6 ms·

MenuetOS 1.0 – 1.5 MB OS written entirely in assembly [video]

92 points by paulcarroty 11y ago

advanderveer 11y ago
But does it run on Docker? just kidding, awesome work! any books or articles you recommend if I would like to learn more about writing operating systems in todays world?
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
- reefab 11y ago
  http://wiki.osdev.org/Expanded_Main_Page http://wiki.osdev.org/Expanded_Main_Page
- pakled_engineer 11y ago
  This course you build a small OS with the seL4 microkernel on a sabre lite board http://www.cse.unsw.edu.au/~cs9242/current/ http://www.cse.unsw.edu.au/~cs9242/current/ Of course there's also Lions' Commentary on UNIX 6th Edition, with Source Code by John Lions and the plan9 operating system design specs you can go through to see why they did what they did. They're "old" resources but basics have stayed the same.
- CHY872 11y ago
  Check out xv6. It's a Unix v6 compatible OS rewritten in C for educational purposes. It's pretty neat!
xvilka 11y ago
MenuetOS is closed source. I particularly recommend take a view to KolibriOS [1] - formerly fork of the MenuetOS32, community driven and with better hardware support. [1] http://kolibrios.org http://kolibrios.org
- Svenstaro 11y ago
  That video on their frontpage is ridiculously difficult to watch. So much shaking.
  - chadscira 11y ago
    almost seems intentional haha
- nickpsecurity 11y ago
  Good point. Most of these projects that are silo'd die or get gobbled up over time. SkyOS comes to mind. Better to invest time or energy into community-driven, alternatives.
deleted 11y ago
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deleted 11y ago
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bane 11y ago
This is a fantastic example of how many resources we waste with modern software. Sure it's not packed full of the kind of eye-candy we're used to, but lots of the basics are there, and it's thousands of times smaller than even OSs used on smart phones. iOS 8 for example takes up 5 Gigabytes, Windows 10 x64 is 11 Gigabytes.
- al2o3cr 11y ago
  "Sure it's not packed full of the kind of eye-candy we're used to" This is like arguing that a car is a "waste of resources", because look at how much more metal it uses than this little red wagon. Sure, the wagon is missing "eye-candy" like "providing its own motive power" and "carrying passengers", but lots of the basics are there and it has hundreds of times less metal!
  - delinka 11y ago
    And what substance is this OS missing that makes it a little red wagon?
- mtrn 11y ago
  Sounds quite true. For every line of code, that is really necessary, there are about hundred lines, that are result of accidental complexity.
- byuu 11y ago
  It's definitely a very neat project. It kind of reminds me of QNX Neutrino. It also fit on a single floppy disk, and had a GUI, web browser, etc. It's also a Unix-like with a microkernel design. https://web.archive.org/web/20020205065733/http://www.qnx.com/demodisk/ https://web.archive.org/web/20020205065733/http://www.qnx.co... But what I really liked about QNX is how amazingly good it looks with just a bit more polish beyond the size of a floppy disk: http://mobile.osnews.com/printer.php?news_id=534 http://mobile.osnews.com/printer.php?news_id=534 (I don't know the exact size of the OS today, but back in the early 2000's it was still extremely small and looked almost identical to the osnews screenshots. I want to say it was around ~80MB, and came with GCC and a bunch of other goodies.) I could actually see myself running that instead of a Chromebook or on a server through VNC. Unfortunately, QNX never really went beyond the embedded world: it's almost exclusively used in car navigation systems and such these days. Hopefully at some point Menuet will grow as QNX did from its floppy disk days. The tiny tech demos are wonderful, but with a bit more polish they could see real-world production use.
jotm 11y ago
Oh, I remember MenuetOS! I played with it in 2001 I believe - it was the only full fledged OS to run from a floppy disk (remember those?), it was very impressive!
- sigzero 11y ago
  QNX used to run from a floppy as well.

92 points by paulcarroty 11y ago

But does it run on Docker? just kidding, awesome work! any books or articles you recommend if I would like to learn more about writing operating systems in todays world?

deleted 11y ago
[deleted]
reefab 11y ago
http://wiki.osdev.org/Expanded_Main_Page http://wiki.osdev.org/Expanded_Main_Page
pakled_engineer 11y ago
This course you build a small OS with the seL4 microkernel on a sabre lite board http://www.cse.unsw.edu.au/~cs9242/current/ http://www.cse.unsw.edu.au/~cs9242/current/ Of course there's also Lions' Commentary on UNIX 6th Edition, with Source Code by John Lions and the plan9 operating system design specs you can go through to see why they did what they did. They're "old" resources but basics have stayed the same.
CHY872 11y ago
Check out xv6. It's a Unix v6 compatible OS rewritten in C for educational purposes. It's pretty neat!

xvilka 11y ago

MenuetOS is closed source. I particularly recommend take a view to KolibriOS [1] - formerly fork of the MenuetOS32, community driven and with better hardware support. [1] http://kolibrios.org http://kolibrios.org

Svenstaro 11y ago
That video on their frontpage is ridiculously difficult to watch. So much shaking.
- chadscira 11y ago
  almost seems intentional haha
nickpsecurity 11y ago
Good point. Most of these projects that are silo'd die or get gobbled up over time. SkyOS comes to mind. Better to invest time or energy into community-driven, alternatives.

deleted 11y ago

[deleted]

deleted 11y ago

[deleted]

bane 11y ago

This is a fantastic example of how many resources we waste with modern software. Sure it's not packed full of the kind of eye-candy we're used to, but lots of the basics are there, and it's thousands of times smaller than even OSs used on smart phones. iOS 8 for example takes up 5 Gigabytes, Windows 10 x64 is 11 Gigabytes.

al2o3cr 11y ago
"Sure it's not packed full of the kind of eye-candy we're used to" This is like arguing that a car is a "waste of resources", because look at how much more metal it uses than this little red wagon. Sure, the wagon is missing "eye-candy" like "providing its own motive power" and "carrying passengers", but lots of the basics are there and it has hundreds of times less metal!
- delinka 11y ago
  And what substance is this OS missing that makes it a little red wagon?
mtrn 11y ago
Sounds quite true. For every line of code, that is really necessary, there are about hundred lines, that are result of accidental complexity.
byuu 11y ago
It's definitely a very neat project. It kind of reminds me of QNX Neutrino. It also fit on a single floppy disk, and had a GUI, web browser, etc. It's also a Unix-like with a microkernel design. https://web.archive.org/web/20020205065733/http://www.qnx.com/demodisk/ https://web.archive.org/web/20020205065733/http://www.qnx.co... But what I really liked about QNX is how amazingly good it looks with just a bit more polish beyond the size of a floppy disk: http://mobile.osnews.com/printer.php?news_id=534 http://mobile.osnews.com/printer.php?news_id=534 (I don't know the exact size of the OS today, but back in the early 2000's it was still extremely small and looked almost identical to the osnews screenshots. I want to say it was around ~80MB, and came with GCC and a bunch of other goodies.) I could actually see myself running that instead of a Chromebook or on a server through VNC. Unfortunately, QNX never really went beyond the embedded world: it's almost exclusively used in car navigation systems and such these days. Hopefully at some point Menuet will grow as QNX did from its floppy disk days. The tiny tech demos are wonderful, but with a bit more polish they could see real-world production use.

jotm 11y ago

Oh, I remember MenuetOS! I played with it in 2001 I believe - it was the only full fledged OS to run from a floppy disk (remember those?), it was very impressive!

sigzero 11y ago
QNX used to run from a floppy as well.