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In Chronos, I'm going to attempt to get it running on older computers to a point, but after that first point, Chronos will warn the user that they should upgrade their hardware. If the hardware is on a hardcoded blacklist, or doesn't support a required feature, or is a very old part, Chronos will panic and soft-halt(For debugging). I just use printk right now, still in supervisor mode. I plan on having the handler parse a table (for dynamics!) of codes, and call the corresponding function.
Eino: it will he a very simple shell, just for testing (going to port dash, sh, or bash)

Update: working on paging + memory, postponing shell. Version promoted to alpha
Check out the code at github(dev branch)
Cheers~
Lionel

Lionel wrote:In Chronos, I'm going to attempt to get it running on older computers to a point, but after that first point, Chronos will warn the user that they should upgrade their hardware. If the hardware is on a hardcoded blacklist, or doesn't support a required feature, or is a very old part, Chronos will panic and soft-halt(For debugging)

In an operating system. That is required if you want people to know why the computer stopped working or will not boot. Much like a "duh". The more the user knows, about what is going on with the systems health, or give this as an option the user can get to, the better.


As for the panic or soft halt. You could just boot into an older mode or load alternate drivers using the old parts, this is called backwards compatibility. Through this, also explain system performance or hardware accessibility may be different due to the components problems with the operating system.

I've been thinking, and I have decided that if the hardware is old, Chronos will warn the user, ask him/her if they would like to continue*, and if yes, continue booting.
*The choice will be saved in /System/Caches/UnstableHardwareChoice.plist so it doesn't ask every time.

As for the Compatibility Mode, Chronos is designed to have similar goals of Mac OSX, which means out with the old, in with the new (Also, making it very pretty, and making it the most Advanced Operating System). The exception with Chronos is that instead of supporting only one device, It will have support for many devices and hardware configurations. Chronos will still be picky about the hardware (by capability), and can be bypassed with the same method above.

Lionel wrote:As for the Compatibility Mode, Chronos is designed to have similar goals of Mac OSX, which means out with the old, in with the new (Also, making it very pretty

After telling a goal like that, its almost like reading this thread isn't worth it anymore. Many have said, and then quit weeks later. Another on the forum i've watched doesn't seem to be responding to his thread anymore. His project was interesting though, maybe hes just working it and not talking about it

My Point is.
Keep your ideas, good thing is to tell what you have now, and not later. You will get to ahead of yourself and when you realize those "cool" features are hard and boring to implement, you will know why i said this.

VolTeK wrote:tell what you have now, and not later.

Otherwise it can turn into vaporware!

VolTex:
After you saying that, I'm willing to change my goals to a System with some inspiration drawn from OSX and BSD. Though I will support new hardware more than old.
Bluemoon:
I have no intention of letting Chronos become vaporware. (I don't even think it qualifies because the source is available)