OS News Archive

"Ever want to try out a new operating system on your pc without trashing your existing Operating System? Got a legacy application that won't run on your current OS? Are you a developer who needs to test your code on a number of platforms? Would you like to test distributed applications on a network without requiring a server farm? Find out what companies like Symantec and Merrill Lynch know--you can do these tasks with a Virtual Machine (VM) on a single PC." Read the very interesting and in-depth article at ExtremeTech regarding how exactly Virtual Machines work.

Nemesis is an operating system written from scratch (but it does retain some Posix compatibility layer for easy application porting), whose design is geared to the support of time-sensitive applications requiring a consistent 'Quality of Service' (QoS), such as those which use multimedia. Nemesis provides fine-grained guaranteed levels of all system resources including CPU, memory, network bandwidth and disk bandwidth. The OS has been built with the Multimedia in mind, its sole purpose of existance was the delivery and performance of multimedia content in the best way possible. Screenshots are available but read more for information and status of this interesting operating system.

A new source snapshot of RTMK was released today, the first in ten months. This new release includes a totally rewritten kernel and a PowerPC port as well. RMTK is still in early development stages, but the GUI for it is already underway. Crust is its name, developed by the same person who writes RTMK.

A new version for the MenuetOS project. Version 0.62 came out today and it features a new memory model and free-form window shapes (non-rectangle windows). In the meantime, RootLinux 1.3 is ready for its prime time, but its developer needs some FTP space where he can upload the ISO image (around 650 MB) and asks for people who can provide such FTP space.

I was meaning to write a message like this for quite some time and leave it at the top, so more readers can see it. People, STOP complaining when we put up development articles or when we put .NET or Microsoft articles or sci-fi news.

MC emailed us about his own, new, operating system for x86 processors called... BugOS. Latest version is less than one month old, and the OS even has a TCP/IP stack, IDE driver, 64-bit FAT filesystem, a micro-kernel and more. The OS can be booted from a partition, from within DOS, CD-ROM or from two floppies.

The Unununium-based distribution FRuSTRaTiON, version 0.3, has just been released. Features improved console support, new keyboard code with unicode support, ext2 file system support; and it can now run applications. Unununium is a Single-Addressing-Space environement entirely developed in 386+ assembly with an emphasis on speed. The system is entirely dynamic: Any component of the system may be reloaded at any time; there is not even a static nano-kernel. Channeled IRQ, dynamic linker, memory allocation, 3d engine and communication channels are only a few of the elements present in the system. Multiple virtual consoles support, fixing the thread engine and starting the development of a GUI are their current development priorities.

Interactive Studio has published the QubeOS web site which serves as the developer's web site for Qube application developers. You can also download there the Windows, DOS, and Linux compatible Qube environment and the Windows Qube SDK. An interesting article found on QubeOS web site is about the Object Routing technology, a technology which Michal Stencl has been developing for Qube. OSNews featured an interview with Michal recently. Our Take: A port to FreeBSD would also be desirable.

Brandon Sharitt contacted us and introduced us the operating system he is working on: "I've recently joined yet another opensource operating system that is supposed to unify all other operating sytems while 'destroying' Microsoft. The only difference with this one is that it may actually work. The project is called BoxOS."

The VMS (Virtual Memory System) operating system is available only on VAX and Alpha processors, and in spite of its undeniable qualities, its future seems uncertain. The FreeVMS project tends to the coding of an operating system under the GPL licence according to the specifications of the VMS systems. This operating system will function at least on i386 architecture, PPC, Sparc and Alpha processors. It is developed using the C language and it consists of a POSIX kernel and a DCL command line interpreter. In other news, MenuetOS 0.61 was released just a couple of days ago.

"They say that motorcycle riders go through three stages: fear, over-confidence, and finally respectful care. The same stages apply to OS programmers. Motorcyclists in the over-confident stage may be injured or killed. Programmers can create a subtle defect that is fantastically expensive to remove." Read the OS Manifesto at Byte.

This week, KernelTrap spoke with Neal Walfield of the GNU/Hurd development team. From their project FAQ, "'Hurd', as an acronym, stands for `Hird of Unix-Replacing Daemons'. Hird, in turn, stands for `Hurd of Interfaces Representing Depth'. The Hurd is a radical departure from UNIX. A unique and interesting approach to solving many of the problems found in current operating systems. While it's not yet production grade, it's evolved enough to be quite usable.

Once upon a time, there was this nice operating system, called GeOS. It first ran on a C64, but it was later ported to Macs and PCs. Today, the OS lives a new life under the name New Deal Office (additional screenshot). Another OS from the same era, RiscOS, is still developed today by its parent company and it is currently in version 4. The OS also runs quite fast under PC emulation as well as in a native RISC PC. These articles can prove a good and interesting read for the weekend, especially for younger readers who did not experience the computer offerings of the '80s.

Plural OS is a multitasking, microkernel operating system being developed based on the XOpen Single Unix Specifications. The project only started a month ago. Another hobby OS, Clicker, a multitasking open-source operating system project, is based on a modular microkernel and a brand-new architecture. With its new release today, Clicker made a leap, the OS was able to run its first binary application.