Snowdrop OS was born of my childhood curiosity around what happens when a PC is turned on, the mysteries of bootable disks, and the hidden aspects of operating systems. It is a 16-bit real mode operating system for the IBM PC architecture. I designed and developed this homebrew OS from scratch, using only x86 assembly language.
I have created and included a number of utilities, including a file manager, text editor, graphical applications, BASIC interpreter, x86 assembler and debugger. I also ported one of my DOS games to it. After all, what kind of an operating system doesn’t have games?
It seems like every talented programmer will, at some point, think to themselves: I should write my own operating system. Most of these efforts strand pretty quickly – and that’s fine! – but Sebastian Mihai’s effort did not, and it has grown into a very capable operating system, especially given the constraints stemming from the chosen architecture – 16bit realmode x86 – and programming language – x86 assembly. Snowdrop OS is an incredibly impressive labour of love, and comes with a unique extra I haven’t seen before: a daily development log covering over 600 days of development.
No, this won’t take over the world, but I love that is exists. More of this, please.
I’ve done my fair share of x86 assembly programming. I can’t say assembly language is very practical these days. The main reason to use assembly is to boot load a higher level language. Regardless it can be a fun challenge for people who enjoy low level programming projects.
I used to use assembly language on micro-controllers, but these days even those are well served by compilers. So it’s been many years since I’ve needed assembly. I still use an x86 bootloader I wrote years ago, but I haven’t had a reason to update it.
If the author is listening: what is the end game for Snowdrop OS? Any future plans or is the itch scratched?
Alfman,
I concur, a lot of open source projects, especially operating systems are “scratching an itch”
On the other hand, it is a good starting point like any. Wasn’t Linux developed to build a free terminal emulator for the PC? It evolved over time to reach what we have today.
But, yes, there is always a concern to whether that itch, that interest will stay or wither. Not many projects outlive their primary developer’s attention span. (This also includes large companies as well. Look at what happened to Google after the founders have left operations).
Strange to have a LCD damager as a background image. Seems like a cool project though.
Didn’t test Snowdrop OS just yet but i do remember my first experience with KolibriOS from a few years back. Was impressed with the GUI interface, plethora of apps included and the speed, everything i did was instant. Maybe i should evaluate if it’s possible to run one of these OSes directly on hardware and to dedicate one older laptop for it. A tool for lets say writing and playing music or enjoying a simple game. I can imagine that if more app developer would join that it would satisfy a niche market and some end users would enjoy using it massively, me included.