71–80 of 118 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
You don't need a CD drive to boot an OS. A humble USB stick does the trick. And nearly every computer made in the last 10 years has a USB port and the ability to boot from it
Sometimes it's only usb c. But... We're speaking about dusk of civilization. Pendrive don't live as long as CDs
>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…
> 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 avoid a slow, painful, inevitable death in a hostile world surrounded by misery. Wow... there are probably several ways we could lose the ability to fab semiconductors. We can look back through history at…
The fact that the Franks were more interested in warring against each others than building great things is no evidence of a dark age. They started building again once peace came back and didn’t restart from where they left off but from the new state of the art as translations started pouring over from the Arabic empires.
The idea that humanity somehow went back is a fantasy pushed forward by catholic commentators.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's just such a boutique thing, saying you're prepared to run 32-bit software on hardware during an apocalypse. If CPUs suddenly become scarce, I would have figured a tube-based, relay-based, or Enigma-type machine with specific useful applications would be more practical.
You do realize that your usb charger has a microprocesor that is as capable as computers you used to play on as a child? Seriously, finding a running 386 today will probably be more challanging than finding a PC capable of running Cyberpunk in 4k 5 years after the fallout. Like others have mentioned at worst it's another TempleOS or subtle way to point out to your acquaintance that they shouldn't stay with you alone…
Ok, but that's not the purpose of the OS. I recommend you to read the Why page:
https://collapseos.org/why.html
Two relevants parts:
> Computers, after a few decades, will break down beyond repair and we won't be able to program microcontrollers any more.
> It's not that modern ICs are more fragile than old ones (maybe they are, after all, more can go wrong with millions of transistors than with thousands), it's that old designs are simpler than modern ones and thus more repairable.
The complete reflexion and arguments are way deeper and interesting through. The most interesting parts is under "Electronics evolved rapidly without any help before. Why can't we pull it again?"
As a practical matter, you can flip the author's mental pessimism and look at the optimistic situation where we conquer other planets, in which case thinking about an optimal bootstrapping path is going to be essential for the society and its industrial needs.
It is also true that some fairly local shocks in human society can cause a cascading failure and doing this analysis fairly regularly can help identify and minimize the cascade.
>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…
> 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 avoid a slow, painful, inevitable death in a hostile world surrounded by misery. Wow... there are probably several ways we could lose the ability to fab semiconductors. We can look back through history at…
I don't think it necessarily means they forgot how to do it, though. Or does it? We too stopped building domes made of big stones, it doesn't mean we don't know how to do it.
Collapse OS - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43482705 - March 2025 (199 comments)
Running CollapseOS on an Esp8266 - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38645124 - Dec 2023 (1 comment)
Dusk OS: 32-bit Forth OS. Useful during first stage of civilizational collapse - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36751422 - July 2023 (141 comments)
DuskOS: Successor to CollapseOS - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36688676 - July 2023 (4 comments)
Collapse OS – Why? - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35672677 - April 2023 (1 comment)
Collapse OS: Winter is coming - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33207852 - Oct 2022 (2 comments)
Collapse OS - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31340518 - May 2022 (8 comments)
Collapse OS Status: Completed - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26922146 - April 2021 (2 comments)
Collapse OS – bootstrap post-collapse technology - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25910108 - Jan 2021 (116 comments)
Collapse OS Web Emulators - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24138496 - Aug 2020 (1 comment)
Collapse OS, an OS for When the Unthinkable Happens - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23535720 - June 2020 (2 comments)
Collapse OS - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23453575 - June 2020 (15 comments)
Collapse OS – Why Forth? - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23450287 - June 2020 (166 comments)
Collapse OS – Why? - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22901002 - April 2020 (3 comments)
'Collapse OS' Is an Open Source Operating System for the Post-Apocalypse - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21815588 - Dec 2019 (3 comments)
Collapse OS - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21182628 - Oct 2019 (303 comments)
Seems like a wishful thinking about the first stage portion of collapse. You're going to be more interested in running some obsolete version of Windows that controls some proprietary infrastructure hardware, not running calculations of whatever kind or building things from scratch.
While it is most likely a very fanciful pet project borne out of post-apo fantasy doomporn, there is one fatal fly in the ointment: In a post apocalyptic situation, who will have THE TIME (nevermind the resources) to dedicate to "operating" one such OS? Apocalypse is generally synonymous with population collapse. Many less humans to interact with means a greatly diminished division of labour and rebuilding civilisati…
>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!"…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Or why an "almost C compiler" is better than a C compiler.
Or rather, why is it not much worse than an actual C compiler. In an apocalyptic event energy would be precious. You'd rather have an optimizing compiler to run longer off your solar-charged car battery or whatever. I like the roleplay/lore and the tech effort is impressive but I don't think it fits the idea.
"An optimizing compiler requires at least 500MB of RAM, which can only be looted from level 7 Terminator elites!"