made and made me do a double take
Thanks for the clarification.
So, The GNU Hurd is a candidate, isn’t it ?
While HURD is also a Unix-like OS, it also has its own alternative side, so I guess it’s a GO too.
Mustn’t forget:
http://www.morphos.org/
http://www.menuetos.net/
http://www.aros.org/
http://www.amiga.com/amigaos/
http://scalos.noname.fr/ (maybe?)
and PowerOS
http://www.poweros.de/
Almost forgot:
http://www.vitanuova.com/inferno/index.html
http://www.eros-os.org/
http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/Research/SRG/netos/old-projects/nemesis/ (gone?)
http://www.oberon.ethz.ch/
http://www.rebol.com/
http://www.opencroquet.org/
http://www.theos-software.com/ (gone?)
http://www.freedos.org/
http://www.rocklyte.com/athene/
I would love a review of this beast:
http://www.1060.org/
(or you wouldn’t call it an OS?)
Add some L4 environment like DROPs, or IGUANA
That makes your original contest rules obsolete. Zeta is closed-source and is proprietary. It is impossible to see the source.
Read the comments. It doesn’t have to be available.
http://sourceforge.net/projects/glider-kernel
Prizes you say? I’ll send in a review of Glider’s design and current progress.
I wonder, if it is time for a proper Syllable review
*EDIT: Baah… OSNews ought to write it when using a ‘weird’ browser, like ABrowse
Edited 2006-06-17 03:59
When a “news” site stupes to the level of running “my favorite OS” – I am guessing the news stream is dying out.
Nothing indicates that the news stream is dying out. However – quite a few things indicates that people are interested in operating systems, including the alternative OS’es. Alternative OS’es do not get the same amount of media coverage as mainstream OS’es, so that’s probably why there is such a contest.
On the contrary, the news stream is so strong and overwhelming with OS news about Vista, OS X, and Linux that it’s hard for smaller OSes to get coverage. We want to get back into sharing those details again, which is what makes OS news especially unique.
I agree with the previous statement. When I first was turned on to OSnews, there were a lot of articles posted for the smaller, more obscure, and hobby OSs, which made this site very interesting and unique. Lately, though, most of what we are seeing are posts about Vista, OSX, Linux and BSD. I would very much like to see a return back to what we used to see regarding other OSs. While the mainstream OSs have a place in the reporting, much of that info can also be gleaned from a myriad of other well known sources. So, if a contest like this is what is needed to return OSnews back to its “roots”, then this is good.
So Nexenta doesn’t qualify because it is based on a solaris kernel ?
How about Ubuntu on Sparc64 ? Too common ?
I don’t think Ubuntu qualifies as an “alternative OS”, no matter the platform. Of course I could be wrong, but as I see it, Ubuntu is Ubuntu – no matter the kernel.
Think “small hobby OS’es – really small hobby OS’es”, and combine that thought with “small commercial OS’es – really small commercial OS’es” – and I think you’ll get quite close to an understanding of “alternative OS’es”.
i think Nexenta rocks. Really, I do. However, when all is said and done, it’s Solaris 11 build 40. And there’s tons of iformation about Solaris internals. What we are trying to do is educate people about OSes that aren’t already covered everywhere. So, unfortuntely, no, I don’t think Nexenta qualifies.
A couple of weeks ago, I wrote a review of Rockbox OS, an open source operation system for Archos, Ipod and iRiver jukeboxes. I mailed to Thom, but he forgot about it (I nagged him as well). It’s quite a pity really, I put in a lot of time in that review (it’s over 2000 words long and don’t forget all the time needed to mess around with the OS itself).
Hopefully, Adam will be a bit more respectful of my ‘creation’ than Thom. Though I don’t think my review will qualify as it mostly focuses on the user experience as opposed to the internal of Rockbox. I didn’t even mention what language the devs used to write the OS.
Would a Commodore 64 running GEOS count?
I suppose, but I’d much rather read a review of the most current Breadbox version, which I think is 4.2.
I hope this brings some nice in detail articles.
I’m planning to get myself some old system to run some small OS on it(was thinking of minix), and simply write small C programs on it etc just for study and fun
“Prizes!
We will be awarding up to 5 two years subscriptions to OSNews and up to 10 one year subscriptions to OSNews as prizes. In addition, we have other prizes, such as an mp3 player, books, and more. Details and quantity of prizes will depend on the number of qualified submissions.
Why is there a prize for a subsciption to OSNews? Isn’t site registration free?
Why is there a prize for a subsciption to OSNews? Isn’t site registration free?
Only to those who can endure downloading banner advertisments. To get rid of them you can get a paid subscription to OSNews.
