3 ms·

Is it feasible for mortals to get hold of and run QnX as a desktop OS?

pas 6y ago
Apparently not really: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24346411 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24346411
jacquesm 6y ago
You might find an old archived copy of it but nothing that would be very useful if you intend to run a modern browser and other tools like that. For curiosity's sake you could. There used to be a one-floppy installer with the desktop on it, I'm sure you could get that to work in a VM. Lots of screenshots: https://www.operating-system.org/betriebssystem/_english/bs-qnx.htm https://www.operating-system.org/betriebssystem/_english/bs-... Docs: https://www.mikecramer.com/qnx/qnx_6.1_docs/sysadmin/intro.html https://www.mikecramer.com/qnx/qnx_6.1_docs/sysadmin/intro.h... Unfortunately I can't seem to locate any disk images, rumor has it there was a VMWare image floating around.
foundry27 6y ago
Absolutely. The thing you need to be asking for is a hobbyist license, which might not always be advertised but is very much a thing!
- PeCaN 6y ago
  I emailed QNX a couple years ago about hobbyist or non-commercial licenses and they replied that they no longer offer them.
Animats 6y ago
It was once. I still have a machine in the closet with QNX 6.1 and the Photon GUI. It has a version of Firefox so old it's called Firebird. But after Blackberry bought QNX, they made it closed source and no longer self-hosting. Today you have to cross-compile from Windows. Grr.
PeCaN 6y ago
You can find QNX 6.5 and suitable license keys by digging around on the web a bit. 6.5 is probably the last version suitable for use as a desktop OS—I believe 6.6 is where they started to remove the ability to self-host, and the GUI was completely removed by QNX 7. (It's a shame, because IMO the Photon GUI is really clever.) Unfortunately QNX 6.5 is pretty old and not too well-supported (QNX is fully POSIX-compliant so you can sometimes get things working on it without too much trouble however) but it's damn fantastic to play around with in a VM. It's actually so fun.

pas 6y ago

Apparently not really: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24346411 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24346411

You might find an old archived copy of it but nothing that would be very useful if you intend to run a modern browser and other tools like that. For curiosity's sake you could. There used to be a one-floppy installer with the desktop on it, I'm sure you could get that to work in a VM. Lots of screenshots: https://www.operating-system.org/betriebssystem/_english/bs-qnx.htm https://www.operating-system.org/betriebssystem/_english/bs-... Docs: https://www.mikecramer.com/qnx/qnx_6.1_docs/sysadmin/intro.html https://www.mikecramer.com/qnx/qnx_6.1_docs/sysadmin/intro.h... Unfortunately I can't seem to locate any disk images, rumor has it there was a VMWare image floating around.

foundry27 6y ago

Absolutely. The thing you need to be asking for is a hobbyist license, which might not always be advertised but is very much a thing!

PeCaN 6y ago
I emailed QNX a couple years ago about hobbyist or non-commercial licenses and they replied that they no longer offer them.

Animats 6y ago

It was once. I still have a machine in the closet with QNX 6.1 and the Photon GUI. It has a version of Firefox so old it's called Firebird. But after Blackberry bought QNX, they made it closed source and no longer self-hosting. Today you have to cross-compile from Windows. Grr.

PeCaN 6y ago

You can find QNX 6.5 and suitable license keys by digging around on the web a bit. 6.5 is probably the last version suitable for use as a desktop OS—I believe 6.6 is where they started to remove the ability to self-host, and the GUI was completely removed by QNX 7. (It's a shame, because IMO the Photon GUI is really clever.) Unfortunately QNX 6.5 is pretty old and not too well-supported (QNX is fully POSIX-compliant so you can sometimes get things working on it without too much trouble however) but it's damn fantastic to play around with in a VM. It's actually so fun.