Best operating system to write my operating system in?

[Gavin]

Is it
linux
bsd
windows
mac

[nekros]

Whatever your most familiar with, I prefer linux myself. Natively has the most common toolset for osdev (binutils) . Oh, and personally Windows can be a real pain in the arse when it comes to osdev (my experience at least) unless you are just using fasm or nasm and such.

[Brynet-Inc]

How about you write complete sentences.. adjust your line wrap settings, 3 characters is inadequate.

[thepowersgang]

It's really a matter of personal opinion. I use windows with MSYS/Mingw but would sometimes like to use Linux instead (better toolkit etc) but I haven't enough free time to install and customise it completely.

[01000101]

I used to use Ubuntu + GEdit, but now I use Vista + VS2008 C++.NET IDE and compile/test in Ubuntu on a VM. =)

Just pick whatever you're familiar with and can support a decent syntax highlighting IDE.

[neonek]

IMHO the best choose is Linux. The most Linux distros have needed for OSDev tools installed by default. Windows has problems with automation (scripts) because it doesn't have eg. command-line cd/hd utils. But there is Cygwin which provides Linux toolset for Windows. With Mac and BSD I don't have any experiences.

Just use what you are familiar with

Regards,
Mark

[Troy Martin]

I used to use Ubuntu + GEdit, but now I use Vista + VS2008 C++.NET IDE and compile/test in Ubuntu on a VM. =)

Basically same here for the few days I spent with C and OS dev

Now I use Vista + VS2008 C++.NET Express IDE + NASM 2.05.1 for building TBOS.

[pcmattman]

Hi,

For my software development I use Visual Studio 2005 Professional (and VS2008 Pro as well), so I'm quite familiar with the Windows environment and these two IDEs.

As such I regularly use the VS05 IDE for my OS development, with Cygwin as the beast that handles compilation (etc...). The Intellisense feature is nice, and it's extremely powerful. If I'm not using VS05 I'll use Notepad++.

Even though I use Windows as my main development environment, I will admit you cannot go past Linux for the ease of use. Setting up your cross-compilers and things is very quick and easy, and most of your tools are already installed, as neonek has said.

In other words, I've tried both, and I like both. Rather than ask such a question I'd suggest you try them as well, build some applications, write some code on each and figure out which one works best for you.

Also, I think that whatever OS you use to develop your own OS should be one that you know extremely well - so don't go installing Linux and going straight to building your OS . I guess that comes down to prerequisite knowledge though, and your mileage may vary.

As an endnote, I do know that there have been issues with compiling gcc/binutils on OSX (from what I've picked up in #osdev) so that may be a reason to avoid the Macs

Hope this helps!

[Solar]

Whatever runs on your system currently. If it's Windows, add Cygwin. That's about it.

[neon]

The "best" operating system is the one that you have the most experience with. Thus the answer is that it can be any of those, or something completely different, then the ones listed.

You should know your host operating system inside-out, as well as the toolset being used. Jumping to another operating system delays this process as it starts the whole "learning your host OS" all over again.

[Dex]

The best OS is your own, yes i know you can not do this to start with, but you should as fast as posable have your OS self supporting.
Its the only way for you to find those bugs and make it stable.
Thats why i think, linux made good progress also BSB etc, they where used well before they where ready.
Remember if you do not use your OS, why should others ?.