I quit my job to focus on SerenityOS full time • Hacker News Board

Re: I quit my job to focus on SerenityOS full time

#181

Post by miles » Sat, May 29, 2021, 1:59 AM UTC

gigel82 wrote: post #167

e12e wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not official, I gather from: https://github.com/SerenityOS/serenity/blob/master/Documenta... > Whilst it is possible to run Serenity on physical x86-compatible hardware, it is not yet ready to be used by non-technical users who aren't prepared to report bugs or assist with its development. For this reason, there are currently no pre-built install images so a bare-metal installation requires that you build an installa…

Sure, I'm not a non-technical user but I feel like setting up a build environment and building from scratch is more than the time investment I'm willing to make to evaluate this project. Just want a disk image to plop in Qemu or VirtualBox or Hyper-V to see what this feels like before I delve in the code.

Here's more on the theme from Andreas[1]:

> SerenityOS does not have nightly builds or ISO images.

> This is a simple proof-of-work system designed to prevent low-quality bug reports and tire-kicking.

> The build is completely scripted and can be performed by anyone familiar with the command line. [Smiling Face with Smiling Eyes emoji][Lady Beetle emoji]

[1] https://twitter.com/awesomekling/status/1241306104572923904

Re: I quit my job to focus on SerenityOS full time

#182

Post by mongol » Sat, May 29, 2021, 2:19 AM UTC

DC-3 wrote: post #106

forgotpwd16 wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't know about SerenityOS' but Dillo (predating even NetSurf) is pretty nice minimal browser with independent layout engine and there's Abaco (for Plan 9) which supports most of HTML4. That said from your list you miss KHTML (WebKit's parent; have diverged significantly since), Trident, EdgeHTML, Presto, and of course, Servo. All without doubt advanced engines. It's disappointing that both Microsoft and Opera didn'…

I daresay Serenity might have the edge on Abaco and perhaps even Dillo. Servo I totally forgot. I didn't realise KHTML was still a thing.

Webkit family actually should be called KHTML family.

Re: I quit my job to focus on SerenityOS full time

#183

Post by steveklabnik » Sat, May 29, 2021, 2:23 AM UTC

airhead969 wrote: post #178

steveklabnik wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

<3

He lives! And hasn't yet been struck by any outdoor natural fireworks or rapid, falling condensation in ATX. :D

Hehe there's a flash flood warning for the next two hours, fingers crossed...

Re: I quit my job to focus on SerenityOS full time

#184

Post by ilrwbwrkhv » Sat, May 29, 2021, 2:26 AM UTC

THIS IS SOOOOO INSPIRING.

With all the FAANG and the Leetcodes and promotions and L6 - L7 TC and all of this nonsense, true hacker spirit and the fun of just building cool stuff with technology has gone from the hacker space. In fact, the hacker space is actually shrinking.

Projects like these and people like Andreas Kling, are a beacon of hope and light during these troubled times.

May more people be inspired with this and commit to the path of a true hacker.

Re: I quit my job to focus on SerenityOS full time

#185

Post by ilrwbwrkhv » Sat, May 29, 2021, 2:27 AM UTC

29athrowaway wrote: post #163

What is the use-case for SerenityOS?

Fun! Remember when you didn't need to make a buck with everything?

Re: I quit my job to focus on SerenityOS full time

#186

Post by hedora » Sat, May 29, 2021, 2:43 AM UTC

e12e wrote: post #171

dpbriggs wrote: post #119

I highly recommend checking out his YouTube channel [0]. He's an _incredibly_ thoughtful person and provides good lessons in staying focused and keeping scope down. I consider him a mentor and his approach to software is something I really resonate with. He has a keen focus on software quality but understands he can't make everything perfect in one sitting. This approach helped me get away from decision paralysis in…

Nice tip, I started with something short - writing a screenshot utility: https://youtu.be/3BF-vUts3ws Ed: i really enjoyed the video, but I feel it could have been even better (and shorter) if he used a proper debugger for the second part. But I don't know if that is available in the os. The more I use a debugger, the more I realize I should use a debugger, and the earlier I should use a debugger. Advice/directions t…

Debuggers are a great learning tool, but I’ve found they’re useless when diagnosing production issues. At best, you’re using C/C++ and after the crash, you get a minidump from a customer/server.

