That's cool. Though that's C/C++ again, unmanaged memory can't be considered safe in 2021. We need different things.
Essence: Desktop operating system built from scratch
171–180 of 299 posts
Re: Essence: Desktop operating system built from scratch
#172It certainly looked super fast but no networking or web browser from what I saw.
These days it's easier to create an OS from scratch than a web browser.
These days it's easier to create an OS from scratch than a web browser.
This is an excellent observation, and gives me an excuse to recommend Alan Kay's seminal OOPSLA 1997 keynote "The computer revolution hasnt happened yet" -- the link to the whole thing is below, but I've set the time at the start of what I think is the immediately relevant point (he takes a minute or so to explain)
Re: Essence: Desktop operating system built from scratch
#173That's cool. Though that's C/C++ again, unmanaged memory can't be considered safe in 2021. We need different things.
This type of comment is getting so old I wonder what can be done about it. Maybe the reason why we don't have "different things" is because users of these so called safe languages are too busy arguing online about how safe their programs are instead of actually writing anything worthwhile. Meanwhile operating systems will continue to be written primarily in C/C++ for the forseeable future
Re: Essence: Desktop operating system built from scratch
#174I love minimalist stuff, but I don't really believe this is a good idea. It's not compatible with a lot of things.
Sure it's cool, but the problem will always be the lack of open hardware. Personally I will always be more curious about smartphone OS made from scratch.
The only think I want right now, is to use old smartphones with a lightweight OS.
Re: Essence: Desktop operating system built from scratch
#175Is this OS a fork of SerenityOS (also completely written from scratch in C++)?
I'm amazed how many single person or small team developed operating systems are out there. Another one I like is RedoxOS (written in Rust) and Resea (microkernel written in C). Also, there's KolibriOS (written entirely in Assembler).
Re: Essence: Desktop operating system built from scratch
#176I love minimalist stuff, but I don't really believe this is a good idea. It's not compatible with a lot of things. Sure it's cool, but the problem will always be the lack of open hardware. Personally I will always be more curious about smartphone OS made from scratch. The only think I want right now, is to use old smartphones with a lightweight OS.
Yes, hardware support will always be a problem unless there's a large uptake.
Developers should therefore focus on more hardware support instead of adding unnecessary features.
Re: Essence: Desktop operating system built from scratch
#177That's cool. Though that's C/C++ again, unmanaged memory can't be considered safe in 2021. We need different things.
Rust is an ugly language that is not fun to use. There is one OS written in it (Redox) and it's progress is very slow. It's actually less work to audit C++ code manually to find memory unsafety than it is to use Rust and get that safety "for free". Sorry to say these things out loud.
Re: Essence: Desktop operating system built from scratch
#178Earlier quoted context omitted.
These days it's easier to create an OS from scratch than a web browser.
That’s actually pretty scarry. Someone can write and entire graphical operating system, including filesystem and everything, but that same person have no hope of writing a browser to go with it. There’s almost no commercial insentive to create a browser/rendering engine (Opera couldn’t make it work), and it almost to much work for an open source project to take on. As sad as it might be, Google won and Chromium will…
The SerenityOS people are implementing their own browser. It's nowhere near usable for the modern web yet, but it's slowly chugging along, inching closer.
Of course the difference between building an OS and a browser is that for an OS, you just have to build something that is usable, how you get there and what that looks like is up to you, and you can really get creative with it and break norms.
For a browser engine, by definition, you have to build something that behaves basically exactly the same as any other modern browser. So you're implementing a gargantuan spec to a very high level of precision (since you have no control over how it's used), and the end result is a technical feat that's only impressive in the fact that it was done, not in that you get to use it now, and it does anything a reskinned chrome wouldn't do.
Re: Essence: Desktop operating system built from scratch
#179So first off: Very cool. Amazingly polished, and self-hosting! Especially since it looks to be an actually-independent project with POSIX as an optional compat layer. I feel like the features that are unique are mostly in 3 groups: 1. Features that shouldn't be unique to this system. Tabbed windows have occasionally happened on other systems, and probably should become more common, and there's no reason it shouldn't…
I think the vector based UI should be on the list somewhere. Really smart solution to the HiDPI problem that gives you easy arbitrary scaling without any awkwardness
Re: Essence: Desktop operating system built from scratch
#180Earlier quoted context omitted.
that is fine, but one these projects cross some point, the creators have the tendency to forget their motivation being selfish in the first place, and try to promote their creation as if what they had in mind was to solve problem for other people.
Selfish? Seriously, what are you talking about?
"labor of love To scratch an itch To explore an idea"
that by no mean is a bad thing, it just means doing things for themselves, to express, to learn etc, typical of creative work.
People do that all the time. However in OSS there is this thing when people feel they need to present their work as useful to others eventhough clearly what drives their work has nothing to do with other peoples' needs, it's just their itch.