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Behind Menuet, an OS Written Entirely In Assembly

Posted by Soulskill on from the keep-it-simple dept.

angry tapir writes "MenuetOS is an operating system written entirely in assembly language. As a result it's extremely quick and compact (it can even fit on a floppy disk, despite having a GUI). It can run Quake. Two of the developers behind MenuetOS took time out to talk about what inspired them to undertake the daunting task of writing the operating system, the current state of Menuet and future plans for it."

6 of 419 comments (clear)

  1. From the license... by damburger · · Score: 5, Funny

    3) Redistribution, reverse engineering, disassembly or decompilation prohibited without permission from the copyright holders.

    Are you sure they wrote the entire thing in assembly language?

    --
    If we can put a man on the moon, why can't we shoot people for Apollo-related non-sequiturs?
    1. Re:From the license... by GIL_Dude · · Score: 5, Funny

      That must have sucked when they had a heap overflow. Someone could also step on them and seriously flatten the stack. I guess if there were too many, you could always throw the exceptions at someone, huh?

  2. "it can even fit on a floppy disk"... by martas · · Score: 5, Funny

    *blink*

    is that some kind of new super-awesome flexible organic flash memory?

    --
    weinersmith
  3. Followup to Menuet by halfdan+the+black · · Score: 5, Funny

    I think I might work on a sequel...
    Build a 747 with nothing but stone knives and bear skins...

  4. obsolete technology by gsslay · · Score: 5, Funny

    (it can even fit on a floppy disk, despite having a GUI)

    Excellent, but if we're going to measure these things in obsolete technology;

    - How many parchments would I need to copy it?
    - Could my team of monks transcribe it in its entirety before the Feast of All Hallows Eve?
    - If the Germans intercepted a morse transmissions of it, how long would it take them to crack the code and scupper our plans to retake mainland Europe?

  5. Re:It's not FOSS? by arndawg · · Score: 5, Funny

    Imagine what today's world would be like if Linus had gotten pissed when people started working with the Linux Kernel.

    I'm guessing the population in the western world would be higher.