/aosg/ Alternative Operating System General

Because it's fun to think about what could have been or what might be.

After a thread on /g/, one anon expressed an interest to turn this into a general, and here are some notes to keep to build up a FAQ.

Threads

OP has not yet mastered 4chan posting, so there is as yet no easy way to locate old threads. Manual list:

• initial thread
• second thread
• SerenityOS thread
• third thread
• fourth thread, and OP is getting there and things are shaping up
• fifth thread, and OP lapses back to missing title
• sixth thread, and OP is still missing title
• seventh thread still missing the title.
• eight thread still missing the title. At least OP is systematic...
• nineth thread, and OP is getting the title done and things are shaping up
• tenth thread, and OP again gets the title done and things are shaping up
• thread 11, and OP fails spectacularly.
• thread 12, and OP fails totally.
• thread 13, and OP does good and also combines /aosg/ with /aig/
• thread 14, and OP stays the course. Sadly thread washes out under a flood the mods never saw.
• thread 15, and OP stays the course. Sadly thread washes out during night in Europe.
• SerenityOS hate thread - OP was filtered out by missing ISO.
• thread 16, and OP stays the course.
• RISC-V thread, which didn't last long.
• RISC-V and Arduino, didn't last long either.
• thread 17, and OP delivers the complete OP text, wherein also an OS library is started.
• thread 18, thread 19 and thread 20, and OP stays the course

List of Notable Alternative Operating Systems

• https://templeos.org/ TempleOS, the operating system built by it's sole developer, Terry A. Davis in HolyC over the course of several decades.
• https://github.com/Zeal-Operating-System/ZealOS ZealOS, modernized fork of TempleOS
• http://collapseos.org/ the OS for the end of the world
• https://git.sr.ht/~vdupras/duskos is a 32-bit Forth and big brother to Collapse OS. Its primary purpose is to be maximally useful during the first stage of civilizational collapse
• http://phantomos.org/
• TRON - killed by a Hollywood grade conspiracy
• Midori and Singularity from Microsoft, a managed kernel written in a variant of C# called Sing# Github archive. Also see these blog entries for more information.
• https://www.serenityos.org/ SerenityOS, an operating system that also is therapeutic and doesn't release ISOs, thus filtering trolls (Github archive)
• http://users.atw.hu/gerigeri/DawnOS/index.html Dawn, an operating system complete with a GUI and userspace programs designed for the SUBLEQ single instruction architecture
• https://reactos.org/ ReactOS, an open source implementation of the Microsoft NT Kernel and userspace
• https://genode.org/ Genode, an operating system framework with a focus on stability and security
• https://www.haiku-os.org/ HaikuOS, an open source operating system inspired by BeOS and designed to achieve compatibility with the discontinued BeOS
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OS/2 OS/2, a now discontinued historical operating system initially developed by IBM and Microsoft, notable for it's DOS compatibility and similarities to NT
• https://www.arcanoae.com/arcaos/ ArcaOS, a modern continuation of OS/2
• https://github.com/froggey/Mezzano Mezzano is written in Lisp
• https://github.com/vygr/ChrysaLisp Another Lisp based OS
• https://toaruos.org/ ToaruOS is heavily manga inspired where 100 Yen coins are routinely launched at relativistic velocities. ( Github)
• https://www.ponyos.org/ PonyOS trots out the forbidden beast on 1st of April, much to the horror of most people
• http://www.helenos.org/ HelenOS is a research focused operating system based on a microkernel written by Helen Keller
• https://sizeof.cat/project/hoshi/ Hoshi is an operating system built by a sole anon
• https://eltaninos.org/ minimal linux distro assembled and partly written by an anon
• https://www.freertos.org/ FreeRTOS, a real-time operating system for microcontrollers
• https://vmssoftware.com/ OpenVMS, the decendant of VMS that ran on big VAX machines, famous for uptimes measured in decades, especially when running VAXcluster.
• https://github.com/jnode/jnode Jnode, a semi dead Java based OS.
• http://www.cse.psu.edu/~deh25/cmpsc473/assignments/HW234/cucs-470-89.pdf The Synthesis Operating System, where parts of the kernel is synthesized on demand, also see [1], [2] and [3]
• https://www.gnu.org/software/hurd/ HURD, a GNU project that was overtaken by Linux; Stallman is still cross.
• https://visopsys.org/ VisOpsys is an alternative operating system for PC compatible computers, in development since 1997, this system is small, fast, and open source.
• http://www.projectoberon.com/ Project Oberon delivers the processor, OS and software.
• https://github.com/vvaltchev/tilck is a Tiny Linux-Compatible Kernel
• SunOS - started as a BSD style but transitioned painfully into SysV based Solaris, at the time compared unfavourably to the slow moving movie of the same name and also known as "Slowaris"; later turned into OpenSolaris.
• https://illumos.org/ illumos is a decendant of Solaris, and is found in seveal distributions, including OmniOS, OpenIndiana, and Tribblix
• CP/M was a popular OS for Z-80 computers in the 70s
• https://fuchsia.dev/ Fuchsia is a microkernel based OS made by Google for unknown reasons, slowly developed
• https://dahliaos.io/ dahliaOS is a modern, secure and lightweight operating system, combining GNU/Linux and Fuchsia OS. It can run on either the Linux or Zircon kernels.
• https://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~mr10/index.html TRIPOS is old, but influential, especially for Amiga OS.
• https://www.fiwix.org/ FiwixOS 3.2 is a Fiwix distribution, an operating system made from a software collection that is based upon the Fiwix kernel. (Github)
• https://ares-os.org/ The Ares Operating System is based on the Helios micro kernel (see below), and with Luna will also have a POSIX programming environment.
• https://www.monaos.org/ MonaOS is a new, small, simple, open source and well structured, according to the author (Github).
• https://lemonos.org/ Lemon OS is a hobbyist UNIX-like operating system for the x86_64 platform (Github).
• http://toastytech.com/guis/alto.html Xerox Alto, the very first OS with a GUI, quite extraordinary
• http://www.jbox.dk/sanos/ SanOS an extremely small OS to do one thing: run a single java server application
• http://cap-lore.com/CapTheory/KK/ Keykos

