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SerenityOS – a graphical Unix-like OS for x86, with 90s aesthetics

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Re: SerenityOS – a graphical Unix-like OS for x86, with 90s aesthetics

#41

Post by userbinator »

Roughly speaking, the goal is a marriage between the aesthetic of late-1990s productivity software and the power-user accessibility of late-2000s nix.*

In other words, a Windows GUI with a Unix-like CLI? That's something I can certainly agree with --- Windows has traditionally been very lacking with its CLI, while the Unix-ish systems (including Linux) seem to be quite fragmented and awkward at GUIs.

I also thought the terminal font looked familiar, then realised it's either the same as or a very close version of the "misc-fixed" fonts[1] that I use in my terminals and for editing plaintext (including source code) --- it even has the slashed zero that I added to mine, and which the original fonts lacked. The general UI font looks like a proportional version of it, which I've honestly never seen before but think it's quite pleasing too.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fixed_(typeface)

Re: SerenityOS – a graphical Unix-like OS for x86, with 90s aesthetics

#43

Post by z3phyr »

nineteen999 wrote: post #38
aidenn0 wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IIRC it includes a macroassembler as a DSL in lisp; booting bare-metal with zero assembly is just not possible.

> booting bare-metal with zero assembly is just not possible Well that makes sense on Intel anyway, the first stage bootloader has to fit into a single 512-byte sector (the MBR) doesn't it? Not sure if this still true in these modern days of EFI.

Yeah, EFI sectors are larger.

Re: SerenityOS – a graphical Unix-like OS for x86, with 90s aesthetics

#45

Post by akling »

joshenders wrote: post #42

Get Actual Pixel Artists To Design The UI

I don't have the money to spend on that sort of thing. I do have a dreamer Patreon for the project, but it's all very modest :)

I'll continue iterating on the look though. Here's a more recent demo that shows a bunch of pixel-related improvements: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pS56tlXFmEk

Re: SerenityOS – a graphical Unix-like OS for x86, with 90s aesthetics

#46

Post by bArray »

akling wrote: post #13

Hello friends, author here! Fun to see my project on HN again. If you would like to see the system in action, I did a demo video in March[1] and one in April[2]. I’m happy to answer any questions you might have about the system. I’m not an expert on operating systems, but I can be pretty productive :) [1] https://youtu.be/hE52D-zbX3g [2] https://youtu.be/RBr5If8GrM4

What's the future goal for this project? Will it ever reach a point where you say "it's done"? I quite like the idea of loading this onto an old laptop I have laying around for the purpose of using it as a distraction free portable editor (if it won't crash and lose everything).

Now that you have networking and a compiler, you could build a "simple" package manager. It could be just a list of supported Git repositories that are downloaded (downloader) and built (gcc), that would at least allow people to write stand-alone applications (no libraries) for your system that others could use.

Re: SerenityOS – a graphical Unix-like OS for x86, with 90s aesthetics

#47

Post by akling »

ben165 wrote: post #44

Interesting project. How far are you away from including a native compiler/assembler?

GNU's binutils and GCC have both been ported to Serenity and work right now. So not very far away at all! I got it working properly ~1 month ago, here's a video I posted that day: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lO4XBggjZGk

(A lot of performance work followed after that recording. There's still a lot to do, but the 30 second compile time is now down to ~2.5 seconds. 80% of the speedup was from implementing DMA disk transfers, and the other 20% from a faster malloc().)

Re: SerenityOS – a graphical Unix-like OS for x86, with 90s aesthetics

#48

Post by akling »

pizlonator wrote: post #36
akling wrote: post #13

Hello friends, author here! Fun to see my project on HN again. If you would like to see the system in action, I did a demo video in March[1] and one in April[2]. I’m happy to answer any questions you might have about the system. I’m not an expert on operating systems, but I can be pretty productive :) [1] https://youtu.be/hE52D-zbX3g [2] https://youtu.be/RBr5If8GrM4

This is seriously awesome work. Productive is an understatement, damn.

Thanks Phil, that warms my heart.

Re: SerenityOS – a graphical Unix-like OS for x86, with 90s aesthetics

#49

Post by jordache »

reaperducer wrote: post #25

I think this is an impressive achievement, and certainly something I could never do. But I'm a little disappointed in the state of desktop operating systems these days. I don't see any innovation. Every OS is just splashing chrome on the same WIMP paradigm that's been available to consumers for 35 years. Maybe I'm looking for the equivalent of a flying car, but I wish someone would come up with an OS, or even just an…

you're gonna be constraint by keyboard and a pointer device. For those two combinations, you ain't going to have much to work with.

Re: SerenityOS – a graphical Unix-like OS for x86, with 90s aesthetics

#50

Post by billfruit »

seanvk wrote: post #7
asark wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Screenshots of 90s operating systems are so relaxing . I miss interfaces that looked like interfaces, and distinct from content.

BeOS is another one that comes to mind.

I think the early to mid 2000s Gnome had that same focus on full functionality presented with simplicity, rarely seen in today's interfaces.
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