In a different thread someone mentioned ToaruOS (I hope I’ve written its name correctly).
It’s a cool OS. For some people it might be interesting to hear about cool Off-Off-Broadway OSs.
There are tons of other OSs. Here are some suggestions:
Hurd, Genode, Resea = 3 microkernel OSs.
Phantom OS = a persistant OS.
Kolibri OS = an ultra-fast OS.
If you wanna try them: Your favourite search engine is your friend.
And if you wonder how Haiku fits in there: Haiku is both technically and visually elegant and already quite stable and far-developed.
TheseusOS leverages Rust’s memory and type safety to remove the need for memory protection and most usage of the MMU altogether (assuming your code is also written in safe Rust). Otherwise you have to run it in a WebAssembly sandbox. It is still in the early stages and trying to make a market out of the IoT space. Anything written in C or C++ has to be translated into WebAssembly to be used with it.
Haven’t found anything yet that suggests KolibriOS is 64-bit. Interestingly enough, it has AMD and Intel GPU support based on the Linux drivers: http://wiki.kolibrios.org/wiki/Hardware_Support
Years ago I’ve doxed many alternative oses and the most intriguing concept I’ve come across was Unununium Operating Engine (dead of course): http://uuu.sourceforge.net/
IIRC, TempleOS demanded standard VGA would be the only supported graphics mode because it emphasized standards above performance. How disappointed the author was when he discovered that VESA modes are supported on all PC systems and allow much better graphics modes!
The reason was more because god said to do it this way. TempleOS had an rng that spit out bible verses the author used to communicate with god, or atleast thought that he did.
In any case, the author sadly died because he was killed by a train.
Singlehandedly building an OS of that complexity is quite brilliant imo.
The last “alternative” OS (not counting Haiku as alternative here, since it’s the main focus of this forum ) I really got interested in was SkyOS, which sadly went the way of all non open source OS when they are abandoned. Atheos and later Syllable were also quite interesting. And I have to say I’ve got a lot of respect for the ReactOS guys, even if I don’t use their OS.
Also an interesting OS experience was MorphOS. I installed it on my Mac Mini G4 after it was so old that there was no usable OSX Version for it and even Linux started to abandon it. Very impressive in performance, but since I’m not an Amiga guy (apart from playing games in a friend’s basement in the early 90ies) I really struggled with the GUI.
I also tried MorphOS some time ago but in Power Mac G4 AGP Graphics. Speaking of Amiga-themed OS I’m curious about Icaros Desktop, an AROS distribution, but, as like you, I’m not an Amiga guy, I can’t do much.
OSs.
) I really got interested in was SkyOS, which sadly went the way of all non open source OS when they are abandoned. Atheos and later Syllable were also quite interesting. And I have to say I’ve got a lot of respect for the ReactOS guys, even if I don’t use their OS.