OS News Archive

Do you remember the Contiki desktop OS, an Internet-enabled graphical operating system for constrained systems? I have just ported Contiki to the 8-bit Atmel AVR microcontroller, which is commonly used in various kinds of embedded systems, and have set up a demo server running the Contiki AVR software at http://contiki-demo.sics.se/.

Miracle-driver from Panasonic does the unthinkable, The Inquirer says: there are USB drivers for DOS.

In various discussions that we've had with readers about advertising, many people have suggested that we devise some more direct way for regular OSNews readers to support the site. (This is usually amid complaints about online advertising in general or about some specific ad method that we're trying out) I personally don't like the idea of soliciting donations, because I want people to get something in return for their monetary support. What we've come up with is an OSNews membership program. For a yearly fee of $20, you will be able to show your support of OSNews and receive the following benefits:

If you have a mixed network like I do sometimes you have to compromise. At my job we run Windows, Linux and a sole Mac (Graphics dept.) and lets face it, when you do consulting work and if you design and develop custom applications you have to be able to develop for your clients platform and as much as I hate it, it's a Windows world. Before I used to have 2 workstations, one Windows and one Linux, or I had to dual boot. In the past, virtual machines have been lacking. Either they were too slow or lacking a certain pizazz to get the job done. Enter VMWare Workstation 4.

About a month ago, NeTraverse contacted OfB Labs with an early release copy of Win4Lin 5.0, the follow-up to the already impressive Win4Lin 4.0 released in May 2002. Win4Lin, for those not familiar with it, offers near-native (or better) speed "virtualization" of a Windows box so that one can run Windows 9x (95/98/Me) inside GNU/Linux. Read the review at OfB.

Here is a tutorial on writing your own OS. A help to start you out.

Unununium, and interesting project which aims at producing an 'organic' operating system where all components are interchangable at run-time, recently put a screenshot online. They have been making a lot of progress lately, with the website becoming increasingly active and filled with content. This project is a bookmark must-have for any assembly buffs out there as it is entirely written in assembly.

"We all know what its like to imerse one's self in the age old computer market-share debate. The problem is that when most people use the word "market-share", what they really mean is "installed-base." Because consumers choose a platform based on its popularity, misconceptions about market-share only confuse the issue even further." Read the editorial at OSCast.

The moment of truth is here. Which OS do you mostly use most of your time?

TheRegister has an article about persistent storage for computers using magnetic memory. This triggered me to recall Genera, the Symbolics Object Oriented OS, and what an amazing system could be built pulling together an object oriented OS with a persistent storage. Where there was no need for files and pipes and everything could know about everything else. I'm way out of my depth here, but come on someone, build the future!

This is a sneak preview of what you can expect from Athene 3.1. New features include:

Visopsys is a new operating system for PCs. It has been in development since late 1997. The kernel is small and fast, operates exclusively in 32-bit mode, and features real preemptive multi-tasking and virtual memory. The package includes a small suite of UNIX- and DOS-like commands, with which most users will be familiar, although Visopsys is not - and does not try to be - a clone of any existing OS. The binary distribution features an easy-to-use Java installation program, which works on Linux, Windows, and Solaris. You can install and demo the distribution on a floppy disk. Screenshot.

TwoOStwo virtual machine for Windows NT/2000/XP enables running multiple operating systems (OS/2, Red Hat 6 and WinNT) and its applications simultaneously with the primary Windows NT/2000/XP operating system on a single PC.

Google, one of the most visited sites worldwide, posted their OS results for April 2003. In the No1 spot, Windows 98 is steadily losing 1% every month to the always rising Windows XP, while MacOS is down to 3% from the 4% of the previous month. Linux is steady at around 1%. The "Other" OSes are also steady at 4% (note that the "other" section also includes other Microsoft OSes, like Windows ME).