hello,

what parts must an OS include??? Must there be a filesystem??? (if yes, how do you make a one???) What about a bootloader??? A floppydriver??? A monitor driver???

JOACHIM NEU

Most OS developers borrow one of the already created File systems. Depending on the kind of OS you want will help you judge which one you wanna choose. I think the most interesting ones are TCFS(Transparent Cryptographic File System) encrypts and decrypts files before they hit the file server. and WinFS which is being developped as we speak it includes a "virtual touring" method of exploring the FS, and it allows you to view files by their type oppose to where they are.

This is another thing that isn't necessary. You could do it if you want but it'd be alot of work, i'd just use like Grub or LiFO.

You don't *have* to create a driver for a floppy drive, you wouldnt even have to create any drivers for that matter. An OS could run on top of windows/linux or w/e OS you're on and just use the drivers for the OS you're running your OS ontop of. This however is obviously a slow method of doing this. But if you want to create a truely independent OS you would have to write some drivers....Mainly being your monitor Driver and your keyboard driver.

Chris Giese has a useful hardware/driver chart at http://my.execpc.com/~geezer/temp/os.gif. It's geared towards OS kernels written in C, but it's still useful.