Embedded OS

• https://blackberry.qnx.com/en QNX, a compact micro kernel based OS for embedded use. It used to have a GUI but that is gone, and Photon was replaced by Qt, a QNX engineer even made a desktop-like OS with QNX. While QNX not advertises there is a hobbyst/education program, just contact a QNX sales rep, they can provide you free license. tdelellis at blackberry dot com can probably help you. There are builds for x86/64, arm and even for riscv aswell.
• https://github.com/MannyPeterson/HeliOS Helios

Operating Systems for Amiga

• https://www.amigaos.net/ AmigaOS, the original Amiga operating system, now targets the PowerPC architecture
• https://www.morphos-team.net/ MorphOS, a closed source Amiga-like operating system targeting the PowerPC architecture
• https://aros.sourceforge.io/ AROS Research Operating System, another Amiga-like operating system designed around the AmigaOS 3.1 API

Plan 9 Family

• https://9p.io/ Plan 9 - a research project from ATT by the founders of Unix
• https://www.vitanuova.com/inferno/ Inferno - based on Plan 9, by many of the same people
• https://9front.org/ 9front is a continuation
• https://harvey-os.org/ HarveyOS is another continuation
• http://jehanne.h--k.it/ JehanneOS takes most of userland tools and some kernel modules from 9front and other code from Harvey OS

OS Written in Assembly

• https://www.menuetos.net MenuetOS, an operating system written entirely in assembly complete with a GUI. Not all is open source
• http://www.kolibrios.org/en/ KolibriOS is a free fork of MenuetOS. KolibriOS is very small - The kernel and most of the programs fit on a 1.44MB floppy disk.
• http://dex-os.github.io/ DexOS is a x86 32-bit console like operating system, coded in 100% ASM
• http://sebastianmihai.com/snowdrop/ Snowdrop OS is a homebrew operating system project with bootloader and GUI.
• https://mikeos.sourceforge.net/ MikeOS is an operating system for x86 PCs, written in assembly language. It is a learning tool to show how simple 16-bit, real-mode OSes work, with well-commented code and extensive documentation.
• https://github.com/ReturnInfinity Baremetal OS, one of many that are inspired by MikeOS

Educational OS

• https://minix3.org/ MINIX is more widely used than first expected...
• https://pdos.csail.mit.edu/6.828/2016/xv6.html a simple Unix-like teaching operating system
• https://web.stanford.edu/class/cs140/projects/pintos/pintos.html is another simple Unix-like teaching operating system, used at Stanford.

