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Dusk OS

duskos.org

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Re: Dusk OS

#61

Post by 90s_dev »

os2warpman wrote: post #8

>Its primary purpose is to be maximally useful during the first stage of civilizational collapse, that is, when we can't produce modern computers anymore but that there's still many modern computers around. Any event or series of events that removes mankind's ability to produce modern computers is a global extinction-level event and rather than dicking around with computers one should really be considering suicide to…

> to avoid a slow, painful, inevitable death in a hostile world surrounded by misery.

Well aren't you a bundle of joy, recommending death to people in bad situations.

A life of misery isn't all that bad. Much worse could happen.

This reminds me of A Man For All Seasons:

Thomas More: "At the worst we could be beggars and still be keep company and be merry together."

Lady Alice: "Aha, merry."

Thomas More: "Aye, merry!"

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sEa6XRZa9Vg&t=5459s

Re: Dusk OS

#62

Post by ummonk »

packetlost wrote: post #17
nonethewiser wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Any moderately-sized US state university can (and some have) build one from scratch: as in from fucking sand to "Shall we play a game?", all in one go. I am quite surprised to hear that. Really?

It won't be small, but you can create PCBs pretty easily with chemical etching. I think making the silicon wafers is probably harder.

PCBs are something people can do in their garage. Integrated circuit fabrication is definitely something that requires a much more sophisticated lab such as a top university lab.

Re: Dusk OS

#63

Post by lykahb »

I think that in the event of a such a collapse, there would be two new directions: turning the surviving advanced digital devices into general computers, and building new electronics. Reusing existing common software would be easier than building something from scratch. So, I'd expect that postmarketOS and flavours of Linux for low-power machines meets most needs.

Also, it'd be fantastic if iPhones have a doomsday switch that untethers them from Apple - that'd be the difference between a useless brick and a precious artifact of a bygone era. The post-apocalyptic setting has potential for a game that comes from the perspective of a builder, and goes deeply into civil engineering and IT - build architecture that can withstand the elements, design a water chip, write embedded software for it.

Re: Dusk OS

#64

Post by r14c »

I think forth is fun, but I can't really take the collapse narrative of this project seriously. IG it's disrespectful, but I kinda view it as a performance art piece with fallout vibes.

Re: Dusk OS

#66

Post by vdupras »

StrangeDoctor wrote: post #52
nancyminusone wrote: post #9

I hope the author doesn't take this the wrong way, but this feels like another Temple OS driven by a different (perhaps milder) kind of insanity. It's quite technically impressive, but I'm not sure I'd know what to do with it if I were experiencing an apocalypse, in a way that would be more useful to me than an install of Windows XP or Linux or Freedos would be

I think the idea is: some computing device is discovered, but the OS is bad/missing/old/not useful etc. Or possibly a novel computer is built from whatever is still around. The computer itself would still be good if only it had an os. Dusk OS is easy to port to new arch because it compiles from source on every(?) boot, and only needs a tiny kernel to be ported?

Yes, every time Dusk boots, it boots from a kernel ranging from 2.5 to 4 kilobytes in size, depending on the CPU. The rest is all compiled (very quickly) from source on the fly.

Re: Dusk OS

#67

Post by cycomanic »

guhidalg wrote: post #20
nonethewiser wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Any moderately-sized US state university can (and some have) build one from scratch: as in from fucking sand to "Shall we play a game?", all in one go. I am quite surprised to hear that. Really?

Depends on the state, but for my alma mater (Georgia Tech) I'm pretty confident the answer is yes.

I just had a look and I am not sure they are making silicon wafers. I would be surprised, there's not really any research in it, and it's costly to say the least.

Re: Dusk OS

#68

Post by GTP »

EGreg wrote: post #49
nancyminusone wrote: post #9

I hope the author doesn't take this the wrong way, but this feels like another Temple OS driven by a different (perhaps milder) kind of insanity. It's quite technically impressive, but I'm not sure I'd know what to do with it if I were experiencing an apocalypse, in a way that would be more useful to me than an install of Windows XP or Linux or Freedos would be

I gotta be honest It didnt start out that way But 14 years later I would say this was also a labor of love and I’m not sure if it was entirely rational: https://github.com/Qbix and https://community.qbix.com

What's this?

Re: Dusk OS

#69

Post by hex4def6 »

os2warpman wrote: post #8

>Its primary purpose is to be maximally useful during the first stage of civilizational collapse, that is, when we can't produce modern computers anymore but that there's still many modern computers around. Any event or series of events that removes mankind's ability to produce modern computers is a global extinction-level event and rather than dicking around with computers one should really be considering suicide to…

They can make their own ingots and ultra pure chemicals, and turbopumps and ion implantation machines and spin coaters CVD machines and and the HEPA filters for the cleanroom, and the remote servers that control the licensing dongle for the robot arm that movies the thingie from "A" to "B"?

Sand to "hello world" is a tall order. There is a pyramid of industry that supports the entire thing. Even Sand -> 99.9999 % Si (purification & Czochralski crystal growth) needs multi‑story furnaces, vacuum pulling stations, 10 MW of steady power, and months of process engineering. All of have huge dependency chains.

Even modern "mild" events like supply chain disruptions would be enough to shut down any sort of non-toy level production in short order.

So yeah, a university as it currently stands can make a microchip, relying on all of these dependency chains being in operational order. But I don't doubt that would quickly no longer be the case if you had a hot war or societal collapse.

The exponential growth in processor capabilities relied on a global manufacturing infrastructure from the 1970s until today. To do the same level of progression would require much of that infrastructure.

Assuming someone managed to strategically nuke every major foundry / chemical / machine supplier, but leave everything else the same? Sure, maybe we get back to our present tech in 15-20 years.

Assume it's the result of a societal collapse? No way in hell.

Re: Dusk OS

#70

Post by BenjiWiebe »

os2warpman wrote: post #16
nonethewiser wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Any moderately-sized US state university can (and some have) build one from scratch: as in from fucking sand to "Shall we play a game?", all in one go. I am quite surprised to hear that. Really?

Yup! Here's one in Utah: https://www.nanofab.utah.edu/ Here's one in Pennsylvania: https://www.mri.psu.edu/nanofabrication-lab Here's one in California: https://nanofab.ucsb.edu/

Those aren't starting from sand though, so they do need some external fancy tech to survive the apocalypse - to produce their wafers.
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