Operating system Development

[SamY]

Hi people, im creating an operating system, 32bit, protected mode, vesa... a complete o/s i need your help in anyway, coding, funding, ideas. i will post my operating system image for you people to sample and you may join me in creating it.... the posting will be done in less than a week.... thanks

[AMarchini]

http://geezer.osdevbrasil.net/osd/code/ Download osd.zip and start reading.

[SamY]

ok i've coded the oprating system and so far it can load sector and execute binaries, now i need help implementing my paging algorithms and also creating some modules, whose up for the challenge?

[Goalatio]

I have not coded .asm for almost 8 months... but what the hell. Take a look at my stuff and tell me if you want any of it.
youtube.com/Goalatio

[jamesheart]

I am also interest to develop operation system with assembly language. But I have no idea who I can do it.

[venomxxl]

Most operating systems use a second language (C would be the most popular) and as little assembly as possible (for portability to other architectures). Windows is an example of an OS written in C (and assembly for certain parts of its kernel). Linux is also a kernel written mostly in C. MenuetOS is an example of an OS written in assembly language only.

OS development is a hard and a time consuming task. Some operating systems take years to create (even with a team of programmers). Especially if you're going to create on from scratch, with your own kernel. A lot of knowledge is required too. Visit http://wiki.osdev.org/Main_Page for more information on OS development.

If you're just starting out with OS development, I'd recommend doing something easy, like a simple bootloader, but it's up to you.

[SamY]

okay today i'm almost finishing the memory manager, the malloc part, venomxxl,ive been using those resources but smoe are not enough, dont we have an irc thing to use? would like realtime help. anybody interested??

[N1GHTS]

I am confused at this thread. An operating system is nothing special. It is just a platform for which software can run in a target hardware. Beyond that: its a methodology, a strategy, a concept. I have yet to read any philosophy or goal beyond simply reinventing the wheel.

Why the heck did you just spend over a year making this?

Don't get me wrong, I admire your ambition and devotion, but I can't see what your motivation is other than personal experience and bragging rights.

[Schol-R-LEA]

N1GHTS: Having been there myself, I'd say that it is mostly because, to most beginning programmers, it looks like the biggest possible challenge to their skills, and the biggest ego boost around. It is also, for a handful of developers, seen as a chance to contribute something fundamental to the field itself - if they think they have some new idea that could change how things are done (they probably don't, but they may think they do). Third, many would-be OS developers start off with only a fuzzy idea of what constitutes an operating system, a kernel, a shell, a user application, and so on; and confuse things like the GUI or the shell with the OS proper, giving them a distorted idea of what OS development takes. Finally, quite a few would-be OS developers dream of supplanting Windows with their own special OS, and imagine the accolades (and money) that would come of it.

It is a worthwhile project, and you learn quite a lot about programming in doing it, but the odds are it won't ever reach the summit you imagine it will. As for the time taken on it, you have to remember that most OS developers are hobbyists, and that the actual time spent on it is only a couple of hours a week in most cases.

The irony is that OS development is not the holy grail of programming the way many see it to be (as I say, I've been there myself, and still have the OS-dev itch from time to time). As The Tao of Programming points out, a developer can do whatever they want when developing an operating system, but a business application such as an accounting package has to take into consideration the needs of the customer, various legal and standards requirements, etc.. Most novice programmers simply don't see that the most difficult problems in programming are not technical, but interpersonal. Some programmers never figure that out.