Review of AtheOS 0.3.7

MAIC-32 writes: "OSNews features a very informative and detailed review of AtheOS, the promising 32-bit GPL Operating System. The article describes the installation process, the GUI (screenshots included), usage, internal design, developement and much more."

Comments

Re:Too many!

[Uller-RM]

Maybe it's fun to write something for the HELL of it, and not worry about it being useful. I'm sure whoever came up with linked lists back in the 60s was confronted by someone saying "they're so much slower than arrays - what's the point?"

Who gives a rat's ass if it's not useful to you? It's useful to the author, because he's learned a lot doing it, and he doesn't owe you shit. He probably doesn't give a fuck what you think about it, either.

Probably

[nervlord1]

Probably the best part about Atheos is that he ported Khtml (the konqueror rendering engine) to his OS for me atleast, and i imagine many others, a good browser is my number uno priority. Its good to see he ported such a sweet engine to his OS i can imagnie technically it would have been reasonably difficult Can we also stop with the "why another operating system?" comments? I bet linus heard all of the same drivel when he wrote linux, it didnt apply then, it doesnt apply now As far as im concerned, ill never critize anything i cant do better (its a stupid policy.. but thats me) and this guy has done alot better than most

This looks a lot like AmigaOS

[/Wegge]

Given the immediately accessible amount of API documentation available, to me it looks like this OS has captured the same spirit that AmigaOS was built upon: A lightweight microkernel, with device drivers as a separate entity.

I'll be very tempted to make the switch from Linux just to be reminded of the good old days of the Amiga.

Re:AtheOS takes a Windows approach

[mlinksva]

The AtheOS home page says

"The GUI is server/client like X11 but communicate through the native messaging system and the protocol is private to the server and client library and entirely hidden from the applications."

So it may not be hard to do remote display.

Re:AtheOS takes a Windows approach

[slashnik]

nsample says "They build and optimize for the GUI, rather than the command-line How many users boot Linux straight into X? Wouldn't some of these users apreciate GUI in 6 seconds from boot and browser in 1 second

Anyone need a thin client?

slashnik

Re:AtheOS takes a Windows approach

[J. Random Software]

Terminal services is really only good for remote admin. X's model (any app on any box can ask for a window on your display, and all windows are equal) is much cleaner. When you put an entire virtual display (with yet another window manager) in a window, there are bizzare rules about which events are interpreted as commands by which window manager, and you can't really fit apps on different machines on your real display at once because all your real estate is wasted on remote desktops. Then there are the implementation quirks, like services blocking on modal dialogs you can only dismiss (or even see) by using the main console (VNC is a big win here, though it's awfully high-bandwidth and slow from Win32).

The point is fun - for the author.

[barneyfoo]

The author doesn't want you to just use his OS. He's building it for himself, not for you or anyone else. He wont accept code (except bug fixes) into the main OS. He will only accept driver submissions.

Re:What's the point?

[Vanders]

Well, lets look at the things AtheOS currently does that are different?

• AFS (AtheOS File System) is 64bit & journalled. It also supports file attributes, meta data can be attached to your file as an attribute.
• It has a client/server GUI model, similiar to X, but without the X overhead. The appserver is tightly integrated to the kernel (As apposed to X being loosly integrated to the Unix system)
• Highlevel IPC is achieved through a flexible message system
• An integrated, consistent GUI. No multiple toolkits.
• A C++ API for GUI coding. GUI's & OO go together like bread & butter. Better (IMHO) than GTK+'s "C with objects" approach.
• Extremly quick. Built from scratch with SMP & multi-threading in mind, and does them well.
• A sensible kernel architecture. Not purely monolithic, nor anally microkernel. Drivers communicate with the kernel through a well defined API, rather than "becoming" part of the kernel as with Linux. New drivers can be installed & removed at run time just by copying them into a directory, or deleting them.

I could probably go on, but I won't. There is more on it's way too, specifically the desktop re-write will see some of the sexier features put to good use, and the media framework should rock. Anything specific you want to see first though?

GUIs are evil

[Anonymous Coward]

I like what this guy says. It's a hobbyist OS and he has no intent to compete with Windows for popularity, etc. IOW if AtheOS is missing a feature and he doesn't want to add it, it ain't going in. Cool! It's about time people stopped giving a crap about what others want.

I for one, though, think GUIs are evil, and I am releasing my own Linux distribution to address this issue. It's called Luddite Linux. Here are the features:
* No GUI
* No mouse driver
* No menu-driven apps
* The first distro will be released on CD-ROM but future releases will be released on punch cards.

* No mail apps. Only a weak minded fool uses a mail app. Telnet to your POP server at port 110 and learn the commands to read your email that way!
* No FTP apps. Why can't you just telnet to port 21 and download it? rz and sz are debatable so I put 'em in just because I like to err on the user convenience side :)

* No emacs. Has drop down menus. Use vi!
* I did include an assembler but no compiler. C is for script weeneez. Machine language is where it's at, baby

My new OS will be out Any Time Now[tm]

Thanks :)