Following on the heals of my blog "We Don't Need No Stinkin' OS", is a project to do just that: eliminate the OS. SqueakNOS is an aggressive project, to say the least. What makes someone think they can bypass years of operating system R&D?
Since Squeak[1] currently includes operating system functionality, the brillant idea is to add VirtualMachine-level glue first and then count on Squeak to provide the remainder of the capabilities. This approach would make it much easier to maintain code, especially across multiple hardware architectures, since it will be written in Smalltalk.
I like it!
Several low level tasks have already been completed. SqueakNOS is reported to recognize Keyboards, Mouse, Serial Ports and has Real Time capability. Other tasks are underway by Gerardo Richarte and comrades. People have reported that they’ve been able to boot SqueakNOS either from CD-ROM or within VMWare. And, Gerardo has recently blog'd that he has scanned the PCI bus from SqueakNOS. Great news!
You too can try it out: see the SqueakNOS project page to obtain the CD-ROM ISO, view their plan and see screenshots.
Imagine carrying your complete working environment from computer to computer on only a thumb-drive. I certainly will keep close tabs on this project. You can follow Gerardo’s progress on his personal log.
[1] Squeak is an open-source Smalltalk largely Smalltalk-80 and ANSI Smalltalk compatible. It runs on virtually all modern PC operating systems and includes multimedia support out-of-the-box such as 3D Graphics, music score editor, FM sound synthesis. The Croquet, which sits on top of Squeak, is a new open source software platform for creating collaborative multi-user online applications in a 3D audio and graphics environment.
Categories
Audio
Comments (0)
Read More Entries by Brad Fuller.
Leave a comment