What about a Linux distro for OSdevelopers?

[platform]

It should be a distro based on Ubuntu 12.04 LTS and with the best tools for OSdeveloping, like:

-QEMU.
-A fully cross-compiler, and all of the building packages needed, such as GAS.
-A programe to manage ISOs, like ISO Master.
-A good browser (Chromium) with the OSdev's wiki as the main page, and with some interesting pages for OS developing as markers.
-GIT.
-Some books (PDFs) like the Andrew Tanenbaum's one.
-Some local GIT repositories for code examples, like Linux 0.1.
-A good IDE/code editor.

You may think that it's stupid but it could help a lot to some people.

[Love4Boobies]

What is the purpose of creating a distro with pre-installed programs that users could easily install on their own? Not only that but it wouldn't be flexible at all because:

• Different people want to use different tools (and environments, for that matter).
• People generally use their host OS for both development and other activities. This would only serve one purpose... Part of the reason for which operating systems exist in the first place is that people don't want to change environments everytime they switch tasks.
• You'd need permission to distribute most papers. Also, not everyone uses the same documentation because not everyone has the same goals.

The list can go on forever.

[Tosi]

Other than the books, you can install all the other necessary programs under any existing distro, so why make a new one?
And for the books, as Love4Boobies (that username!) said, you need permission to redistribute documents, not everybody uses the same documentation (I can't stand that Tanenbaum book), and even the tools used vary.

Also, you wouldn't need a separate program for managing ISOs that I'm aware of. Just create a blank image of the suitable side, set it up as a loopback device, and call mkisofs on it.

[gravaera]

Yo:

I'd say it has a valid business case, and has a clear cut target, mostly because it goes beyond the software packages and also provides documentation as much as it can, but it also is a lot of work for most likely very little gain -- valid, doable, possibly lucrative.

--Good luck,
gravaera

[Love4Boobies]

Shouldn't the wiki strive to be good/free documentation? And at any rate, that still doesn't explain why an OS is required for this purpose.

[Antti]

Maybe it would help beginners to get started with the OS developing but doing a distribution sounds overkill. Something called "package collection" of those usually needed programs would do the same thing. However, I think that almost every OS developer want to do this phase of setting tools by themselves.

If we talked about making an OS from scratch for OS developing purposes, this topic would be interesting. However, it would be a not-so-good idea.

[platform]

Ok, I see that it's not a good idea.

Thanks for your answers.

[NickJohnson]

Also, in my opinion, it's a good idea to have heterogeneous host environments among developers. If there's something leaking in from the host, it's going to be detectable more quickly. More importantly, it forces you to have a good system for setting up a development environment on a new host, which means more random people on the Internet can download and build your source without trouble.

[Combuster]

Gentoo, crossdev, profit.

[rdos]

That would only increase conformance. You don't need GCC, GAS and the rest of the Linux tools to make an OS. You could start with any assembler, or C compiler of your choice. I use the OpenWatcom toolset for everything, and it can run on Linux, but it is easier to run it on Windows. I've used TASM/TLINK only in the past, on DOS/Windows.

I didn't start using a cross-compiler until very recently. I managed to do without that for many years. Back then I first emulated DOS, and then Win32.

[ACcurrent]

Have you looked into suse-studio? Your life would be made easy when it comes to creating this distro.