Really interesting OS
Forum: water cooler
Topic: Really interesting OS
started by: Bidi
Posted by Bidi on Dec. 24 2004,01:32
It's called < MenuetOS >.Don't know if any of you guys have heard about it already, but this is probably one of the nicest OSs I've ever seen. It's an all new idea, not based on Unix or Linux or any of the already existing OSs out there. It's completely programmed in ASM assembly language. It's also fully contained in a 1.44MB floppy (which it only actually uses 946KB) that loads in RAM Disk on boot. None of the files are compressed, which means it loads up real fast (took my 1.8Mhz less than 30 seconds to fully load it). The best part is that it is a GUI system.
Posted by mikshaw on Dec. 24 2004,02:54
wow...that's really impressive. Thing I don't like is the "floppy" part. Floppies suck and have been getting less dependable as time progresses. I think the manufacturers of floppies are attempting to make people who use them sick of having to constantly replace them, and move on to something more dependable.Anyway, I'm still downloading this thing =o) A graphical OS on a floppy is too amazing to ignore.
EDIT: downloaded and booted into this system. It was fairly easy to load, even for a drunk guy. Pretty impressive setup in 1mb...a little buggy, but still interesting. Personally I'd go for a text/curses-based linux distro on a floppy, for the larger number of tools available, but for someone who doesn't like console this would be good.
Posted by ryptyde on Dec. 24 2004,16:11
Watch out if you are using Windows/IE when you visit their site as I was hit several times with virus/adware attacks when clicking on a "FAQ" link.
Posted by cbagger01 on Dec. 24 2004,17:31
Gotta love Firefox.Doubly so when running MSWindows.
Posted by codestorm on Dec. 24 2004,20:03
There's also the old QNX demo disk - damn impressive.They don't support it any more but it's still out there, like at:
< http://public.planetmirror.com/pub/qnx/demodisk/ >
And a good little write up of making the disk is at:
< http://www.pcquest.com/content/windows/101030102.asp >
They have a network version and a modem version.
Slowly downloading it as I type.
Posted by linster on Dec. 26 2004,03:19
Has any one tried SkyOS? I want to but you have to pay $30. But it is kinda of a good deal cause you gat the final package and all the betas, old versions and Live CD when it comes out. http://skyos.org check it out!
Posted by Bidi on Dec. 26 2004,04:43
I wouldn't want that. If I have to pay for a new OS I might as well get Windows that has been around for way longer and is has a lot more market support. As far as OS's go, I'm sticking to Linux for now. After poking around MenuetOS I realized it gets pretty complicated to configure stuff. Since I'm not a Assembly Language Programmer I'm going to have to wait until the release of version 1.0 of MenuetOS before I try it agian.:D
Posted by codestorm on Dec. 26 2004,06:19
Wierd, I downloaded SkyOS a while ago and I never paid for it. Then again, it didn't work either
For memory it had issues with some of my old hardware.
Posted by Bidi on Dec. 26 2004,16:06
The FAQ said that they became commercial for the 5.0 release.MenuetOS has would probably have the same issues with older hardware, it's built for 32-bit processors. The reason I find it appealing is because it's a complete system on 946KB. Even if it doubles it's size it'll still fit on 2 floppies. Imagine having a 20GB HD and your OS only taking up 5MB or so of it?
Posted by SaidinUnleashed on Dec. 27 2004,01:49
Imagine?I have that today!!
Debian!
Posted by noclobber on Dec. 27 2004,03:37
Interesting. I'll have to give this one a try.I'm currently wrestling with reviving an old 486SX PC. I've narrowed my OS choices down to an "SX" version of DSL 0.7.3 and Win NT 3.51 Workstation with Newshell 2, but I still have a few unresolved issues with both of these OSes.
Their user forum looks strangely similar to DSL's. A search there for "system requirements" revealed one flippant non-newbie-friendly response (Go RTFM!), but revealed that MenuetOS needs at least a 386 and 32MB RAM.
The RAM requirement may be a tad rich for my 486, but I've got to test out a GUI OS that fits on a floppy.
Hey, if it's written entirely in assembly code, a geek like me who's developed his own DOS device driver for bootable CD-ROMs < Eltorito.sys - Hardware independent Dos CD-Rom device driver > in assembly code with only Ralf Brown's interrupt list in one hand and the ISO 9660 and El Torito specs in the other should be able to understand it, right?
Posted by Bidi on Dec. 27 2004,04:24
| Quote (noclobber @ Dec. 26 2004,22:37) |
| Their user forum looks strangely similar to DSL's. A search there for "system requirements" revealed one flippant non-newbie-friendly response (Go RTFM!), but revealed that MenuetOS needs at least a 386 and 32MB RAM. |
One of those threads actually pointed out the bare minimum to be 24MB of RAM, 32MB is recommended though. Don't know if your laptop fits now.
BTW, what does RTFM mean?
Posted by mikshaw on Dec. 27 2004,05:10
Reboot The Frickin' Machi-- oh, wait....it's Read The Frickin' Manual.
Posted by codestorm on Dec. 28 2004,02:04
Hmm, downloaded and tried MenuetOS.It worked fine with detecting my hardware, etc.
If you don't include loading the image into memeory off the floppy, it probably has about a 5 second startup time on a 200MMX - nice.
It does look very developer-ish though. Couldn't get their browser (HTTPC) to work - maybe because I'm going thru a firewall. Still I imagine could be a useful rescue disk if developed a bit more (and if floppies were more reliable).
Posted by Bidi on Dec. 28 2004,02:15
I couldn't get the browser to work either. I read on their forum that someone is in the process of developing a new one, so I'm looking forward to that. Don't know what happens to yours, but when I type the URL and [enter] the browser freezes. But I did get the network setup correctly and was able to ping it from another computer. So far everything on it is still pretty basic, I just hope it doesn't go commercial like that SkyOS.
Posted by John on Dec. 28 2004,02:58
I've played with MenuetOS, it is really impressive. It is all written in assembly -- that must have been a tremendous effort.
Posted by noclobber on Dec. 28 2004,05:12
Back when I worked on bootable CD-ROM utilities, I was actually contemplating writing some sort of GUI boot menu shell or maybe even a disaster-recovery-type mini OS (You can, for example, display 640 x 480 x 16 color VGA graphics on any PC with VGA support using only assembly language and BIOS calls with *no* knowledge of video hardware). Today, something like DSL has this pretty well covered.If you wanted to do all of your development in assembler, you could eventually build up a library of commonly used functions, and I guess after a while the OS would begin to somewhat resemble Linux, with the major differences being the use of assembly code vs. C, and that Linux tries to rely as little as possible on PC BIOS calls in order to maximize architecture portability.
Writing something as complicated as a GUI web browser, though, using only BIOS calls in assembler from scratch would be a monumental task, probably not something that I would want to attempt by myself.
Posted by panama on Jan. 01 2005,06:30
I tried this too.Very interesting for just a floppy. Fast boot-up, even on my old attic-ware. No sound and no detection of my PCMCIA network card...so no internet.
All-in-all I think it's pretty cool. I can't DO anything with it but it may be something to watch for in the future.
panama
Posted by SaidinUnleashed on Jan. 01 2005,08:46
Menuet won't auto config you nic, you have to manually set it up.And it's a pain to do.
Supposedly, it's better in the newest beta, but it reboots as it's loading the desktop every time for me...
Posted by totalshredder on Jan. 01 2005,15:45
Very Impressive! I'm going to try this out for sure. I couldn't belive my eyes when I saw the screenshots. I hope these people get that new web browser and the better internet working. If they do, they could have a very solid OS (for a floppy... lol).
Luke