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Ask HN: How much would it cost to build a new commercially viable OS?
Assume you’re an eccentric centi-billionaire that wants to create a new desktop/server-class OS that can match Windows, macOS, and Linux in performance, compatibility, and security, and be sold commercially as a competitor.
What would it cost to develop from scratch? How many engineers do you need? How many lawyers?
- alganet 1y agoI'm not eccentric or rich, that's not my problem to solve. Good luck! Anyway, why do you think that's a problem you need to think of?
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- bigyabai 1y agoCommercially-viable? Windows and MacOS are both basically given away for free these days. It's been this way on the server for decades; commercial viability means the user pays nothing. You could probably spend a trillion dollars reinventing the kernel and still lose out to Linux in a world where the internet still exists. If you insist on a commercialized outcome then no amount will really be enough.
- unsupp0rted 1y agoAll the current commercial operating systems today are basically interchangeable, not counting a handful of design decisions (e.g. Finder vs. Explorer) or hardware compatibility. They're all basically the same thing. Heck Android and iOS are basically the same thing. Would a new commercially viable OS be able to offer anything that current ones don't? If not, it's not really commercially viable.
- sema4hacker 1y agoYou'll probably have to spend more money on marketing to try to get people to use it than you will on engineering just to create it.
- cc101 1y agoApple started with UNIX and built on that.
- thesuperbigfrog 1y agoYou could look at BeOS to get an idea and then try to extrapolate and adapt your estimates for today's market and circumstances: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BeOS https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BeOS
- runningmike 1y ago90% of the cost will be building the business. Product dev cost are minor! Do you want a business or great software that nobody uses?