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Index > OS Construction > Things to use a Hobby OS for ?

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Dex4u



Joined: 08 Feb 2005
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Dex4u 21 Nov 2009, 16:40
I am trying to come up with all the things a Hobby OS would be better at doing than, your win/linux.
What can you think of ?
Post 21 Nov 2009, 16:40
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edfed



Joined: 20 Feb 2006
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edfed 21 Nov 2009, 19:12
i think it is a good thing.
if your os support what i do on my machines, i will use it, until i have my own working.
Post 21 Nov 2009, 19:12
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sleepsleep



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sleepsleep 21 Nov 2009, 19:29
customized low resource usage point of sales, firewall, stock control, backup server (just dd back and forth), kiosk, self-printing machine (those diy print kiosk)

actually, a lot. but to make the hobby os able to enter that market, nowadays, i would say, any server side scripting language + webserver and a database is a MUST. without these 3 items, very hard to become usefull for developer, because most of the time. market will target developer first, then only end users.

just my 10 cents.
Post 21 Nov 2009, 19:29
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farrier



Joined: 26 Aug 2004
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farrier 21 Nov 2009, 19:59
I've always thought that DexOS would be perfect for profiling code which does not contain any OS specific calls. If I understand it correctly, it could give a much more accurate cycles/clocks reading for a code sequence, and would not require the usual "run a 1000 iterations and average them" technique.

farrier

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Post 21 Nov 2009, 19:59
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rCX



Joined: 29 Jul 2007
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rCX 21 Nov 2009, 22:34
DexOX can be used to teach people how an operating system works. Linux is too complex and Windows is closed source.
Post 21 Nov 2009, 22:34
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comrade



Joined: 16 Jun 2003
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comrade 22 Nov 2009, 03:27
Car PC. That's what I have plans for.
Post 22 Nov 2009, 03:27
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Octavio



Joined: 21 Jun 2003
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Octavio 24 Nov 2009, 12:30
sleepsleep wrote:
any server side scripting language + webserver and a database is a MUST. without these 3 items, very hard to become usefull for developer,

I'm a developer(non professional) and never feel the need for a database or webserver.Also i don't expect that octaos becomes comercial some day.A hobby OS is trusted software for his author.I mean, that who really knows what can do a 12GB OS with your personal data.
Post 24 Nov 2009, 12:30
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tom tobias



Joined: 09 Sep 2003
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tom tobias 24 Nov 2009, 16:59
Craig wrote:
I am trying to come up with all the things a Hobby OS would be better at doing than, your win/linux.

First of all, DEX is a far superior operating system, than is implied by the epithet "Hobby OS".

Secondly, it does not need to meet or exceed Win/linux. It is a gem, in its own right.

Thirdly, any OS should work with older hardware, however, most of Win/Linux do not, hence, this reply:

I would suggest targeting those IBM thinkpad notebooks from the first half of this first 21st century decade. A great many of those machines sit in the rubbish bin, and many more are in the completely inactive phase, because of inferior hardware capabilities.

Question is, which operating system could be used with success on such a machine, upgraded to most recent bios (from 2003), and upgraded to 512 mbytes of RAM, i.e. max for that era's machines?

I think there is a niche there for DEX. Here's why: The linux and Windows of this world, don't want to play nice with this old hardware. They cough, and grumble.

The floppy drive works well. So, what does that mean? The CDROM drive is mamahuhu, or, if you don't speak PuTongHua, it is mediocre at best, ornery, unpredictable, and unreliable.

Thus, we arrive, finally, after much humming an hawing, to the main point: DEX, with a FLOPPY input, could be the answer to the riddle for these old, obsolete dinosaurs. Can DEX connect to the internet, i.e. is there a 3com PCMIA driver eg. 3c59x... that will work with DEX? If so, you are on golden pond, monsieur......
Ciao,
tom
Post 24 Nov 2009, 16:59
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ManOfSteel



Joined: 02 Feb 2005
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ManOfSteel 24 Nov 2009, 20:06
tom tobias wrote:
Here's why: The linux and Windows of this world, don't want to play nice with this old hardware. They cough, and grumble.

I disagree. What you have to use on older machines (does 10-years-old qualify as "old"?) are either older versions of Windows (pre-XP), or rudimentary Linux distros or any *BSD to which you can add the appropriate software yourself, and everything will go smoothly.
You just must never pretend to have a 2010-model supercomputer.

The only old hardware I can't run on FreeBSD, for instance, is a 12-years-old parallel port scanner.
But this is totally understandable. Parallel port scanners have been deprecated years ago (~ a decade) and replaced by USB ones. Plus the company making this brand went bankrupt.
I doubt any other OS can make it work.
Post 24 Nov 2009, 20:06
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Dex4u



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Dex4u 25 Nov 2009, 02:14
First thanks for everyones input ( and thanks to tom tobias for your kind words).

But i was more asking as far as hobby OS go (not just DexOS), my point is that many years ago when i started OS Dev, it was not hard to get a group of coders to see a given OS project (or any coding project like fasm) as being the next big thing.

But now this has all gone, along with many of the coders for such projects.
Now to continue we need to come up with some new ideas, its no good trying to be a desktop OS, they have become to big and need to include too much.

So hobby OS makers have many disadvantages, but we also have advantages that the big boy can not do, maybe they are risky or too small a number of users.

