OSDev.org

alexfru wrote: Further, as the horsepower of our computers increases and as memory and storage become cheaper per GB, virtualization becomes more and more common place, not to mention we now have many more virtualization solutions than we had some 15+ years ago. So, you get virtual environments to play as well.

Correct, Virtualization is also a good solution.

iansjack wrote:If a hobbyist OS developer has any sense of realism they know that there is a better chance of them winning the lottery than there is of the "average user" ever using their operating system. (But I do appreciate that some here have little sense of realism.)

There are a lot more avarage users than programmers. There are a LOT more avarage users than OS developers. There is usually something wrong if the chance of "avarage users" using the OS is smaller than the chance of "programmers or OS developers" using the OS. It should be much more likely that avarage users use the OS. If the chance is like winning the lottery, then the next points are likely to be true:

• No one knows the OS. (Non-technical problem)
• It is impossible for average users to install the OS. (Technical problem)
• It is impossible for average users to use the OS. (Technical problem)

Of course, sometimes OS developers want to maximize their OSs unusefulness.

If the chance is like winning the lottery, then the next points are likely to be true:

No one knows the OS. (Non-technical problem)
It is impossible for average users to install the OS. (Technical problem)
It is impossible for average users to use the OS. (Technical problem)

Do you claim that your operating system (the one you are writing, not the one you are using) does not fulfil at least one of those points? How many users does it have? How many "average" users does it have?

iansjack wrote:Do you claim that your operating system (the one you are writing, not the one you are using) does not fulfil at least one of those points? How many users does it have? How many "average" users does it have?

My operating system is not ready so it does not have average users (or any users) so it fulfills all the points. If I succeed, it will have more average users than "other users". Otherwise it is a failure and please note that the absolute number of users is not the point here.

I suspect that you are not the only one here who has not yet won the lottery.

Personally, I regard this as just an interesting hobby - an intellectual puzzle. I certainly wouldn't want to be bothered with the inconvenience of average users.

Personally I think the availability of cheap, well-documented and rather featurefull ARM boards is a boon to hobbyist OS development.

As a hobby, OS dev isn't going to go anywhere for a while. Making competing products is a whole other ball game though. Unless you've got deep pockets and a team of wizard gurus, the chances of competing with Windows, Mac, or GNU/Linux is zilch.

I think we're currently at the turning point of a new direction in technology. People are tiring of the shackles of desktop and laptops. They want to see new radical and creative ideas based largely in areas like augmented reality. Virtualization will probably ease this transition.