40k? Why is everything so bloated these days? The last 6502 machine I had only had 32k in total.
Maybe he hasn't optimized yet?
Alan Cox announces Fuzix OS
21–30 of 93 posts
Re: Alan Cox announces Fuzix OS
#22When I first read this, I thought this was meant to be a sarcastic statement on SystemD haters, but this is for real? I would assume this is all geared to scratching some kind of retro computing itch?
It could also be an exercise in open computing, hailing back to an era before legal attacks and ubiquitous surveillance. Being released in 1976, the Z80 architecture is well known and unencumbered by patents. It's also simple with fixed instruction timing, meaning it can be well tested, leaving few places for a back door to hide. The original hardware probably predates any surveillance programs (edit: and the silicon…
Unfortunately, widespread surveillance has been around for a lot longer than the 70s though it started to become more broad in scope around then.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_surveillance_in_the_Unite...
Re: Alan Cox announces Fuzix OS
#23direct link to the Github project, though the parent post on G+ does have good Q&A :)
Re: Alan Cox announces Fuzix OS
#24For those not familiar with the Linux kernel contributors, Alan Cox wrote large parts of the networking stack, was the maintainer of the 2.2 branch, and was commonly considered the "second in command" to Linus Torvalds at one point: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Cox
He released what people considered to be the stable branch of the Linux kernel (the -ac branches). Linus was moving quickly and Alan would package up the releases that everyone would use.
I just learned, from reading that wikipedia page, about the falling out he and Linus had.
Re: Alan Cox announces Fuzix OS
#25For those not familiar with the Linux kernel contributors, Alan Cox wrote large parts of the networking stack, was the maintainer of the 2.2 branch, and was commonly considered the "second in command" to Linus Torvalds at one point: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Cox
And, interestingly enough, a senior maintainer who quit because he got sick of Linus' behaviour.
Re: Alan Cox announces Fuzix OS
#26When I first read this, I thought this was meant to be a sarcastic statement on SystemD haters, but this is for real? I would assume this is all geared to scratching some kind of retro computing itch?
Well there are some people out there who have valid concerns about SystemD and in general, about Linux the big and bloated, unmaintainable, insecure monolithic kernel. Is that a valid concern? I am not sure. Is that going to be fixed by Alan Cox and Fuzix? Also not sure.
I like the idea of Minix, and that would be a good direction to move on, but the big companies who are contributing the majority[1] of the current Linux work are vested too much in Linux.
There are other projects targeting the same area, different approach though.
1. http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2013/09/google...
Re: Alan Cox announces Fuzix OS
#27When I first read this, I thought this was meant to be a sarcastic statement on SystemD haters, but this is for real? I would assume this is all geared to scratching some kind of retro computing itch?
People used to learn programming by learning assembly language. Here's one example for the 68000:
First page of contents: http://imgur.com/1XCLrsQ
Example instruction description: http://imgur.com/MV6Le34
Hello world: http://imgur.com/5yKJlQ9
Off topic but if anyone is ever in Cheltenham UK (or is prepared to pay postage) I have some old books I want to get rid of. http://imgur.com/AWV9HLn
Re: Alan Cox announces Fuzix OS
#28For those not familiar with the Linux kernel contributors, Alan Cox wrote large parts of the networking stack, was the maintainer of the 2.2 branch, and was commonly considered the "second in command" to Linus Torvalds at one point: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Cox
And, interestingly enough, a senior maintainer who quit because he got sick of Linus' behaviour.
Re: Alan Cox announces Fuzix OS
#29For anyone who thinks this is a joke, or that the Z80 can't do anything useful: http://www.symbos.de/
I wrote 2 games on the Gameboy and Gameboy Color assembly (both running Z80s at 4 and 8 MHz) back in the day and they were great to program on. Loved the simplicity of the machine.
Re: Alan Cox announces Fuzix OS
#30When I first read this, I thought this was meant to be a sarcastic statement on SystemD haters, but this is for real? I would assume this is all geared to scratching some kind of retro computing itch?
Well, it does not appear to be actually trying to target large-scale deployments, nor the same areas that Linux targets currently. Seems to be mostly about emulating/reliving old-school computing devices and their systems. So, from that perspective, seems to be more of a "pet project" than a serious one. It's doubtful people will dump their OS of choice for this one unless there is a specific reason.