See Eugenia’s comment at http://osnews.com/permalink.php?news_id=14911&comment_id=134290 for details.
Here is a very good list of operating systems
EMACS!!
The only OS that doesn’t ship with it’s own device drivers.
🙂
Let’s see…
AmigaOS 4
AROS
ReactOS
SkyOS
SyllableOS
Symbian
Unununium
Z/OS
OpenVMS
TI AMS
MenuetOS
QNX
GeOS
Tandy Deskmate
CP/M
MP/M
Lisp Machine
Whatever system had the W window system (Lisp Machine?)
Singularity
The HURD
1. document your favorite alternative OS
2. document inner OS mechanisms
3. invent alternative OS architecture
4. write your own alternative OS
Now that would be interesting
As an individual who has, in the past, been critical of the content of OSNews, I have to commend the editorial staff on this contest. I have always enjoyed the passion and commitment demonstrated by the staff, even when disappointed by the content. The site set such high expectations years ago, that maybe it was inevitable that sometimes it would not fulfill expectations. I look forward, eagerly, to the reviews of these alternative operating systems. And again commend the staff on their willingness to look beyond the mainstream to bring a diversity of operating system coverage.
Whatever happened to Qube?! The website has slipped into someone else’s hands even though it pretends to be the real deal. As I understand it, it was written by the guy that wrote SEAL(another contender that should be covered) after he got sick of lamers making minor cosmetic changes to his SEAL code and renaming it like it was their own. The idea was that you wrote an app once, and it would run under Windows, Linux, or DOS! Can you imagine?! And it wasn’t vaporware, DOS Qube was slick.
Also I would like to see coverage of QB based OS’s. Some people say they’re just GUI’s, but some of them are just as valid as Windows 3.1 or even ’95(you make the call but do it in some other thread lol). I’m thinking GIMI and maybe X-GUI3. There were also a couple that were brilliant yet they were written by a mere kid, they were called QBF-OS and Millenium OS. Picture this, this freakin’ kid wrote a QB GUI that ran DOS in a DOS Box just like Win 95 does!
I used to be a big fan of Digital Research’s GEM operating system, and that’s the one that you will find people actually using at work to this day, but the allure for me increases as you go back in time on your hardware. It was a really big deal to see a full mouse/icon windowing system that ran from a 5 1/4″ 360k floppy on an 8086 with a CGA, but the real treat was seeing it run on an 8088(first generation IBM PC) with a monochrome green monitor!
Another overlooked treasure was QNX back when they had a whole websurfing OS that fit on a floppy as a free download.
Another thing you never hear about was the Trumpet Winsock people had their own OS. I couldn’t launch it on my PC so I don’t know how it looked or what it did. If anyone knows, please post!
Another thing is Atari, there was a company named Milan making 450MMX Falcon clones. So where did their user community go?
And don’t forget PC GEOS, which could have overtaken a significant chunk of Linux’s turf a very few years back if the new owners had as much vision as they did greed.
Alot of these have Yahoo groups even if the web links are all gone now(and in many cases they are).
I have a neglected page at http://pcgem.iwarp.com that has much of this stuff and things you never knew existed. This post should not be regarded as a big surreptitious wind-up to promote for my site though because it hasn’t been updated in years, I gain nothing from it, and I may not even still have my password anywhere. I just think there was more magic in booting a DOS GUI from a floppy on an 8088 and going online to a BBS than there is in the current web experience.
I would also say that applies to the makers of Zeta,as well as New Deal(the inheritors of GEOS),McDonalds didn’t get where they are today by selling an $8 hamburger,they did it by selling cheap consistant reasonably edible sandwiches,If your Alt-OS won’t do all the things WinXP does it stands to reason you should price it accordingly..I love BeOS but I payed about 50 bucks for my R5 pro CD and a copy of GoBe productive,when a copy of Win98 and MS office would have cost WAY more,but i digress,The main reason I commented here is to say this is a great idea,and if it did nothing else,it motivated me to try a couple OS’s that I had’nt before,SyllableOS(comes close to actually working off the live CD here) and Visopsys(won’t boot here)so thanks for putting up the links!!!
If you look closer at some of the closed source OS’s then you will see that you don’t get that much as you did back in the days of BeOS R5. I purchased my version also for the same price as you mention, and I purchased ZETA for the price it was announced (even some other OS’s that I applied too as a beta tester).
I for one never regretted the step I took towards ZETA. As I was always a BeOS fan to start with.
I can now say that I can run ZETA on the most part of the pc’s in the house now. (thus including a few laptops)
I’m really looking forward on this post here, I hope (and maybe I’ll even add my own review) that there will be a lot of submissions to look over.