OSDev.org

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You'll probably want to learn ASM, VB will be completely useless to you...
Use www.osdev.org it's got loads of good tutorial's and the wiki...
Fell free to ask questions, but make sure there well formulated and intelligent and search the web before asking questions...
Also it's a good idea to download the Intel manuals.... (or get a physical copy if you want...)
You should have searched the web to find the answer to this question, osdever.net is the second thing that appears on google if you search OSdev....
Welcome and good luck....
But, I wouldn't recommend setting such high goals or yourself, it will be some time before you have an OS that is usable from day to day...
Jules

hI,

If you are good at C++, that's a good start. The main thing you will need to get used to is that you are in a standalone environment (no API, STL, standard library etc...).

A couple of very good places to start are:

Our very own wiki,
James Molloy's Tutorials,
and Bona Fide OS Dev

I suggest you start by reading (not necessarily following) some boot sector tutorials, JamesM's tutorial and Brans Kernel Tutorial. After that, you will at least know a bit about Mode switching and some basic assembly - then go form there.

HTH,
Adam

simkinggold wrote:we dont like linux

The BrokenThorn Entertainment tutorials are also helpful. You might also want to purchase Operating Systems: Design and Implementation by Andrew Tanenbaum in addition (although the price is >100 USD).

[deleted]

Quite a few people have made their own bootable OS here, making an OS just bootable is easy...
In would recommend saying TUI instead of MS-DOS....
And I think you'll find that making an OS is MUCH more complex and you'll have many more versions thatn just TUI and GUI versions...
Why don't you like linux anyway?
I have to say when I started, I didn't know that processors started up in 16bit mode and you had to activate A20 and pass into protected mode so figure out how to do that first...
In less you want to use a custom bootloader in which cases forget what I just said...
Jules

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simkinggold wrote:Were gunna make a ms-dos verson (since there basic) then make a gui verson later

There are much more significant differences than that. Dos was a lot easier than Windows and is a lot easier than Linux, but Linux in text mode is not much simpler than Windows.

I've never had any problems installing linux on any computers (Though I don't have it installed on any computers I use actually, though I keep promising to myself that I'll do it soon...), granted, if you don;t do it from a live disk it can be hard to install, but I really do like it...
As for Windows BSODing, I don't get why people say that, fair enough it does BSOD and when it does, it's annoying, but I don;t experience it that often....
I can't really make any comment about mac OS because I've never used it...
BTW are you planning on making your own bootloader or using a custom?
Jules

[deleted]

Ever played crisis DX10 max graphics while cygwin is making a cross compiler at the same time?
That is some pretty strong test for any OS, I've never had a problem on my XP though...
I didn't say that mac didn't crash, I just said I never used it...
I've never had a problem burning or installing a live cd, it's easy and straight forward....
and you can't really blame a cd image for not burning....
Like your gaming he?
In case you didn't know, it's VERY hard to make apps from an other OS work on your's you need to emulate their APIs system calls, etc...
I know of reactos that tried to copy a windows environment and I hear is pretty good at it....
A bootloader is the first 512b of the media on which your OS is loaded which are loaded into memory at 0x7C00 by your BIOS, it's purpose is to load your kernel from disk into memory, setup a base environment and then jump to your kernel, if you want to make a custom one, that means you make your own, otherwise, you use a pre made one to load your OS for you like GRUB...
I personally made my own, but many people like GRUB....
Jules

So you're making a replacement for Windows, Mac, and Linux? That's a pretty hefty goal. I'd start with reading the Intel manuals first and then try coding your own bootloader and then re-asses your goals, if your goal still seems attainable, then I wish you luck, but you may find it to be more difficult and time consuming than you had origionally thought. I'd also recommend any of the "Indespensable PC Hardware Book" versions, they came in very handy.

There is a project list in the wiki - you may want to check a few of these projects to see what has been in done in a couple of years of work. Also, note such projects as KDE or Gnome, which needed many years and programmers to evolve to their current state so it's not easy to write a revolutionary window manager from scratch.

Other than that, writing an operating system to writing a GUI for it is like building a house to painting the walls.

adek336 wrote:Other than that, writing an operating system to writing a GUI for it is like building a house to painting the walls.

ya.. first get some basic knowledge reading the books mentioned .
then set your goals !!!!!

because for a team of two to do a well designed os with text interface right from scratch it takes nearly a year....