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MenuetOS, an Operating System Written Entirely In Assembly, Hits 1.0

Posted by Soulskill on from the done-until-it's-more-done dept.

angry tapir writes: MenuetOS, a GUI-toting, x86-based operating system written entirely in assembly language that's super-fast and can fit on a floppy disk, has hit version 1.0 — after almost a decade and a half of development. (And yes, it can run Doom). The developers say it's stable on all hardware with which they've tested it. In this article, they talk about what MenuetOS can do, and what they plan for the future. "For version 2.0 we'll mostly keep improving different application classes, which are already present in 1.00. For example, more options for configuring the GUI and improving the HTTP client. The kernel is already working well, so now we have more time to focus on driver and application side."

17 of 368 comments (clear)

  1. Really? by ArcadeMan · · Score: 5, Funny

    Question: MenuetOS is entirely written in assembly? There's no traces of other languages, such as C?
    Reply: nop

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    1. Re: Really? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

      Yes. Phenomenal speed and minimal resource requirements, both of which translate into an ability to run on smaller, cheaper, and less power hungry hardware. I can tell you weren't alive during the Reagan administration.

    2. Re: Really? by OzPeter · · Score: 4, Funny

      I can tell you weren't alive during the Reagan administration.

      Was anyone?

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  2. So give it another 15 years... by 93+Escort+Wagon · · Score: 4, Funny

    And they'll have something that'd be marginally useable today.

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    1. Re:So give it another 15 years... by Daniel+Hoffmann · · Score: 4, Funny

      Well if it ran Emacs it would be able to do anything anyone could possibly want.

    2. Re:So give it another 15 years... by zieroh · · Score: 5, Funny

      Except edit text.

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    3. Re:So give it another 15 years... by belthize · · Score: 3, Funny

      If you use a small enough font it will.

  3. Re:It can run Doom by perpenso · · Score: 5, Funny

    and their website looks like it's from 1995 as well!

    So its not bloated and it is fast too? Seems appropriate. :-)

  4. 30 seconds of music from iTunes. by perpenso · · Score: 5, Funny

    It fits on a floppy disk? We are in 2015, right? What is a 'floppy disk'?

    Its a unit of storage space measurement equivalent to about 30 seconds of music from iTunes.

    1. Re:30 seconds of music from iTunes. by future+assassin · · Score: 3, Funny

      Its a disk invented by AOL and promoted by them with free internet offer on the disk.

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    2. Re:30 seconds of music from iTunes. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

      Definition of a "good" hacker; One who knows how to convert Jimi Hendrix to MIDI format, but doesn't.

  5. Re:Floppy disk? by camperdave · · Score: 5, Funny

    It fits on a floppy disk? We are in 2015, right? What is a 'floppy disk'?

    It's an object lesson in using pure assembly. By the time you get anything useful done, technology has moved on.

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  6. What next? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Now that they've got this thing working, what would be really cool is if they could come up with a way of getting it to run on different processor architectures, in case x86 loses out to ARM in the long run.

    I'm thinking maybe they could write some sort of abstraction layer whereby the instructions are originally written in some sort of higher level format, which could then be automatically turned into machine code for different hardware using a special program. You could do all sorts of things with that kind of system. I'm surprised nobody's thought of it before, actually.

    1. Re:What next? by grimmjeeper · · Score: 4, Funny

      Now that they've got this thing working, what would be really cool is if they could come up with a way of getting it to run on different processor architectures, in case x86 loses out to ARM in the long run.

      All they have to do is translate the part of the OS written in x86 assembler...

  7. Re: floppy disk... by rubycodez · · Score: 5, Funny

    it grows to 2.5"?

  8. is this year by goombah99 · · Score: 5, Funny

    of assembly language on the desktop? will it run linux?

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  9. Re: Entire OS in about 1/3 of i7 Cache by chuckugly · · Score: 3, Funny

    Yeah, imagine what you could do with the ARM port .... oh, wait a tick .....