Hey, Im new and was wondering what I would need to start

[elias]

yes look at bill. he couldnt even write an OS!!! he jsut took thousands of lines of UNIX code and came up with crap. linus however, had elites ppl allover teh world help him, and many ppl have contributed software, that they could write realyl well. linus could never make linux by himself. see where im going?

[PlayOS]

Actually, I will retract putting Linux and Windows on the same level, while I have never been able to get linux successfully installed on my machine, I do think it is on a whole other level that Windows.

[Tim]

elias: you have an interesting point of view. Unfortunately, most of what you just wrote is wrong.

[elias]

please dont tell me in wrong and then not corrent me. bill wrote dos, which uses thousands of lines of unix code, and linus only wrote the abse kernel, before a bunch of people helped him with other stuff. and dont forget all the people contribuating software to linux, and writing drivers, making it what it is today

[Tom]

Isn't this going off thread-topic? Sorry...just my comment ::)

[Curufir]

Let's face facts, both windows, linux and practically every other OS out there are based on someone else's code.

For windows it's the original DOS that Gate's bought off some poor sod. For Linux it's Minix which in turn was Unix.

How much actual original code did BeOS have. Did someone look through all the motherboard manuals one by one to figure out how to turn on the A20 line? Or (More likely) did they just grab some working code from somewhere else and use that?

All mature OS are riddled with old code, patched code, code that's doing things it was never meant to be doing etc. Why? Because it's too much hassle to go back to a blank drawing board and start over (As most of us here have discovered).

So if you want to get functionality fast then start looking at other people's sources, if you want something original but not very useful (I put myself in this bracket) then make sure you enjoy figuring out new (To yourself at any rate) ways of doing things whilst being aware that it probably isn't the best way.

Guess it comes down to some simple questions.
a) Do you really expect your OS to take the world by storm (Or even be used by someone other than yourself)?

If so then it better not be just you coding it, unless you've got 8 hands, 4 keyboards and insomnia.

b) If you're doing this for fun, then which part is fun?

Personally I enjoy figuring out what the hardware is doing, someone else might like scheduling algorithms, or guis, or whatever. Just make sure that if your answer to a) was 'No' that you're enjoying the coding. End result (IMHO) is fairly irrelevant, although I wouldn't mind showing off a working OS ;D.

Curufir

[Mr_Spam]

very intresting conversation. Some people need to study up on the history of UNIX/ Linux and DOS.....
http://bdlug.hypermart.net/articles/linuxhistory.html the history of linux

Ive studied programming, and the C language as well as VB, and ASM for 6th months. I dont belive what ever OS i make will be really usefull in the real world but an awsome thing to show to a collage when collage admissions come around

I have 2.5 years to complete a rudimentry working OS for collage admissions. wish me luck

[whyme_t]

Sorry if this badly OT....

What Curufir was saying about each individual being interested in different areas sparked an idea,

Why don't we have a group os project on the message board, something all the members can contribute towards? I know everyone here is busy on their own thing (including myself), but With a huge group effort we could have something impressive .... but then again I'm just a Rookie here

[Pype.Clicker]

Sorry if this badly OT....

What Curufir was saying about each individual being interested in different areas sparked an idea,

Why don't we have a group os project on the message board, something all the members can contribute towards? I know everyone here is busy on their own thing (including myself), but With a huge group effort we could have something impressive .... but then again I'm just a Rookie here

probably because we wouldn't agree on stuffes as simple as the choice of the programming language (c-c++-pascal-other), the binary format (elf-coff-custom), or the developing environment (linux-windows-dos-other?)

some friend of mine have tried to start a "group OS project", but they didn't even wrote a single line of code from monthes ...

now, maybe we could follow some rule so that components would be portable across our OSes (join the FellowShip of the Code, my friends ). This would require a common API for setting up interrupts, requiring memory, registering drivers, etc...

[Curufir]

very intresting conversation. Some people need to study up on the history of UNIX/ Linux and DOS.....
http://bdlug.hypermart.net/articles/linuxhistory.html the history of linux

Ahhh, I see how it is, it's all very well to go bash Gates and the moneygrabbers, but one word against saint Linus and the hackles get raised.

I've seen the 0.01 source, I've seen the Minix source, I've seen the thread of evolution. So Torvalds didn't copy/paste the Minix sources, so what. I'll bet the Minix source code came in very handy when he got stuck coding the early versions. What was it they said "History is written by the winners" ;D.

And yes, Minix is a Unix derivative. Just because it is original code doesn't stop it being derivative. Writing the same algorithm another way doesn't make it your algorithm.

Curufir

[Tom]

Oh boy....if I go off topic .... ::)

[Widukind]

Hi Jr, Hi Forum (I'm new here )

Speaking from my own experience, when I first had learned the basics of C (enough to write some fairly simple programs), I didn't know how I could put my newly aquired programming "skills" into practice and have some fun with it. I had started projects ranging from Painting apps, 3D stuff to things like Assemblers. None of them I ever finished ;D. This might be an individual problem (me lacking discipline) but I think it's generally good to only start projects you actually have a realistic chance to finish. Rule of thumb: Always finish what you start! Immedeatly trying to code the next Photoshop or an OS of course reduces the chances of you doing that. But on the other side, if you have a lot of discipline and are able to work on a project for a long time without possibly seeing _working_ results, then do so!

But I suggest you to go to http://acm.uva.es/problemset/ and solve some of those Problem Set challenges to gain practical programming experiences. After you have solved some your will probably be able to rewrite the first challenge you did, a lot more intelligently with maybe half as much code (depends on the program). But don't be mistaken - the challenges on this site aren't necessarily easy. They are 'real world' programming problems (this isn't a bad thing tho ).

Hope I could help you in some way, and sorry for my bad english (spelling etc.)

regards,
Widukind

[Ozguxxx]

Hi people I just want to say my own idea about the discussion going on here, I did not read all people so if I am away from the discussion, forgive me... When I started OS prgoramming I knew that I would try maybe thousandths of times for implementation and maybe all of them would become in some way or other junk. Because anybody can do better as he/she learns how things are really going on, I think there is no limit in being a good programmer or writing a good os-because they atre both kinds of arts I think-. Your os might be good today but it is not tomorrow. Regards...

[Ozguxxx]

I am sorry Jr, altohugh I am not the one to give it to you my advice to you is: Learn some assembly and learn some C and then jump into OS developments. After some time, become depressed and learn some more C and more assembly and then jump into os development again.... Do this LOOP for some time, and you will see that you have something that you can build your os on. Hope this helps. Regards...
Sorry for taking up space