Eventually, I learned to write code that was so obviously correct and had such good error messages that I haven’t needed to use a debugger in a long time.

In fact, I don’t even know how to invoke a debugger for most languages I know.

Edit: The other good trick is to write your code so that it keeps enough state on the heap to extract useful information from core dumps. For instance, you can keep global references to lists of state that helps track issues down, and make sure they work as expected in -O3 builds. I have definitely played that game in the past.

Re: I quit my job to focus on SerenityOS full time

#187

Post by hansor » Sat, May 29, 2021, 3:17 AM UTC

hansor wrote: post #162

Does it run on 386SX with 2MB of RAM? Apart from lack of coo-processor (which I understand), I do not understand why nearly ALL modern operating systems(Including Linux since 2.4 I believe) are hard-coding the kernel to not boot under 4/8 MB of RAM, even if it could in theory. Why there is hard-limit of 4, 8, 64 MB of RAM in many kernels of various operating systems? Is it fail safe "just to be safe" or because there…

Why downvote? Honest question.

Re: I quit my job to focus on SerenityOS full time

#188

Post by mythz » Sat, May 29, 2021, 3:20 AM UTC

e12e wrote: post #171

dpbriggs wrote: post #119

I highly recommend checking out his YouTube channel [0]. He's an _incredibly_ thoughtful person and provides good lessons in staying focused and keeping scope down. I consider him a mentor and his approach to software is something I really resonate with. He has a keen focus on software quality but understands he can't make everything perfect in one sitting. This approach helped me get away from decision paralysis in…

Nice tip, I started with something short - writing a screenshot utility: https://youtu.be/3BF-vUts3ws Ed: i really enjoyed the video, but I feel it could have been even better (and shorter) if he used a proper debugger for the second part. But I don't know if that is available in the os. The more I use a debugger, the more I realize I should use a debugger, and the earlier I should use a debugger. Advice/directions t…

Andreas has made a couple of videos about why he purposefully doesn’t use a debugger (which I can’t find now) but it’s related to how he prefers to focus on a whole programs behavior and work out what’s wrong from his understanding of what it’s doing by reading the source and logs.

Incidentally Linus doesn’t use a debugger either.

Re: I quit my job to focus on SerenityOS full time

#189

Post by ibraheemdev » Sat, May 29, 2021, 3:23 AM UTC

hansor wrote: post #187

hansor wrote: post #162

Does it run on 386SX with 2MB of RAM? Apart from lack of coo-processor (which I understand), I do not understand why nearly ALL modern operating systems(Including Linux since 2.4 I believe) are hard-coding the kernel to not boot under 4/8 MB of RAM, even if it could in theory. Why there is hard-limit of 4, 8, 64 MB of RAM in many kernels of various operating systems? Is it fail safe "just to be safe" or because there…

Why downvote? Honest question.

I didn't downvote, but the issue tracker is probably a better place to questions like this.

Re: I quit my job to focus on SerenityOS full time

#190

Post by cxr » Sat, May 29, 2021, 3:33 AM UTC

tachyonbeam wrote: post #69

adenozine wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just a nitpick, but I'm pretty sure Opera was gutted of engineers as well after their acquisition fiasco with that Chinese outfit. I don't think they had as much manpower as the good ol days AND not enough manpower to compete with the old engine. I'm on mobile or I'd go find a source, but I'm fairly certain some key people left before all that went down. Not that maintaining a web browser is easy, but they WERE doing…

It's not just Opera though. Microsoft Edge is using also Webkit. I'm legit worried that if Mozilla ever tanks, we could have a complete WebKit browser monoculture.

> Microsoft Edge is using also Webkit.

No, it's not.

> if Mozilla ever tanks, we could have a complete WebKit browser monoculture

Not a risk. Chrome dominates, and it uses Blink, not WebKit. (Yes, the distinction matters, and no, it is not a distinction that is minor/negligible/insubstantial.)