Maybe we should do a port of the gnu tools like rust is doing...

[domasz]

Well, you don't have to build a clone of Debian. One can start with making a clone of BusyBox:
https://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/BusyBox

[PascalDragon]

I understand what you are saying. I look at the posts on this forum and I see very very talented programmers here. Lots of them.

And those people have more worthwhile things to do than what you are suggesting, not to mention who says that they would even be interested in developing something like this? Developing command line utilities or operating systems is not everyone's passion, just like compiler development.

[bobby100]

I find it to be very sad no one is writing a decent home use desktop operating system in free pascal. Free pascal is a excellent language that has been battle tested for a long time now. Just saying.

As PascalDragon "hinted" to you, you seem to believe that writing a "decent home use desktop operating system" is a "little" one year project for someone who's got nothing else to do with their time.

If you want a rough idea of the amount of work involved, look at the ReactOS code.  There are a large number of highly talented programmers who have invested _years_ of their time to get to the current beta version.

Just gathering the manpower for such a project would be quite a challenge.

Heck, the wine project, which is a quite a bit simpler than writing an O/S is already quite a project to undertake.

I still wonder how did Robert Szeleney developed SkyOS as a single developer. I know the project is dead, but just look at the huge mass, produced by one man in just a couple of years.

[440bx]

I still wonder how did Robert Szeleney developed SkyOS as a single developer. I know the project is dead, but just look at the huge mass, produced by one man in just a couple of years.

Last thing I ever want to do is not give due credit to a talented and hard working individual but, while it is quite likely that he did a lot of the work, it's also quite likely that some of the code is derived from other code.  Also, while the first release may have been done in a year or two, it's only after a number of years that the O/S had genuine potential.

As I said, I don't want to take credit away from a talented individual but, the project died because he couldn't keep up and, that's no surprise.  It's quite a feat that he accomplished that much but, a _capable_ O/S isn't a one-man project (unless you're talking about MS-DOS or some other "barely an O/S" O/S.)

One of things about Linux that is often overlooked is the _huge_ contribution made by GNU.  Without all the GNU stuff, which was developed by more than one individual, the O/S would be close to useless (if not totally useless.)

[marcov]

One of things about Linux that is often overlooked is the _huge_ contribution made by GNU.  Without all the GNU stuff, which was developed by more than one individual, the O/S would be close to useless (if not totally useless.)

(there was also tooling by BSD. It couldn't be taken then since BSD was involved in lawsuits, but in 1994 that was settled, so not having GNU would have been a delay of 2-3 years at the most)

[VisualLab]

I find it to be very sad no one is writing a decent home use desktop operating system in free pascal. Free pascal is a excellent language that has been battle tested for a long time now. Just saying.

As PascalDragon "hinted" to you, you seem to believe that writing a "decent home use desktop operating system" is a "little" one year project for someone who's got nothing else to do with their time.

If you want a rough idea of the amount of work involved, look at the ReactOS code.  There are a large number of highly talented programmers who have invested _years_ of their time to get to the current beta version.

Just gathering the manpower for such a project would be quite a challenge.

Heck, the wine project, which is a quite a bit simpler than writing an O/S is already quite a project to undertake.

I still wonder how did Robert Szeleney developed SkyOS as a single developer. I know the project is dead, but just look at the huge mass, produced by one man in just a couple of years.

I think another OS project called AtheOS, developed by Kurt Skauen (inspired by BeOS), had a similar story. After the author abandoned it, several other programmers tried to develop it further, under the name Syllable. It is no longer being developed either.

[VisualLab]

I find it to be very sad no one is writing a decent home use desktop operating system in free pascal. Free pascal is a excellent language that has been battle tested for a long time now. Just saying.

Yes, I agree, a decent OS for the desktop (workstation) would be useful.

Another reason is I would like to have a operating systems that is posix compatible that is not under the gnu license.

At this point I don't understand you. Why POSIX on the desktop? After so many decades, POSIX on the desktop is needed like a "pain in the ass". POSIX may be useful on some servers and routers, because they still use systems derived from UNIX. And there OK, it makes some sense. But on the desktop? It's almost a museum piece! Assuming someone would like to create a modern desktop OS, basing it on POSIX after so many decades after its development makes no sense whatsoever. At most, it makes sense to borrow some ideas from it (and very general ones at that).

Its nothing fancy. I am waiting for all the woke nonsense to come to an end with that is happening in the linux community.

That there will finally be a "year of Linux on the desktop"? That will never happen (a long time ago I also had such naive hopes, but I quickly realized that this would not be the case). It is impossible, for at least several reasons:

1) architecture - it is based on the assumptions of a system developed for mainframe computers (Unix), over 50 years ago! Drivers for many devices are in the kernel instead of in user space, the kernel is a bloated behemoth (blob), archaic and annoying directory system, configuration files scattered across various directories, different formats of configuration files, mess in accessing devices and services from the programmer's point of view (especially through reading "virtual" text files), lots of different strange script files launching various processes in the system, graphics and multimedia support is not part of the OS,

2) it uses an ancient programming language (C), which has some advantages (its compiler generates optimized machine code), but also has many disadvantages (e.g. macros, headers, archaic and clumsy build system), the main kernel programmer would rather "rip someone's heart out" than let C be replaced by some other programming language,

3) The community of developers and hobbyists developing this OS doesn't give a s..t about issues like: (a) ergonomics for the average user, (b) backward compatibility, (c) stable API for hardware drivers, (d) stable API for developers.


Making another (nobody needs it) version of Linux using FPC/Lazarus would be an incredible waste of time and electricity.

[paule32]

for a minimal system, you can take a look at my repro from 2022:

https://github.com/paule32/JustFunOS_win32

It was created on Windows 10/11 with Windows Tools (MSYS2).
Since COFF .o bject Files are used, you can link with .o bject Files created by FPC ?

Happy coding