Gservo
2nd February 2003, 06:26 AM
Thought this was intresting found here (http://www.osnews.com/story.php?news_id=2691)
By Contributing Editor Steve Mulder os OSnews.com - Why, you might ask, would anyone want to build their own operating system? It's really about being in control and knowing what's going on.In the next few paragraphs I'll explain what motivated me to take on this project, the recipe I used, and what I like about it.
I'm not fond of confusion or complexity, so I want an operating system that is clear and simple. I don't want to wait for anything. When I turn my computer on, I'd like it to be ready as fast as a light switch, or at the very least, in about as long as it takes to get a dial tone. When I launch a program, I want to use it right now. No hour-glass or wait message please. I want all of the programs that I use to be either completely obvious, or well documented with a short learning curve. There should not be any software on my machine that I don't plan to use. All of it should be easy to maintain.
I haven't seen anything like that. Well, at least not lately. In the 80's , I bought a Commodore-64. As quick as you could throw the switch, it was ready to rock. There was no tinkering with the operating system, it was hard-wired. I used it to develop programs in basic and C. It was great in its time, but it never evolved.
Eventually, I bought a '286 pc with DOS. I never had much interest in the Windows 3.x series, and didn't use windows until I replaced the DOS box with a new "Windows 98" machine. (When I say "Windows" I mean Microsoft's product, and when I say "windows" I mean any graphical operating system.)
With Windows it was one damn thing after another. I don't want to sound too harsh, because it usually worked and was easy to use. For most people it's a good choice. I just wasn't happy with it. I never felt that I was in control with Windows. When things jammed up, it was usually a total mystery. "Help" didn't help, "Shutdown" wouldn't, "can't find the driver", "page fault", "general protection error", etc.
So I started looking at Linux. I tried out SuSe, Mandrake, Slackware and maybe a dozen other Linux distributions. A lot of them are pretty good, but as often as not I'd run into trouble setting up the X window system or with other software installation or maintenance issues. I was actually starting to miss the "C:\" prompt.
Then I came across something different
By Contributing Editor Steve Mulder os OSnews.com - Why, you might ask, would anyone want to build their own operating system? It's really about being in control and knowing what's going on.In the next few paragraphs I'll explain what motivated me to take on this project, the recipe I used, and what I like about it.
I'm not fond of confusion or complexity, so I want an operating system that is clear and simple. I don't want to wait for anything. When I turn my computer on, I'd like it to be ready as fast as a light switch, or at the very least, in about as long as it takes to get a dial tone. When I launch a program, I want to use it right now. No hour-glass or wait message please. I want all of the programs that I use to be either completely obvious, or well documented with a short learning curve. There should not be any software on my machine that I don't plan to use. All of it should be easy to maintain.
I haven't seen anything like that. Well, at least not lately. In the 80's , I bought a Commodore-64. As quick as you could throw the switch, it was ready to rock. There was no tinkering with the operating system, it was hard-wired. I used it to develop programs in basic and C. It was great in its time, but it never evolved.
Eventually, I bought a '286 pc with DOS. I never had much interest in the Windows 3.x series, and didn't use windows until I replaced the DOS box with a new "Windows 98" machine. (When I say "Windows" I mean Microsoft's product, and when I say "windows" I mean any graphical operating system.)
With Windows it was one damn thing after another. I don't want to sound too harsh, because it usually worked and was easy to use. For most people it's a good choice. I just wasn't happy with it. I never felt that I was in control with Windows. When things jammed up, it was usually a total mystery. "Help" didn't help, "Shutdown" wouldn't, "can't find the driver", "page fault", "general protection error", etc.
So I started looking at Linux. I tried out SuSe, Mandrake, Slackware and maybe a dozen other Linux distributions. A lot of them are pretty good, but as often as not I'd run into trouble setting up the X window system or with other software installation or maintenance issues. I was actually starting to miss the "C:\" prompt.
Then I came across something different