Microkernels

The idea is to minimise the kernel and have all services running as services at lower privileges and in a way that the services can be restarted after a crash. Microkernels often work by message passing, and that can cause an overhead. Mach had major performance issues. Some resources:

• https://fosdem.org/2023/schedule/event/microkernel2023/attachments/slides/5837/export/events/attachments/microkernel2023/slides/5837/2023_02_05_Decky_Microkernel_Landscape_2023.pdf The Microkernel Landscape in 2023
• http://www.microkernel.info/ Overview of microkernels

List of microkernels:

• Exec (Amiga) - the Executive at the deepest level of Amiga OS is a microkernel.
• Minix is famously microkernel based and the author, Tanenbaum, slogged it out with Linux Torvalds and his decision to make Linux a monolithic kernel rather than a microkernel based OS.
• Magenta, based on Little Kernel and later renamed into Zircon - this powers Fuchsia.
• Mach, later GNU Mach - chosen to power HURD.
• https://drewdevault.com/2022/06/13/helios.html Helios draws inspiration from seL4, and uses a capability-based design for isolation and security. It is used in The Ares Operating System (see above).
• https://managarm.org/ Managarm is a pragmatic microkernel-based OS with fully asynchronous I/O. (Github)
• L4 is a family of microkernels

L4 Family of Microkernels

There are many members, the most important are:

• L4 - can run Linux variants such as L4Linux
• seL4 - high security microkernel
• L4re AKA Fiasco.OC, used by Kernkonzept.

Emulators

A full install, or even a live CD, is not necessarily needed, sincfe there are emulators.

• https://copy.sh/v86/ JS VM with lots of OS, including one for Serenity OS.
• http://simh.trailing-edge.com/ SimH (History Simulator) is a collection of simulators for historically significant or just plain interesting computer hardware and software from the past. Of special note is VAX/VMS where a hobbyist license is provided by Hewlett-Packard Corporation.

Misc

• http://doc.cat-v.org/bell_labs/utah2000/utah2000.pdf OS research is dead
• https://youtube.com/watch?v=36myc8wQhLo Some hope
• https://archiveos.org/others/ An archive of various operating systems
• https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/uploads/prod/2019/04/fork-hotos19.pdf Why some people don't like fork/exec

Resources for OSDEV

• https://wiki.osdev.org/Expanded_Main_Page Landing page for the OSDev Wiki and Forums
• https://sizeof.cat/links/#osdev List of links to resources for developers and hobbyists
• https://digital.library.txstate.edu/bitstream/handle/10877/3226/fulltext.pdf?isAllowed=y&sequence=1 - FMI/OS: A Comparative Study, by Dimitri Hammond
• https://www.csc.kth.se/~edalen/9pfmios.pdf Converting FMI/OS to the 9P2000 distributed file system protocol, by Erik Dalen
• https://sources.vsta.org:7100/vsta/wiki?name=Root - VSTa documentation, by Andy Valencia
• https://youtu.be/36myc8wQhLo A key note talk on OS
• https://github.com/MobSlicer152/ntdesign/blob/main/dwintro.docx.txt The NT Kernel design workbook from Microsoft
• https://eylenburg.github.io/os_comparison.htm Comparison of Operating Systems
• http://www.bitsavers.org/ A huge archive of documentation, especially for old systems
• https://faculty.cc.gatech.edu/~calton/publications/sosp95.pdf Optimistic Incremental Specialization: Streamlining a Commercial Operating System
• https://faculty.cc.gatech.edu/~calton/publications/specializationTOCS.pdfSpecialization Tools and Techniques for Systematic Optimization of System Software

/aosg/ Book Club

• Operating Systems 0 to 1 (incomplete)
• Operating Systems: Internals and Design Principles
• Operating System Concepts
• Windows Kernel Programming
• Linux Kernel Development
• The little book about OS development (free)
• Think OS A Brief Introduction to Operating Systems (free) (Github source)

/aosg/ News

• OS News