Anyway we need to ( as in for all hobby OS Devs) come up with things you could do better with a hobby OS than you can with a Desktop OS.

heres some things i have come up with, plus some links
bootable antivirus and recovery
Bootable Cluster:
http://bccd.net/
CNC control
http://www.dakeng.com/turbo.html
Car diagnostics
point of sales
Electronic control other the net
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TxdY8KRLsYM&feature=related
http://www.avast.com/eng/avast_bart_cd.html
Post 25 Nov 2009, 02:14
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dosin



Joined: 24 Aug 2007
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dosin 25 Nov 2009, 02:15
What would be nice to see.. DexOS for gaming..

design a game console.. That way you don't have to make so many drivers for all the OS.. if it can run old dos games and new dex games...
would be kind of cool... have a site were they can download games for it... ect...


it would be kind of like your arm project... you have one device to program for... Very Happy
Post 25 Nov 2009, 02:15
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Dex4u



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Dex4u 25 Nov 2009, 03:47
I agree dosin, that the basic idea behind DexOS, hopfully the graphic lib will help that Smile .
Post 25 Nov 2009, 03:47
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pabloreda



Joined: 24 Jan 2007
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pabloreda 25 Nov 2009, 15:57
I hope, one day, finish my compiler for DexOS.

The primary target is games, and from one source code can be compile on wine and DexOs, this is my wish

I like DexOs but not have time for now Sad
Post 25 Nov 2009, 15:57
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roboman



Joined: 03 Dec 2006
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roboman 26 Nov 2009, 17:06
Nearly any thing where having stuff going on in the background is not needed or wanted (single tasking no background ones like DexOS). CNC is what atracted me to DexOS, and I need to get back to that at some point. Another area would be Animation / FX render farms. At a couple minuts to a few hours per frame rendered and 24 or 30 frames per second of video, removing any thing from the background helps a lot and isn't really needed. So maybe a gimp and blender http://www.blender.org/ port. Maybe some sound program ports.
Post 26 Nov 2009, 17:06
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chaoscode



Joined: 21 Nov 2006
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chaoscode 27 Nov 2009, 01:44
i have a plan for a Fast SMP System.
to create huge Computingfarms with an easy to Manage system-Management.
Post 27 Nov 2009, 01:44
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kohlrak



Joined: 21 Jul 2006
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kohlrak 03 Dec 2009, 06:50
Hobby OS are simply lovely for specialized programs. Some programs normally take up the whole screen (therefore pointless to have a strong lib for other apps), need lots of resources, and/or don't need much support for addons or the like. Just imagine all the computers out there that run only a single server, especially servers designed only for one program (Game servers, a special website which doesn't use a common program like PHP to do dynamic pages for them) and database servers. Such simple programs would benefit from being able to go cross platform (to some degree) without relying on java.

I think the future for Hobby OS is single program (but still threadable) kernels. One could take it a step further to say multi-program crowds could also exist for businesses trying to handle employees wasting time. Truth is, alot of computers run only one program at a time, but people still like running programs in an OS for both security and because multi-tasking is ever so hyped. The overhead is often un-necessary and some kernels (especially Hobby OS kernels) provide a much better array of tools for some problems than existing kernels do.

For example, a minor text mode OS run in bochs would be perfect for teaching students how to program, because teachers wouldn't have to constantly lecture kids about not using code to solve a problem that the teacher doesn't understand because they use an arbitrary function which is better suited for the task, but not better suited for learning.
Post 03 Dec 2009, 06:50
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cod3b453



Joined: 25 Aug 2004
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cod3b453 03 Dec 2009, 13:57
Writing a hobby OS is a very good way to understand how an operating system works; if it turns less 'hobby' it becomes a wide-ranging programming exercise (general design/management, memory management, scheduling, API design, ...). As others have hinted, you also have the choice to write for a specific task and test code; indeed once I had VESA working I found myself getting distracted by writing font and 2D graphics routines so at the very least I can turn it into a crappy games console Laughing
Post 03 Dec 2009, 13:57
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Dex4u



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Dex4u 03 Dec 2009, 17:28
kohlrak wrote:
Hobby OS are simply lovely for specialized programs. Some programs normally take up the whole screen (therefore pointless to have a strong lib for other apps), need lots of resources, and/or don't need much support for addons or the like. Just imagine all the computers out there that run only a single server, especially servers designed only for one program (Game servers, a special website which doesn't use a common program like PHP to do dynamic pages for them) and database servers. Such simple programs would benefit from being able to go cross platform (to some degree) without relying on java.

If you think about it the new google OS, is single-tasking as it just run's a web browser Laughing

Yes it's multi-tasks, but you could get the same effect by using multi-threarding

See here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0QRO3gKj3qw

Maybe they saw FBrowser or now called FAB project Laughing
Post 03 Dec 2009, 17:28
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kohlrak



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kohlrak 03 Dec 2009, 23:56
Dex4u wrote:
kohlrak wrote:
Hobby OS are simply lovely for specialized programs. Some programs normally take up the whole screen (therefore pointless to have a strong lib for other apps), need lots of resources, and/or don't need much support for addons or the like. Just imagine all the computers out there that run only a single server, especially servers designed only for one program (Game servers, a special website which doesn't use a common program like PHP to do dynamic pages for them) and database servers. Such simple programs would benefit from being able to go cross platform (to some degree) without relying on java.

If you think about it the new google OS, is single-tasking as it just run's a web browser Laughing

Yes it's multi-tasks, but you could get the same effect by using multi-threarding

See here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0QRO3gKj3qw

Maybe they saw FBrowser or now called FAB project Laughing


I don't like to consider Linux OSes as OSes in their own right, because they use the linux kernel. Usually one doesn't have to separate the terms "OS" and "kernel" because usually the kernel is specific to that OS and is only distributed with it. Linux just HAD to make this difficult, didn't they? Laughing
Post 03 Dec 2009, 23:56
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