Microsoft Singularity Now "Open" Source

Alex_Ionescu writes "Microsoft's Singularity operating system (covered previously by Slashdot) is now open to the public for download, under a typical Microsoft academic, non-commercial license. Inside is a fully compilable and bootable version of what could be the basis for the future of Windows, or maybe simply an experiment to demonstrate .NET's capabilities. Singularity, if you'll recall, has gained wide interest from researchers and users alike, by claiming to be a fully managed code kernel (with managed code drivers and applications as well), something that would finally revolutionize the operating system research arena. The project is available on CodePlex."

Comments

Re:!free

[Carrot007]

Congratulations you pointed out something that was clearly not in the summary. Thank you for a worthwhile addition to the discussion. Your mother must be proud.

wharrrt?

[russ1337]

In today's news

"Microsoft releases open source operating system"

"Mans head explodes from intense confusion after reading news article about Microsoft releasing Open Source OS"

Re:wharrrt?

[sm62704]

"Mans head explodes from intense confusion after reading news article about Microsoft releasing Open Source OS"

Minor nit: you misspelled "Asplodes". From the link:

Use By Noobs
N00bs use the term asplode as a form of 13375p33k. For example:
Non-Noob: Lol I pwnt u with a rocket launcher!
Noob: Oh teh noes!!! I am asplode!!11!eleventyone!!
Non-Noob: Wtf?

A splode: the command prompt
Micro$oft secretly enabled a splode as a DOS command. Opening the command prompt and entering C:\asplode would start a countdown which would, when finished, cause your hard drive to a splode. Entering D:\asplode made the CD drive a splode. And entering A:\asplode would would make the floppy drive a splode. If you have a B:\ drive, you can a splode it by entering B:\asplode. Usually this makes the 5.25" floppy drive a splode! If you enter this into a Linux shell, it a splodes all computers within a 5-mile radius that run Window$. If you loved your PC, you would have entered this DOS command.

(Note: drive letter may vary between PCs.)

It is unknown whether the Singularity OS incorporates this useful command, but it is assumed that a singularity asplosion would release vast quantities of something not real nice.

Quick, Slashdot!

[Goaway]

Spin this into something bad! Your honour is on the line!

Advertise

[William Robinson]

Singularity, if you'll recall, has gained wide interest from researchers and users alike, by claiming to be a fully managed code kernel

Yeah...Rare kind of advertisement...The question is, will it work on slashdotters?

Re:It's a microkernel

[moderatorrater]

The name appears to indicate some level of suckiness. On the contrary, it indicates that the awesomeness of this kernel has grown so much that it's reached critical mass and now become a singularity.

I love the name

[sm62704]

However, considering that Vista has become something of a "black hole" for them, I think they were a little late with the "singularity" moniker. Is the next Windows going to be called "Event Horizon?"

That black hole has surely sucked in a few dollars of mine, and sucked in a lot of little companies that were pulled apart by Microsoft's huge gravity well.

-mcgrew
(Apologies for the lack of journals lately)

Re:I love the name

[rbanffy]

Singularity happened when the original Longhorn codebase got so extense, so massive, so mind-boggingly big, unimaginably huge, truly, really and absolutely humongous, it collapsed into its gravity well.

It became a very small, but incredibly dense OS. It really serves no useful purpose besides the promise of being the perfect embedded OS for write-only storage devices.

In the meantime, the survivors had to start Vista from scratch and this catastrophic event is what really delayed Vista's launch date. All the fancy features shown in 2003 were carefully removed as not to provoke another collapse of the codebase.

What?

[Robber Baron]

Singularity? Did Ballmer finally disappear up his own ass and create one?

All I want to know is ...

[garett_spencley]

will it run Linux ?

Open Source != open source

[ShatteredArm]

It's kinda one of those things where a term with a very obvious semantic meaning was hijacked, politicized, and became something entirely different. It may have been the case that at one point, before all the lawyering or whatever, availability of source code actually meant you could do whatever you want with it. Thus, "open source" implied free use, redistribution, etc. And clearly, people who support Open Source support those ideals, even if open source code does not necessarily imply that anymore.

It's kinda like Democratic vs. democratic. One is a political party with lobbyists, fake politicians, etc., and the other is a type of system where the people make the decisions.

Re:!free

[Smackheid]

Don't be lame.

You ever think that maybe I don't exactly have a lot of room for an extra OS partition due to all the porn on my HD?

Seriously, some of us have actual jobs and don't have oodles of time in mom's basement to wank around with stuff like this.

Re:Noun VS Adjective

[MightyYar]

And open sores are just gross.

Re:Stability?

[Neil Watson]

It's not intended for commercial use, and will not be the next Windows.

Have you ever worked with those folks from marketing?

Re:!free

[SQLGuru]

I think you mean:

gscb_hungarian_use = FALSE
(global static constant boolean)

Layne

Re:Stability?

[Eli Gottlieb]

[W]hat is the attraction of Singularity? Why don't you walk into the event horizon and find out?

Re:open source != Open Source Initiative Approved

[Cyclops]

STFU Microsoftie.

Re:Stability?

[suggsjc]

This OS doesn't really run any applications at all

Which is the key to having a perfectly stable OS!

Re:Microsoft hate

[V!NCENT]

"start, shutdown"
That must be so wierd...