OS News Archive

MenuetOS 0.74 is released and includes a Tiny email server, improved Http/Mp3 servers, Fasm 1.48, improved protection, skinning and font additions, Minesweeper and more. The OS is written in 100% assembly and is running off a floppy disk. However, developers are now adding support for a C library and they are looking for more developers to help with fixing the bugs and adding new features.

miray Software released the latest version of its embedded and PC operating system µnOS. Besides a number of runtime enhancements of the system core the new version 0.98 contains a vastly improved window server, an all-new intelligent console interface and new system utilities. A dedicated internet platform for developers and interested users will be launched by miray in the near future.

The L4Env, the L4 Environment, and DDE, the Device Driver Environment. L4Env is a programming environment for application development on top of the L4 microkernel family. DDE is an environment for Linux device drivers for using native Linux 2.4 drivers together with L4Env.

HP announced the evaluation release of OpenVMS version 8.0 for Itanium-based HP Integrity servers. This release is for selected ISVs including BEA, Cerner, Computer Associates, Brooks Automation, Attunity, Synergex, Legato and TECSys. These partners have begun porting their applications to the OpenVMS Industry Standard 64 (OpenVMS I64) operating system, utilizing the HP rx2600 server. In addition, HP partners have committed porting over 450 applications to this new version to date.

Do you remember the Contiki desktop OS, an Internet-enabled graphical operating system for constrained systems? I have just ported Contiki to the 8-bit Atmel AVR microcontroller, which is commonly used in various kinds of embedded systems, and have set up a demo server running the Contiki AVR software at http://contiki-demo.sics.se/.

Miracle-driver from Panasonic does the unthinkable, The Inquirer says: there are USB drivers for DOS.

In various discussions that we've had with readers about advertising, many people have suggested that we devise some more direct way for regular OSNews readers to support the site. (This is usually amid complaints about online advertising in general or about some specific ad method that we're trying out) I personally don't like the idea of soliciting donations, because I want people to get something in return for their monetary support. What we've come up with is an OSNews membership program. For a yearly fee of $20, you will be able to show your support of OSNews and receive the following benefits:

If you have a mixed network like I do sometimes you have to compromise. At my job we run Windows, Linux and a sole Mac (Graphics dept.) and lets face it, when you do consulting work and if you design and develop custom applications you have to be able to develop for your clients platform and as much as I hate it, it's a Windows world. Before I used to have 2 workstations, one Windows and one Linux, or I had to dual boot. In the past, virtual machines have been lacking. Either they were too slow or lacking a certain pizazz to get the job done. Enter VMWare Workstation 4.

About a month ago, NeTraverse contacted OfB Labs with an early release copy of Win4Lin 5.0, the follow-up to the already impressive Win4Lin 4.0 released in May 2002. Win4Lin, for those not familiar with it, offers near-native (or better) speed "virtualization" of a Windows box so that one can run Windows 9x (95/98/Me) inside GNU/Linux. Read the review at OfB.

Here is a tutorial on writing your own OS. A help to start you out.

Unununium, and interesting project which aims at producing an 'organic' operating system where all components are interchangable at run-time, recently put a screenshot online.They have been making a lot of progress lately, with the website becoming increasingly active and filled with content. This project is a bookmark must-have for any assembly buffs out there as it is entirely written in assembly.

"We all know what its like to imerse one's self in the age old computer market-share debate. The problem is that when most people use the word "market-share", what they really mean is "installed-base." Because consumers choose a platform based on its popularity, misconceptions about market-share only confuse the issue even further." Read the editorial at OSCast.

The moment of truth is here. Which OS do you mostly use most of your time?

TheRegister has an article about persistent storage for computers using magnetic memory. This triggered me to recall Genera, the Symbolics Object Oriented OS, and what an amazing system could be built pulling together an object oriented OS with a persistent storage. Where there was no need for files and pipes and everything could know about everything else. I'm way out of my depth here, but come on someone, build the future!