The system parts of µnOS (Microkernel & Process Manager) are running on Pegasos II!

Remember, µnOS is a real microkernel OS. Thus the crucial parts of the whole OS are the Microkernel and the Process Manager. After the Microkernel has been ported already almost a month ago, we finished porting of the Process Manager at the beginning of this week. Since then there have been some issues to solve, as only booting the Microkernel naturally reveals only few bugs. Running the process Manager is much more demanding and thus some bugs crept out of their holes and we finished them up one by one.

Thus, we proudly announce that the Process Manager (and the Microkernel, too) are now running quite stable for this stage. The next step will be to get a normal user process (application) running. This includes mapping executables and making system calls to the Process Manager. So, quite a bit of work to do. Stay tuned!

Congratulations!

Great work!

R&B

User processes and basic servers are running now under µnOS on PowerPC!

As we already expected, getting normal user processes running brought some issues o the surface which had to be fixed. But our team managed to fix them up, so that it is a pleasure for us to inform you that user processes can be started dynamically and - to put a little cream on the pie - that the first basic server processes (client/server architecture) are running fine now. Nevertheless, there is only one week left before the Systems 2005 fair where we (still) want to present µnOS on PPC/ODW. It is not much time, but we will do our very best to present a running µnOS with GUI on the Systems fair.

What is left to do is to get all the basic servers and some test/demo applications running. This will not be an easy task in the short time that is left, but we do not expect serious issues to come up. Wish us luck that we are right.

For those who will be at the Systems fair: See you there!
For all others: Stay tuned, we will keep you updated.

Downloaded PC demo, booted it up....
No words, only emotions...
No filemanager, no networking, no means to mount filesystems, even no C compiler... Ultra-fast graphics output in addition (real-mode VESA BIOS rulez)... Sigh...
Of course i understand that Boxes and Hangman are mega-ultra-killer-applications capable of competing with MineSweeper and Hearts from Microsoft, but what else can i do with this OS?

A little explanation may clear up the picture a little bit and probably change the view you have on µnOS. Your criticism is understandable regarding that you obviously do not know much about the technologies used and, much more important, combined in this OS. As soon as you know that µnOS combines the concept of a real-time microkernel with an efficiently working client/server architecture featuring high stability, reliability and portability and if you furthermore take into account that (especially) the currently available demo (which unfortunately is not up to date) is just a proof that µnOS with its ambitious features is working, you will have a different view on it.

Many people forget that an OS is not generally an operating environment with GUI and lots of applications. Although many people think so as to them the graphical representation of the system's user interface (which is almost only a matter of design, not of the OS itself) is the OS. A fancy GUI may be a hint to a well designed OS, but not the other way round. An OS can already be well designed before you can even see a single character or pixel on your screen.

µnOS is in an early stage, no doubt, and our approach (or philosophy if you want) does not make it easier to impress people with daily eye-cathching news: we try to get things (largely) done before starting new challenges. This does NOT mean, that we keep stuck to a task until it is 100% done. But it means that we do not start broadly into new tasks before the underlying parts of the system are not largely implemented or at least designed. This has absolutely nothing to do with an idealistic attitude but is the way of working which allowed us to develop and to implement µnOS without having a quickly increasing number of open 'building lots' to get fixed.

We are curently working on widening the palette of features and applications in µnOS, but this will take time and can be relieved by all of you: test µnOS (as Sonic did) and give us your feedback in form of fair comment. Sonic's comment is appreciated, but does not help us to improve µnOS. We are not a huge company and µnOS still lacks many things. But if you understand the features µnOS provides, you will realize the potential and possibilities it has. We will keep on doing our best to turn its potential into real benefits and all we are asking for is the goodwill and maybe support from those who like µnOS and the ideas behind it.

Well, if you need something constructive...
Implement POSIX API on top of your kernel. Or at least implement GTK or Qt and get GNOME or KDE running. This will give you a good applications base. You won't be able to write everything from scratch in a reasonable period of time.